Banglamphu & Democracy Monument

The pleasantest way to walk between the Grand Palace and Banglamphu is via the riverside walkway that runs alongside the Chao Phraya from the Bangkok Information Centre and Phra Pinklao Bridge to the renovated Phra Sumer Fortress, located in Santichaiprakarn Park and the junction of Phra Athit and Phra Sumen roads. If coming from downtown Bangkok, the fastest way to get to this area is by longtail canal boat along Khlong Saen Saeb: the Phan Fah terminus for this boat service is right next to the Golden Mount compound.

Wat Rajnadda, Loh Prasat and the amulet market

Five minutes’ walk southeast of Democracy Monument, at the point where Rajdamnoen Klang meets Thanon Mahachai, stands the assortment of religious buildings known collectively as Wat Rajnadda. It’s immediately recognizable by the multi-tired, castle-like structure called Loh Prasat, or “Iron Monastery” – a reference to its 37 forbiddingly dark metal spires, which represent the 37 virtues necessary for attaining enlightenment. The only structure of its kind in Bangkok, Loh Prasat is the dominant and most bizarre of Wat Rajnadda components. Each tier is pierced by passageways running north-south and east-west (fifteen in each direction at ground level), with small meditation cells at each point of intersection. The Sri Lankan monastery on which it is modeled contained a thousand cells; this one probably has half that number.

In the southeast (Thanon Mahachai) corner of the temple compound, Bangkok’s biggest amulet market, the Wat Rajnadda Buddha Center, comprises at least hundred stalls selling tiny Buddha images of all designs, materials and prices. Alongside these miniature charms are statues of Hindu deities, dolls and carved wooden phalluses, also bought to placate or wand off disgruntled spirits, as well as love potions and tapes of sacred music. While the amulet market at Wat Rajnadda is probably the best in Bangkok, you’ll find less pricey examples from the street side vendors who congregate daily along the pavement in front of Wat Mahathat. Price starts as low as B20 and rise into the thousands.

The Golden Mount

Beautifully illuminated at night, when it seems to float unsupported above the neighbourhood, the gleaming gold chedi across the road of Wat Rajnadda is part of Wat Saket and sits atop a nineteenth-century structure known as the Golden Mount, which offers a good view of the Grand Palace and distant Wat Arun from its terrace. To reach the walkway up the mount, follow the renovated crenellations of the eighteenth-century Phra Mahakan Fortress pass the small bird and antiques market that operates from one of the recesses, before veering left when signposted.

Wat Saket hosts an enormous annual temple fair in the first week of November when the mount is illuminated with colored lanterns and the whole compound seethes with funfair rides, food-sellers and travelling performers.

Wat Suthat, Sao Chinag Cha and Thanon Bamrung Muang

Located about 700m southwest of the Golden Mount, or a similar distance directly south of Democracy Monument along Thanon Dinso, Wat Suthat (daily 9am-9pm; B20) is one of Thailand’s six most important temples and contains Bangkok’s tallest viharn, built in the early nineteenth century to house the eight-meter-high meditating figure of Phra Sri Sakyamuni Buddha. The galleries that encircle the viharn contain 156 serenely posed Buddha images, making a nice contrast to the Chinese statues dotted around the viharn’s courtyard and that of the bot in the adjacent compound, most of which were brought over from China during Rama I’s reign, as ballast in rice boats: check out the depictions of gormless Western sailors and the pompous Chinese scholars.

The area just in front of Wat Suthat is dominated by the towering, red-painted teak posts of Sao Ching Cha, otherwise known as the Giant Swing, once the focal point of a Brahmin ceremony to honor Shiva’s annual visit to earth. Teams of two or four young men would stand on the outsized seat (now missing) and swing up to the 25m, to grab between their teeth a bag of gold suspended on the end of a bamboo pole. The act of swinging probably symbolized the rising and setting of the sun, though legend also has it that Shiva and his consort Uma were banned from swinging in their heavenly above because doing so cause cataclysmic floods on earth –promoting Shiva to demand that the practice to be continued on earth as a rite to ensure moderate rains and bountiful harvests. Accidents were so common with the terrestrial version that it was outlawed in the 1930s.

The streets leading up to Wat Suthat and Sao Ching Cha are renowned as the best place in the city to buy religious paraphernalia, and well worth a browse even for tourists. Thanon Bamrung Muang is particular is lined with shops selling everything a good Buddhist could need, from household offertory tables to temple umbrellas and two-meter Buddha images. They also sell special alms packs for devotees to donate to monks; a typical pack is contained within a (holy saffron-colored) plastic bucket (which can be used by the monk for washing his roves, or himself), and comprises such daily necessities as soap, toothpaste, soap powder, toilet roll, candles and incense.