Karma kills...your camera, that is.

The Grand Palace should be one of the great Wonders of the World. It is incredible. Ineffable. It is the ceremonial home of the King and Queen of Thailand. Construction was started sometime in the 1700s, at least that's what I think our guide said, and it continued to grow and grow till it’s become a compound of stunning temples, murals and palaces. When I say murals I mean the ENTIRE Ramayana has been translated into painting and covers all the walls of about 3 temples. It's massive and beautiful.  One temple in particular, Wat Phra Kaew, houses the Emerald Buddha. The Emerald Buddha, which is really made out of jade, is a small little guy that sits on a throne of gold and watches over all who come to visit him (you have to sit down when you enter the temple to show your humility to the power of Buddha and make sure that your feet are tucked under you as pointing your feet at the little Buddha is a big no-no). The compound was amazing. I know for certain that I will never see anything like it again. 

If ever there was a bad time for your camera to break it would be while walking through the Grand Palace. No sooner had the guide ripped my ticket stub and ushered me through the gate than did my camera give an awkward click noise followed by the screen flashing green and blue and black. Complete melt down. I didn’t do anything to it except take it into the Grand Palace! The camera was only a few years old, maybe three or four, and had never given me a sign that it was planning on self destructing (I stole the above picture from the web). The only logical explanation is that Buddha broke my camera. Somewhere in a passed life I did something to really piss him off and as soon as I stepped into one of his many homes he took vengeance on my camera. Bastard. As I stepped into Wat Phra Kaew I swear I saw the little emerald man stick his tongue out at me, perhaps even gave me a little victory dance. I carefully placed 1 baht into his offering tray in hopes this would make him stay away from my laptop and iPod. 

So for the time being I won't have any photos to go with the blog. I still have my iPhone so I'll use that as a camera for a while till I can find a new one and haggle the price down. I had a disposable camera on hand for the elephant trekking so once I get those developed that blog post will go up. Fast internet is hard to come by, as is free fast internet, so I'll try and keep the blog as updated as possible. 

Cheers!