Bangkok (Lonely Planet) - Andrew Burke [62]
At the back of the compound, behind the formal gardens, is a well-known market selling Buddhist prá krêu·ang in all sizes, shapes and styles. These amulets feature images not only of Buddha, but also famous Thai monks and Indian deities. Full Buddha images are also for sale.
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PHRA NAKHON MEANDER
Walking Tour
If the tourist buses and touting túk-túks around the Ko Ratanakosin sights threaten to do your head in, this part of Banglamphu should be more appealing. The area south of Wat Saket combines old wooden and terrace houses, parks, shops selling religious paraphernalia aimed purely at locals and a wát that will leave you wondering why no one else is there. Begin at the Tha Phan Fah klorng boat pier. If you don’t have much time and don’t mind sweating, you could follow this wander with the Chinatown walk or the Ko Ratanakosin walk in reverse.
1 King Prajadhipok Museum
Opposite the klorng boat pier is this handsome, modern museum, which details Thailand’s turbulent pre-democracy years.
2 Golden Mount
From the museum, cross over Saphan Phan Fah to Golden Mount for a panoramic view of the city and a chance to have your fortune foreseen: your trip to Bangkok might have you ‘discovering a mate who could become a satisfactory match’ but, then again, you might also ‘like being dumb’ and have to ‘be careful’. Chôhk dee! (Good luck!)
3 Monk’s Bowl Village
Leave the Golden Mount and turn left (south) along Th Boriphat, where you’ll walk past shops selling carved teak lintels and other decorations for turning your apartment into a Thai restaurant. Cross Th Bamrung Meuang and turn left at Soi Ban Baat to see (actually, it’s more of an experience) the artisan village of beaten steel bowls and life amid atmospheric, eye-opening alleys.
4 Religious Shops
Backtrack to Th Bamrung Meuang, turn left across the bridge and go straight ahead. The religious shops on this stretch are where Bangkokians come to buy the sort of goods needed in temples. These are primarily Buddha images of all shapes and sizes (though usually only one colour: gold). Wealthy families make merit by donating these items to their local temples. Of course, you can’t actually ‘own’ a Buddha image so technically these Buddhas are rented, not sold. If you’re lucky you’ll see a new Buddha ‘shipment’ arrive, the huge figures delivered aboard pick-ups, all wrapped up like abductees in plastic and monks’ robes. Then begins the touch-up process on their golden paint jobs, and the wait for an ‘adoption’.
5 Marble Sign
You’ll come to a large, paved park with an imposing building at the Th Mahanop end. This is Bangkok’s City Hall (BMA building), thoroughly unremarkable except for the marble sign in front spelling out Bangkok’s official and unbelievably long Thai name; a quirky photo-op recommended for travellers with very wide-angle lenses.
6 Sao Ching-Cha
Amid the traffic at the other end of the square is the tall, red Sao Ching-Cha (Giant Swing;), a spindly gatelike structure that once hosted a (sometimes not) death-defying Brahman spectacle.
7 Wat Suthat
A few metres southeast is the entrance to Wat Suthat, one of the biggest, holiest, most beautiful and undertouristed temples in Thailand.
8 Rommaninat Park & Corrections Museum
Leave Wat Suthat via the east entrance onto Th Burapha and turn right (south). Continue for a few minutes and turn left into Rommaninat Park, a pretty green space of fountains, walking paths, piped music, sleeping people and soi dogs. On the far side of the park is the Corrections Museum (admission by donation; 9am-4pm Mon-Fri), a rehabilitated colonial building covering the park’s former career as a prison in the early 1900s. Most displays are in Thai but the maintenance staff and other hangers-on turn the tour into a social event, giggling at the gruesome displays of torture used in the good old days.
9 Klorng Path
Exit the park at the southwest corner, cross the street and follow the small klorng through the neighbourhood on Soi Long