Still More Tourist, Tourist Things, Tourist Town, Tourist Season: Wat Arun

The intricate artwork of Wat Arun

Wat is Wat Arun?  The official name is Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan.  So forgive me for calling it juts "Wat Arun."

Arrival via ferry-boat crossing the Chao Phraya River:

Wat Arun is known as the Temple of the Dawn.

It wasn't dawn, however.  The 14-degrees-north near-equatorial sun -- and the humidity -- were getting fairly intense by this point, now being in the afternoon.

The temple originally was constructed in the 17th Century.

Completed in the 19th Century, for the most part.  This is the "Thonburi" section of Bangkok.  Once its own town, but now absorbed into the mega-city of Bangkok.

Lots of posing for photos here, because, why not?  It's beautiful, ornate, and not like much else around town. 

You can climb up a few "stories," but the steps were not made for ordinary conveyance.

Big tall spaces between each step, as if they were designed for 10-foot tall people with 60-inch inseams.

The only problem with Wat Arun is that there is nothing in which you can go inside to escape the intensity of the sun. 

I guess the only way to escape the sun is to come here during the rainy season.  And what tourist wants to do that?

So "suffer in the sun: it is.

One of the strange things about Wat Arun is the number of people dressed in period costumes, taking photos of themselves.  Such as this.

There actually was a booth out front where you could rent period costumes.  No thank you.  But if I could've rented elephant pants, which date from the time period known as the 2020's, I'd have been all-in.

The organized tour of the tourist highlights of historic Bangkok came to its conclusion, Time for food, water, and a/c.

But that requires a trip back down to the river in a water taxi.

To the Iconsiam mega-mall.  Which was highly recommended to me.

Let's start the refreshment part of the tour with a lime soda.

Drink and a/c satisfied.  Time for food.  Then a sky train back to the hotel to rest these sun-baked bones.