The Golden Mountain-Wat SaketIts 6.00 AM and you’re wide awake. You jetted in on a red eye flight arriving in Bangkok around midnight. You can’t sleep anymore at your hotel. What to do at this hour? Nothing opens 'til 10.00 AM and the night life doesn’t start pumping until after 10.00 PM.
Get up, get ready and get a little Thai culture under your belt. Go visit the Golden Mountain and Wat Saket Chedi on it's crest. This trip will take you about three hours depending on how long you spend at the temple.
Forget the touts, tour guides, tuk tuk pirates and limo drivers. Go get that Thai experience by following my Six step guide.. I can show you how to get there and back for less than $2 USD.
Wat Saket is an undistinguished temple except for the Golden Mount or Phu Khao Thong, on the west side of the grounds. The steep climb up the Golden Mount puts everything back in perspective and offers views over Rattanakosin Island that are simply stunning.
The artificial hill was created when a large Chedi under construction by King Rama III collapsed because the soft soil beneath would not support it. The resulting mud-and-brick hill w
as left to sprout weeds until King Rama IV built a small Chedi on its crest.Step one. Print out this article before you leave home, or download it into your PDA, and take it with you. If you forget that’s okay you can go online in Bangkok at any of hundreds of Internet café’s & print it there.
Step two. Go to the concierge desk in your hotel lobby and get the following information:
• Ask how to get to Petchaburi station on the MRT (One stop north of Sukumvit station). This tour starts from Asoke Pier, on Khlong Saen Saep. (Asoke Petchaburi stop).
• A hotel business card with the return address in Thai writing on it. This is important. You may get lost and have to take a Meter Taxi back to the hotel! Hey, there’s no extra charge for getting lost!
• The nearest ATM machine or money changer location. Hotels give notoriously poor rates for currency exchanges.
Take 500 Baht ($12.50 USD) with you in small bills in case you get lost and need to take a Meter taxi back to your hotel.
Step three. Get yourself to Khlong Saen Saep at the Asoke Petchaburi Pier. The Two Dollar Tour starts and finishes from there. Saen Saep canal is a long wide mostly straight canal that runs East-West through Bangkok close to World trade Centre, and through the heart of Pratunam shopping area.
The fast ferry boat service, Family Transport Pty Ltd, offers regular services from 05.30 AM to 08.30 PM using a fleet of 100 40-50 passenger boats.My hotel was in Sukumvit Soi 22, walking distance from Soi Asoke where the BTS Skytrain and MRT subway meet so it was easy to get to Asoke pier by taking the MRT one stop north to Petchaburi station. Fare - 17 Baht each way.
Step four. At MRT station Petchburi, one stop north of Sukumvit station, take the No 2.Exit to Khlong Saen Saep & Soi Asoke. As you exit the station at the street level turn right 180 degrees and look for a low road bridge over the Khlong Saen Saep, about 100 yards ahead. The Asoke pier is ahead and below the bridge on the same side of the road as the station exit.
When you are on the pier, get ready to literally jump on to the next ferry boat that comes along side heading West (Facing the khlong, the boat will approach you from your left). Tip. If the first boat looks fairly full, let it go and get the next one. Avoid the rush hours if you can (06.00AM-8.30 AM & 04.00 PM-06.30 PM). Try and sit as far forward as possible to avoid the motor noise.
When you are seated a conductor, who walks around the outside of the boat like a high rise scaffolder, will ask for your fare. 12 Baht will give you a ticket to Pangfa pier, your final destination.
Don’t be alarmed when everyne gets off the boat at Pratunam pier, a few stops after getting on! Simple follow the crowd and board another boat heading in the same direction. This new boat will take you to the last stop Panfa Leelard via Khlong Maha Nak. Keep your 12 Baht ticket to show the new boat conductor.
Step five. Get off the boat at Panfa Leehard. This the is the last stop. Now where is Wat Saket? If you look over Khlong Maha Nak from the Panfa pier you will see the Golden Mountain central Chedi rising impressiviely above the surounding low rise buildings. Start walking towards the Wat. You will do this by crossing the adjacent Maha Nak bridge and walking about 200 yards from Khlong Maha Nak towards Wat Saket.
Step six. Wat Saket consists of many buildings adjacent to the Golden Mountain but the Chedi on the summit of Golden Mountain, 320 steps from the main entrance is the recommended destination. The main entrance is to your right as you enter the first gate to Golden Mountain and is marked by a large blue sign in Thai and English and two small elephants on either side of the green painted steps.
If you find yourself at the foot of a flight of green painted steps with only a blue sign in Thai, don’t worry start climbing and you will be happy to note that I counted 314 steps, six steps shorter than the main entrance route.
The green painted steps curve clockwise around the man made mountain with many viewing stops and sign posted points of interest along the way.
When you get to the top (Puff puff) you will need to take off your shoes and pay 10 Baht if you want to enter the Chedi. The view from here is fantastic. You can walk right around the veranda of the temple and enjoy a 360 degree panoramic view of Bangkok’s Riverside district and a great view to the spectacular Rama VIII bridge.King Rama V later added to the structure and housed a Buddha relic from India in the Chedi. The concrete walls were added during World War II to prevent the hill from eroding. Every November a large festival, held on the grounds of Wat Saket, includes a candlelight procession up the Golden Mount.When you have had your fill of Wat Saket simply retrace your steps back to your hotel.
Have a great trip.
Bouquets and Brickbats happily accepted.
Definitions:
Farang-Thai name for white foreigner. Derived from the Indian "Farangi" meaning Foreigner. Also same name as white fleshed Guava. "Farang"
Wat-Thai Buddhist Temple.
Chedi-is a domed edifice, often quite tall, under which relics of the Buddha or revered religious teachers are buried.
Feedback welcomed to: gkcogilvie@gmail.com
Brickbats and Bouquets gratefully received
© Copyright Geoff Ogilvie 2006-2018
