The Golden Mountain, Chatuchak Weekend Market, and Khaosan in Bangkok || 10-Day vacation in Thailand (Day-8)

After the bus dropped us at the Sai Tai Mai Bus Terminal (Southern Bus Terminal) of Bangkok, we took a local bus to Khao san road, where we had booked a room in BBHouse Phra Athit. We had reached way before the check-in time and, as expected, our room wasn't yet ready. So we kept our luggage in the "cloak room", freshened up, and went out for a walk. And this would end up being a rather long walk.

It was about 7 am and Khao san was yet to wake up after what would have been a rather busy evening. We quickly found ourselves heading out of Khao san and making our way to Phra Sumen Fort. The Octagonal Fort was 600m from our B&B and we reached there in about 5 minutes.

The white and red fort stands amidst lush green, well manicured lawns of Santichaiprakan Park. The fort was built as part of the original fortification of Bangkok during the reign of King Rama I in the 18th century. The fort was rebuilt in 1981 and the park came up as recently as 2000.

The fort is built on the banks of the river Chao Phraya, at the point where the Bang Lamphu Canal meets the river. It is a relatively small white building with a red roof, which really does not look much like a fort. The reason that I am saying this is, in India, we are used to seeing forts with high unscalable walls that extend in all directions for kilometers in some cases. Fort Sumen is nothing like that.

After spending some time here, we started our walk towards the Golden Mountain temple, also known as Wat Saket. The temple is 1.7 km from Fort Sumen, and we knew that there would be some hiking (stair climbing) involved once we get there. But we did not want to lose any time, so we went ahead. The walk through the streets was uneventful. On the way we saw several sights - Statue of King Rama III, Phan Pha Lilat Bridge, and Phanfa Leelard Pier. Near the pier, we saw several monitor lizards resting on the banks. Several boats were plying the river. One could apparently rent a ride on one of these.

We continued our walk towards the Golden Mountain temple and all this time the temperature was rising. It was growing warmer by the minute. Upon reaching the Golden Mountain Temple we realized that we had hundreds of steps before us that we would have to climb to reach the actual temple. It helped that at regular intervals during the climb, various displays had been put in place to keep people entertained and to provide nice breaks on the way.

Upon reaching the summit, we offered our prayers to the various idols of Buddha and enjoyed the view from the top. The temple was very crowded and when inside the walled temple, it could get quite suffocating. But outside in the open, there was a nice breeze. So we hung around for some time before heading back.

On our way back, we decided to take a different route back to Khao san. We walked along the Bang Sam Phu Canal. The route took us through some of the cutest neighborhoods, over quaint bridges, and some exotic markets. Right at the place where the path merged into Fort Sumen Road, we found a street food stall selling an awesome looking chicken dish with rice. We ordered two servings and had a good, tasty meal.

After this, we finally checked into our hotel and slept for a couple of hours. It was too hot outside anyways. We thought we would head out some time close to 4pm and head to Chatuchak Weekend Market. We had heard a lot about this market from friends and didn't want to postpone a visit to this place till the last day of our stay.

We took the bus number 3 to Chatuchak market. We got there when the market was just opening. The market is an excellent place to explore local art. You will find several studios by independent artists, all done up very tastefully. The market is also a good place to buy souvenirs and fragrances in the forms of diffusers, scented candles, soaps, and perfumes. If you want to shop for local teas and spices, you can do that here.

After exploring the Chatuchak market for a couple of hours, we took the BTS to Sukhumvit road, but we found the place quite devoid of life.

It was only 7PM so may be the action was yet to pick up at Sukhumvit. After spending about 15 minutes there, we headed back to Khao san. En route, we did some photography of Wat Arun, from a distance, the Grand Palace, Saranrom Park etc.

Back in Khao san, we had food and dinner at one of the pubs close to BBHouse Phra Athit, and decided to bring this productive day to a close on a high note.

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