Sharing is caring!

Approaching Wat Arun – The Temple of Dawn from the Chao Phraya

Wat Arun – Temple of Dawn is a Bangkok highlight

There are hundreds of wats or temples in Bangkok, but for many travelers, the most beautiful is Wat Arun: the Temple of dawn. It is found on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. A cruise down the river in Bangkok is a must see for any visitor to Bangkok and Thailand and the highlight of any cruise is a stop at Wat Arun.

The temple is encrusted in porcelain and the attention to detail is amazing. The temple is beautiful from far away, but just about every facet of the make up of the temple is amazing taken on a smaller scale. From the moment you first see the central prang reaching out into the Bangkok sky as your boat approaches, your camera will be on overdrive.

Wat Arun from the dock

Wat Arun – The Temple of Dawn

The best way to get to Wat Arun is by boat. Take the Silom BTS line to Saphan Taksin and then head to the river. Grab a shared boat for 100 baht to Wat Arun. Getting back is the difficult part. They wanted 600 baht to return to Saphan Taksin, so I crossed the river to the Grand Palace and grabbed a taxi to Hua Lumphong MRT. The entrance fee to Wat Arun is 50 baht. If you do not want to venture out on your own, it would not be difficult to find a guide. Every cab driver, every hotel, every travel agency can hook you up if you don’t mind paying a little extra to the middle man.

Closer view of Wat Arun

Wat Arun on a clear sunny hot Bangkok day

Wat Arun

One of the smaller prangs that surround the main one at Wat Arun – Temple of Dawn

Wat Arun – Beautiful on a small scale

Even without looking at the main prang, there is plenty to see at Wat Arun and photograph. The towers are full of small scale porcelain encrusted dragons, elephants, and other figures. Bas reliefs and smaller statues surround the main prang with four smaller spires situated at each corner.

Beautiful bas relief at Wat Arun

A close up of one of the many dragons, which make up the lower sections of the main prang

It is well known that Thailand loves elephant so no surprise that one should show up at Wat Arun

Statue at the base of the temple of dawn

There are so many different angles and different points of interest at Wat Arun

Wat Arun – Temple of Dawn

Wat Arun climbing adventure –

The stairs up the main prang are crazy steep. Be sure you are focused and take your time going up and especially going down. I find it is more difficult going down as you can see the precipitous drop below you.

The view climbing up the stairs at the Temple of Dawn

Wat Arun – The Temple of Dawn – I find the climb down scarier

Soak up the beautiful views from the top

Once you do get to the top of Wat Arun, or at least the middle, you cannot actually climb to the top, soak in the gorgeous views. You get a wonderful view of Bangkok, the Chao Phraya, and the Grand Palace across the river.

Beautiful view of the Chao Phraya, Bangkok, and the Grand Palace from the top of the stairs at Wat Arun

Wat Arun – Temple of Dawn – The Chao Phraya River

Adventure on!

The goal of Traveling Ted is to inspire people to outdoor adventure travel and then provide tips on where and how to go. If you liked this post then enter your email in the box to get email notifications for each new entry. Daily travel photos are excluded from your email in order to not flood you with posts. There is no spam and email information will not be shared. Other e-follow options include Facebook (click on the like box to the right) or twitter (click on the pretty bird on the rainbow above).

On the right sidebar is a donate button. If you would like to donate in order to support the site, it would be appreciated. All donations would cover travel expenses and improvements to make the site better.