National Museum, Cruise, and Muay Thai (Thailand Part 3)

In the morning, we visited the National Museum. The exhibition is housed in several buildings that used to be part of the royal palace. In 1887, the king ordered the royal museum to be moved here as the palace was no longer in use.

The first hall mainly displayed sacred art, including statues of Buddha and various Hindu gods. Today, it was also a school excursion day. We saw a whole class sitting on the floor, but they were surprisingly quiet and diligently working on their tasks. We also saw several other school classes walking through the museum in pairs, wearing their school uniforms.

In the Buddhaisawan Chapel, we saw paintings and a Buddha statue where people were praying. Right after that, we took a selfie in front of the altar. We also saw a monk being photographed by a supervisor in front of a statue, and he continued to use his phone diligently afterward...

In one room, we saw these seats and wondered what they were for:

From the explanations, we found out that they were saddle seats for elephants, which were used by the kings as riding animals.

We were particularly impressed by the exhibition of funeral carriages and cremation pyres made of gold and sandalwood. The dignitaries in Europe were not buried so nobly in the past...

After visiting the museum, we went to a market that was organized around the museum and national theater to celebrate Bangkok's 273rd anniversary as the capital city. There, we found a stand where we tried authentic Thai cuisine. The labels were in Thai only, but we could look into the pots...

In the evening, we went on a boat tour on the Chao Phraya River. When we were in line, we realized that we would probably be the only non-Asians on the ship...

We ended up sitting among a Korean tour group. When Korean songs were played, people even danced on the benches.

What we didn't know was that we apparently booked the party boat. Loud music and disco lights accompanied us on our evening journey through Bangkok.

Afterward, we watched a Muay Thai demonstration. The first part was a show with short scenes and a staged fight, followed by three amateur Muay Thai matches. They were not as impressive as the beginning, but still interesting.