Solo in Bangkok, Day 3: Grand Palace, Wat Arun and the Chao Phraya

Part of the Southeast Asian Odyssey series · Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok's historic core is dense with temples and history, and Day 3 was built around the Rattanakosin district, the old royal island where Bangkok's most important landmarks are concentrated. Start early. The Grand Palace gets crowded by 10am and the heat by midday is serious.

It was a day of so much walking, and I wouldn't trade it. Walking is the best way to learn a place, as long as you've packed a comfortable pair of shoes.

The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo

The Grand Palace is one of those rare landmarks that actually exceeds its hype. The scale is staggering: 218,400 square meters of gilded spires, colonnaded walls, and ceremonial buildings. At the center of the complex is Wat Phra Kaeo, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which houses a small but deeply venerated Buddha image made of green jade. The surrounding murals, painted across 178 panels depicting the Ramakien epic, are extraordinary in their detail.

The dress code is the strictest of any attraction in Thailand and it is the single most common reason visitors are turned away at the gate. "Shoulders and knees covered" undersells it, so here is the actual list.

Required: long trousers or a skirt fully covering the knees; a top with sleeves covering both shoulders; closed shoes or sandals with a back strap.

Refused: shorts of any length, including long ones that reach the knee; torn or ripped jeans, including deliberately fashionable ones; sleeveless tops, vests, spaghetti straps, cut-sleeve shirts; crop tops or anything showing the midriff; transparent fabric; backless flip-flops.

That list catches a lot of people, because half of it is what you'd naturally wear in 35°C heat. Sarongs and trousers can be borrowed or bought near the gate, but that means a queue in the sun before the queue for tickets.

For a solo traveller there's a specific version of this problem: you have nobody to hold your place while you go and sort it out. Wear the right thing from the hotel, or carry a lightweight long layer in your bag, which you'll want at the other temples anyway.

Practicalities: buy entry through the official Grand Palace site, and check the current hours there. The ticket office closes in the afternoon, well before the complex does, and only people already inside get the extra time. Go at opening. It's the coolest part of the day, the light is best, and you're ahead of the coach groups.

Ignore anyone outside telling you it's closed. "The palace is shut today, but I can take you somewhere better" is a standard opening line for a scam that ends in a gem shop or a tailor. The Grand Palace is open every day; the only closures are for royal ceremonies, announced officially.

Wat Arun: The Temple of Dawn

Wat Arun sits on the opposite bank of the Chao Phraya, a short cross-river ferry ride from the pier near the Grand Palace (a few baht, very straightforward). Its central prang (tower) is encrusted with fragments of Chinese porcelain that catch the light in a way that's impossible to photograph properly and completely worth seeing in person. You can climb part of the tower for elevated views across the river.

Beside Wat Arun, the Chao Phraya is full of large schools of fish, and you can buy fish food (pellets or bread) for a few baht to feed them. Next to the pier there was a tent, and I was invited in for pad thai. It was delicious, and it's still one of my fondest memories of the city.

Wat Pho and the Reclining Buddha

Just south of the Grand Palace, Wat Pho contains the famous Reclining Buddha: 46 meters long, gold-leafed, with mother-of-pearl inlaid soles depicting the 108 marks of the Buddha. The temple complex is also home to one of Bangkok's oldest traditional massage schools. A 30-minute traditional Thai massage here costs a few hundred Baht and is a genuinely good way to recover from hours of walking on marble in the heat.

Pak Klong Talaat: The Flower Market

From the temple area, I walked to Pak Klong Talaat, Bangkok's main wholesale flower market near Memorial Bridge. It's most active in the early morning hours when vendors unload jasmine garlands, lotus arrangements, and marigold offerings by the truckload, but even by mid-morning the colors and scent are overwhelming in the best possible way. The market runs 24 hours but the atmosphere peaks before 7am and after midnight.

Chinatown (Yaowarat) in the Evening

A short tuk-tuk or taxi ride brings you to Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown, one of the oldest and densest in Southeast Asia. In the evening the street food vendors set up along Yaowarat Road: roasted duck, dim sum, fresh oyster omelets, mango sticky rice, grilled seafood. It's loud, crowded, and extraordinary. As a solo traveler eating alone here feels completely natural. You're at a plastic stool at a street cart, and everyone's doing the same thing.

Getting Around: The Chao Phraya River Ferry

The Chao Phraya Express Boat is one of Bangkok's most useful (and scenic) transport options for the riverside sites. The orange-flag boats connect piers from the south end near Chinatown all the way up to Nonthaburi: fast, cheap, and air-cooled by the river breeze. For the Rattanakosin temple area, get on at Tha Chang or Tha Tien pier.

Where to go next

• day one, the flight out and the Tokyo layover.
• day four, Chatuchak market and the fights.

What I took from this day

Rattanakosin is walkable end to end, and doing it in one day works if you start at the Grand Palace on opening and let the river ferry carry you between the rest. The dress code is the only thing that can actually stop you.