Wat Arun

Location: Right bank of Mae Nam Chao Phraya.

Opening time: 08:30 - 16:30.

Admission fee: 50B.

It is a sparkling temple impresses every tourist who have been there. It is named after the God of Dawn Aruna of Hinduism. Standing on the bank of Mae Nam Chao Phraya, Wat Arun looks quite grand and beautiful in distance. It looks like a temple built out of granites, but when you get close, you will find that it is because the decorated paintings made from ceramic tiles. The ceramic tiles were brought by the Chinese business ships when they are calling at the port of Bangkok and discarded tonnes of old porcelain.

As the third point in the holy trinity (the other two are the Wat Phra Kaew and Wat Pho) of Bangkok’s early history, Wat Arun captured its most outstanding characteristic: the 82-meter-high prang after the Thailand capital and the Emerald Buddha were moved to Bangkok. There are huge protection statues on the entrance of the temple. There are five same Buddhist pagoda inside the temple, one of which is bigger than the other four. The big pagoda is the 82-meter-high Khmer style prang built in 1809. It is considered as the Eiffel Tower in Thailand. The foundation and the body are built in many layers, and the body becomes smaller when it gets higher, which makes the temple quite primitive and solemn.