Bangkok Photo Gallery - Wat Arun

The Temple of Dawn across the river from the Grand Palace gets busy very early in the morning already. This is a favourite spot for tourists to dress up in traditional Thai colours for their next Instagram hit photos. Wat Arun got its name in 1768 when King Taksin reached here at dawn after leaving the sacked former royal capital of Ayutthaya. It was a small shrine at the time, but he thought it was a sign that this place would be his new capital. While many tourists came by river boat, I chose to take the MRT instead, getting off at Itsaraphap and walking a long way to the temple's back side, where there was no line for a ticket shortly after it opened. Tourists arriving by boat would take them to the other side of the temple to its river-facing entrance.