Day 4 (Pt. 2): Wat Arun
After a great lunch at a place called Wat A-roon Cafe (which is right across the river from Wat Arun) we took the cross river ferry over to Wat Arun. The price of the ferry recently increased, so it cost 7 baht, or about 21 cents, for us both to cross.
Wat Arun, or the Temple of the Dawn, is an extremely impressive structure. It is across the river and just downstream of the Grand Palace area, and makes a beautiful sight as you go by it on the river.
The central central prang is huge, as you can see. It is also really cool because of the way it is decorated. It is completely covered in pieces of ceramic. Not tiles, but actual plates and cups and the like that have been put on it. Close examination of these reveals that extreme care was taken in placing the pieces, such that the flowers are formed out of plate parts, with the edges of the plates carefully preserved. The overall result is extremely beautiful.
The whole thing is decorated like this.
There are stairs you can climb for a fantastic view of the area. There are two sets, and the second set is by far the steepest set of steps I have ever climbed. You can see the second set in the upper part of this photo, but the picture does not do it justice. The steps were literally about an 80 degree angle. It was amazing.
The view from the top was fantastic, as you might expect. Here is a panorama that I took of the view back towards Bangkok.
The picture is kind of small, but you get the idea. Here is a closer view of part of that picture
As you can see, I'm pretty high up there in this picture.
Here is a view of Wat Arun itself. It is so large it is hard to get a good picture if it, really. This one is taken from quite a ways off.
After walking around Wat Arun for a long time, we headed back to the hotel for a break. Again it was getting later in the afternoon and the river taxi was very crowded.
After a while, we took the Skytrain back up to MBK for another dinner at Mr. Ming, since we liked it so much. After wards, we bought some much-needed items (particularly sunscreen, did I mention that is was hot?) in the huge Tokyu department store that is in MBK.
Wat Arun, or the Temple of the Dawn, is an extremely impressive structure. It is across the river and just downstream of the Grand Palace area, and makes a beautiful sight as you go by it on the river.
The central central prang is huge, as you can see. It is also really cool because of the way it is decorated. It is completely covered in pieces of ceramic. Not tiles, but actual plates and cups and the like that have been put on it. Close examination of these reveals that extreme care was taken in placing the pieces, such that the flowers are formed out of plate parts, with the edges of the plates carefully preserved. The overall result is extremely beautiful.
The whole thing is decorated like this.
There are stairs you can climb for a fantastic view of the area. There are two sets, and the second set is by far the steepest set of steps I have ever climbed. You can see the second set in the upper part of this photo, but the picture does not do it justice. The steps were literally about an 80 degree angle. It was amazing.
The view from the top was fantastic, as you might expect. Here is a panorama that I took of the view back towards Bangkok.
The picture is kind of small, but you get the idea. Here is a closer view of part of that picture
As you can see, I'm pretty high up there in this picture.Here is a view of Wat Arun itself. It is so large it is hard to get a good picture if it, really. This one is taken from quite a ways off.
After walking around Wat Arun for a long time, we headed back to the hotel for a break. Again it was getting later in the afternoon and the river taxi was very crowded. After a while, we took the Skytrain back up to MBK for another dinner at Mr. Ming, since we liked it so much. After wards, we bought some much-needed items (particularly sunscreen, did I mention that is was hot?) in the huge Tokyu department store that is in MBK.
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