Day Twenty-Four - Summer Palace

King Rama's beach hut.

We are becoming exceedingly concerned at the rate at which our girths are increasing. Thai food is very tasty and very cheap and it is too hot to do much else than eat it.

We decided, however, to brave the heat and hire bicycles from one of the village traders. Our prior attempts to engage in any physical activity had been met with astonishment and incomprehension by the hotel's management. When we said we wanted to visit nearby Mrigadayavan Palace, they explained with pained courtesy that it was only 100 baht or so for a ten-minute taxi ride. We ignored their advice about heading up to the main arterial highway and cycling along that for safety reasons and instead rolled through the back lanes of the surrounding villages. It was well worth it.

The Perfume Making Room at the Palace

Mrigadavayan was built as a summer palace for King Rama VI in 1923 to the designs of Italian architect Ercole Manfredi. It nestles inside a complex of environmental park, army camp and education centres.

You get a real period feel from the buildings, from the King's office, where he wrote his enthusiastically received translations of Shakespeare and Agatha Christie, to the servants' quarters, which reveal the level of daily court ceremonials taking place in the palace.

The Parks are beautiful too and nearby is a nature reserve, set up by a member of the current Thai royal family, which is an interesting mangrove swamp. There was also a rope bridge but we won't mention that, eh?

On our way to fetch the bicycles for the journey home, we happened upon a group of students with their teacher working on some traditional tunes. A short video appears below.