We continued our tour of the major temples in Bangkok by visiting Wat Pho and Wat Arun today. After sleeping in and having a quick swim in the hotel pool after breakfast, we packed up our overnight bags for Cambodia and packed everything else into our suitcases, which the hotel was holding for us until our return the following evening. We checked out of the hotel at noon, with our bags safely stored in the hotel bag area, then we hopped onto the sky train for the quick trip back to the Chao Phraya river and got on a ferry heading upriver. We didn’t get the full day pass, as we had yesterday, since we planned on getting to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap via cab or train from the downtown area.
We disembarked the ferry at the Wat Pho station, and then walked from the station to the temple. The temple was, in some respects, neater than the Grand Palace; it had just as many buildings to see, and the statue of the reclining Buddha was very impressive. At 15m high and 46m long, it dominated the building enclosing it, and left an impact on all who saw it. This complex also took us several hours to visit, but we felt that we had enough time to see everything worth seeing.
After wrapping up at the Wat Pho temple we walked back to the ferry station for lunch. There were a number of small vendors set up just outside the ferry station, offering a variety of Thai staples. We chose some street pad thai for lunch, and were very impressed with the quality given the location and price. After lunch we took a quick hop across the river on a ferry which just shuttled people between the Wat Pho and the Wat Arun ferry stations.
Wat Arun is much smaller than both the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, as it consisted only of a single structure. Staircases lead up all four sides of the structure; however, only one of the staircases is open for tourists above the first landing. Tourists are only allowed to go about halfway up the structure, however this is high enough to supply a fantastic view of the downtown core of Bangkok, both the Wat Pho temple and the Grand Palace, as well as the surrounding city. The temple staircases are incredibly steep; it seems surprising that people were able to make it up the exterior of the temple without the recently-installed metal railings.
After descending from Wat Arun we crossed the river again using the same ferry which brought us over originally. We started walking towards Wat Traimit, a temple in downtown which holds the largest solid gold statue of Buddha in the world. Unfortunately, we got a bit lost on our walk, and by the time we arrived at the temple it was closed. Temples close fairly early in Bangkok, typically at 4:30 PM. By this point it was getting a bit late, and our flight to Siem Reap was scheduled to depart from the Don Mueang airport at 7:30 PM, so we started to make our way towards the airport. This was a bit tricky, as Don Mueang is a fair hike from the downtown core where we were.
My plan was to take a cab to the airport, so we headed to the Hua Lamphong train station, which was just a short walk away from the Wait Tramit temple. It seemed obvious that a cab would be easy to find waiting for disembarking train passengers. As we were walking I started second guessing my plan, based on the notoriously busy traffic in downtown Bangkok, and started to worry we would be stuck in traffic and miss our flight. I decided to change plans and instead take the train from Hua Lamphong to Don Mueang, which is serviced by the rail line.
Upon arriving at Hua Lamphong we purchased 2 tickets on a train which left at 5:15 PM, and was scheduled to arrive at Don Mueang at 6:04 PM. We got on the train and waited for it to leave. The train left late, and several times during the trip the train simply stopped on the tracks and waited for close to 10 minutes per break, with no apparent reason. At about 6:15 PM we were still on the train and starting to get worried that we would miss our flight. We tried asking several passengers around us when we would arrive at Don Mueang, but unfortunately nobody in our car seemed to speak English. After a brief pause a nice lady who overheard us informed us that we were still about 20 minutes away from the Don Mueang station. Todd and I exchanged worried glances, because arriving at 6:35 PM would be pushing things pretty close, and we had no guarantees that the train would indeed arrive at 6:35 PM as the lady believed. Our fate was set at this point, however, so we simply had to sit and hope that the train wouldn’t stop again. Luckily fate was with us, and the train arrived at Don Mueang at 6:40 PM. We stood up as soon as the train slowed, and we broke into a full run as soon as we got out the train car. We weren’t the only ones feeling the pressure; several other passengers ran from the train towards the airport as well.
As luck would have it we cleared Thai exit immigration without issue and made it to the gate prior to boarding. We even had time to stop by a McDonald’s in the terminal so we could have a hamburger to eat on the flight. The flight itself took barely an hour and a half to reach Siem Reap, Cambodia. After disembarking we had to apply for tourist visas, a requirement for entry into Cambodia. The process took about an hour, mostly waiting for people ahead of us to have their applications processed, however once our turn came we got our visas without issue. We took a cab from the airport to the hotel, and arrived without issue. Exhausted, we checked in to the Angkor Holiday Hotel at approximately 11:30 PM. The hotel is gorgeous, definitely a place we would have been happy to spend several evenings. If we ever go back I would be happy to stay here again.