Wat Arun at night, from upper Thon Buri

This is a photo that I’m not sure is possible from many locations.

If you look at a map of Bangkok, there is a part to the west, across the Chao Phraya River, that is called Thon Buri. It’s curved, and is actually the original site chosen for the new capitol after Ayutthaya was sacked and basically destroyed by the Burmese. However, as the current Chakri dynasty took over, they moved across the river to build the big temples, etc, including the Grand Palace and the major temples, or Wats.

Wat Arun, however, is this magnificent, Khmer-style temple rising high above the ground on the Thon Buri side, and is one of the oldest in the city.

Because the river curves as one heads south right around where we were staying down towards Wat Arun, we could see the temple very well from our patio. If one had a nice, extended view out over the river (as the two restaurants next to us did, but none of the other houses, as far as we could tell), you could get this great view of the temple at night. But only with a long lens, and a tripod or some other stabilizing mechanism. Exposures were quite long, considering we were using a point-n-shoot.

This was also the only night Wat Arun was lit, which is apparently the iconic view of the temple. It really is magnificent, and should not be missed.

I have geo-tagged our hotel, the Ibrik resort, from where this photo was taken.

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