Top 5 Temples of Thailand

When we think of Thailand, sumptuous Thai food, its great beaches and islands and its spiritual temples come to mind. It’s Theravada Buddhist culture and deep belief in spirituality has ensured that Thailand is home to some of the most vibrant and beautiful Buddhist temples. While there are many beautiful Buddhist temples across the length and breadth of Thailand, here is my list of top 5 temples of Thailand.

Wat Arun, Bangkok

This temple doesn’t need an introduction. It is so popular that is on the 10 baht coin. This temple known as the ‘temple of dawn’ towers on the Thonburi west bank of the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok. Apart from this 17th century, which is beautiful in itself, there are 2 things that make Wat Arun such a hot favorite. One,  the first rays of the rising sun on the temple from the Chao Phraya river is a sight to behold. Second, the steep flight of steps that leads to a sensational view of Bangkok’s river side. You can either take a short boat ride or a longer route by road to reach this striking Bangkok landmark.

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai

Even though Chiang Mai is a very famous temple city in itself, its most popular temple is located about 15 kms from the city and on a mountain called Doi Suthep. This temple, sacred to many Thai people, offers stunning views of the Chiang Mai city and is especially popular during sunsets. This 14th century temple is built on principles derived from Buddhism and Hinduism. Everything in the temple is gold plated and that includes its pagodas, statues, bells and shrines. This temple also carries a model of the revered Emerald Buddha.

Big Buddha Temple or Wat Phra Yai, Ko Samui
Most of the tourists visiting Ko Samui, do so for its beautiful beaches, but there is a deep Buddhist side to this tropical island too. And this can be seen through its most visible landmark, the Big Buddha temple that can be seen when people fly into Ko Samui. This temple with the 12 meter seated Buddha statue is situated on the north east corner of the island on Koh Faan that is connected to Koh Samui by a causeway. The Buddha here is seated in the Mara posture that symbolizes steadfastness, purity and enlightenment. All the Ko Samui hotels would happily arrange a tour if you are interested in visiting this iconic Ko Samui landmark.

White Temple (Wat Rong Khun), Chiang Rai

This has got to be the prettiest temple in the whole of Thailand even though it is a contemporary and unconventional Buddhist temple. Like the name suggests, everything in this temple is white in colour. Be it the fish in it ponds, the statue of Buddha, its carvings, its walls and all its stupas, everything is white. The special aspect of this temple is the creative imagination that was used by its designer Chalermchai Kosipipat. The construction of this temple began in 1997 and is still in construction, though tourists and devotees are allowed to visit.

Ayutthaya Historical Temple Complex, Ayutthaya

The ancient capital of Thailand is Thailand’s temple center. There are so many beautiful temples here that one can get lost in temple lore for a long time. The rich history and its ancient feel is what draws people from far and wide. Whether it is the Phra Chedi Chaimongol temple, the sleeping Buddha, Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Wat Phra Mahathat or Wat Ratchaburana, all the Ayutthaya tours have a lot of stories to share. Its vast ruins give you an idea of its majestic past and a guided tour over a long duration can help you transfer yourself to an Ayutthaya era.

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Day 9 Digest from Koh Samui, the boat and Koh Pha ngan, Thailand

For the earlier daily travel digests from my South East Asia Backpacking trip, look here.

The day started early for us as we had a boat to catch at 9:30 AM. We were ready by 8 AM, but when we came out on to the streets for breakfast, we found that all the shops on the island were closed. Apparently all of them stay open till late in the night to cater to the folks who come late for dinner from the parties. And since they are open till late in the night, nearly all of them open only at 11 in the morning. Thankfully for us, we found a deli shop who served foot long sandwiches. We decided to have breakfast at this shop in spite of the high prices as we were very hungry.

At 9 AM sharp, a share taxi arrived at our hotel to take us to the pier. The share taxi picked some more people and dropped us all at the pier. At the pier, we got our tickets and stickers and boarded the small Haad Rin boat that could seat about 50-60 people. I got myself a spot on the sunnier deck while my friend got himself a spot in the windier front side. As the boat chugged away slowly, I could admire the beauty of the island, its blue waters and the colorful boats sailing on it. The island looked massive and so green as we passed along its length slowly. I wished I could live in one of those cliff side hotels that looked so exotic from the boat, but then I realized that I did not like this island much.

In an hour or so, we arrived at Koh Pha ngan’s Haad Rin beach and after passing by all the taxi and hotel guys, we reached the main Haad Rin area. As we walked around the area, we checked our three hostels, but found all of them to be expensive. It was very surprising that they were quoting high prices because all of the hostels were running empty. As we could not pay that high, we walked quite a distance in the humid weather before we found the Lazy house hostel who offered us a dormitory bed for 250 THB per head which was half of what others were asking. We took it and found that even this hostel was running empty and upon asking found out that most of Haad Rin as running empty as all the folks had left after the full moon party and that they would expect tourists to arrive 3 days before the half moon party. We settled into the hostel, freshened up and then walked towards the Haad Rin market area to have lunch. The best part of the lunch here was the tender coconut water as it felt like heaven in that sultry weather. After lunch, we explored a bit of the Haad Rin beach before we decided that the heat was a bit too much for us to handle. While we relaxed back at out hostel, we started reading more about Ko Pha ngan, we found out that there was a great trek nearby that provided great views of the Haad Rin beach and the surrounding ocean. As soon as it was 4 pm, we decided to grab a small bite and started our trek towards the view point.

We would show the map to the locals and get directions to the trail and once we found the trail, we started walking uphill. The trek was nice and green, but the humidity was still high. We walked for more than 30 minutes but could not located the view point. We asked a couple of locals, but they had no clue of where the view point was too. We decided to turn back as we thought that we might have missed a turn somewhere. And when we did retrace our steps, we found out a steep way that led up somewhere. It was slippery, but we found a rope that could be used as a support to climb. But, unfortunately for us, it started raining and we sensibly decided not to climb any further as the trail would get worse and dangerous in the rain. As we made our way back to the market area, the rain increased in intensity and we were all drenched. But, I really liked the rain as it provided much needed relief from the heat and the exhaustion from the trek.

By the time we reached the hostel, the rain had stopped. After a much needed shower, I began exploring the market area of Haad Rin, had one of the famous banana pancakes of Thailand and kept exploring while my friend decided to check out the various seafood that were put on display in front of the restaurants. We finally settled into a restaurant, had a hearty dinner, explored the market area some more and then finally booking ourselves on a tour to Angthong Marine National Park the next day.

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Day 8 Digest from Koh Samui, Thailand

For the earlier daily travel digests from my South East Asia Backpacking trip, look here.

The exhaustion of Day 7 ensured that we woke up a bit late on this day. After the usual morning routine, we headed out to have Pad Thai by the roadside and kept walking by the Chaweng market road before we decided that we needed to explore the Choeng Mon area that was to the north of us. After a log of haggling, we finally got a share taxi who agreed to take us those 10 kms for 50 THB per head. The ride was along fairly easy as we crossed some beautiful views over the mountain roads. All of these view points were occupied by private properties and hence one needed to stay/eat at these properties to enjoy nature’s view. This really sucked, but there is only little that I could do about it.

In a short while, we reached the Choeng Mon area, walked to the beach and walked all along its length. The beach was fairly good, but was frequented by older people and/or families with kids. That was the first thing that we noticed because we had just come from a more younger area, the Chaweng beach area. The other thing that we noticed that everything was more commercialized here and one could go on the jet ski, do surfing and so much more. As we were watching all this, we noticed dark clouds coming at us quickly and in line with those clouds, it turned dark very soon. The last couple of days, it had been raining around these islands and it looked like we would get much more rain even today. Soon, the rain came and boy was it heavy. It poured for more than an hour and we had to take shelter in a dive shop. During this time, we made our acquaintance with the dive shop manager, found about the weather forecast and the various dive sites around. The underlying census was that the weather forecast was bad and the cost of diving from Koh Samui was insanely high as all the dive sites were either closer to Koh Pha ngan or Koh Tao.

After a long wait, the rain finally let off and we explored the Choeng Mon area a little bit before taking a taxi back to Chaweng. By this time, both me and my friend felt uneasy in the stomach and both of us guessed that it had to do with the Pad Thai we had in the morning. As soon as we reached Chaweng, we made a dash for our room, took some rest, had a late lunch, but a light one and then kept exploring some more of the market before it started raining again and we went back to our room. During our stay in the room, we watched the james bond movie, Sky fall and then after the decent movie break, we headed again to the Thai restaurant that we had liked during our visit last night. Food was again good there. We loved the curries here. During dinner we decided that since both of us did not like the big city culture of Koh Samui and since all the dive spots were far away from Koh Samui, we agreed to move on to Koh Pha ngan. In line with our decision, we purchased a boat ticket on a cheaper Haad Rin boat (200 THB per head) from our hotel front desk. The boat was supposed to leave the next morning at 9 AM and since we had an early start to the next day, we retired early. The uneasy stomach episode also ensured that we slept as soon as we hit the bed.

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Day 7 Digest from the train, Surat Thani and Koh Samui, Thailand

For the earlier daily travel digests from my South East Asia Backpacking trip, look here.

It was an early start to my day as the movement in the train woke me up. After asking one of the train guards, I got to know that the train was running late by 90 minutes. I tried sleeping again, but could not get to sleep and hence got up, opened the screens on my side windows and watched a very beautiful sunrise followed by great views of lush green countryside passing by.

In a short while, the entire train started to wake up and the catering department came to take the breakfast order. I had to order from them even though they were a bit too pricey. In a short while, one of the AC compartment attendants came, removed the bedding and converted the beds back into seats and the catering department guy came with the food, took a table piece from below my seat and plugged it next to my seat and voila my breakfast table was ready. I was impressed with the design and after the initial excitement wore off, I dug into the food as I was really famished.

By the time my breakfast was done, the catering attendant informed us that we are expected to arrive at Surat Thani in 45 minutes. Thus, we packed our stuff and stayed ready. Once we got down at the station, we reached over to the information desk and told them that we had our Lomprayah bus and boat ticket bookings. They took us to the Lomprayah shop and asked us to wait for 30 minutes. Soon, a bus came and it took us 90 minutes to reach the Don Sak pier. I spent most of the bus journey sleeping and when I did wake up, I had a stiff neck. The boat looked great. It was supposed to be a high speed catamaran. I was impressed. It was clean, large and air conditioned. The boat journey was supposed to be about 60 minutes. Just after we left, the weather got bad and it started raining. We would feel the bumpiness in the water, but not that much. The boat simply sped on top of the rough waves. Thankfully, by the time we reached Koh Samui, the rains had stopped but it was still cloudy.

When we got out of the boat, we were swarmed by taxi guys with price lists to different parts of the island. Each fare was above 300 THB and the driver told us that distances were 20 kms, 30 kms and so on. I was wondering whether I was on an island or a large city. One of the taxi drivers explained us our location and the island’s geography using a map. He said he will take us to Lamai beach for 600 THB. But, I smelled a scam and hence kept moving. Finally, I got a Toyota Innova AC taxi to go to Lamai beach for 300 THB. We did not know where we had to go as we had no bookings. Hence, we asked the driver if he had any budget accommodation recommendations. He ended up taking us to one, but we didn’t like it. And we had also released the vehicle by then. Hence, we started walking on the road and by then we found a share taxi and bargained with the driver to take us to Chaweng beach for 60 THB per head.

In about 10 minutes, we were dropped at Chaweng beach. I was still struggling to come to terms with the sheer size of the island. We were on the Chaweng main market road. We looked all around, but did not find anything that fit our budget. An Indian waiter from an Indian restaurant saw our plight and offered to help and once he found out that we were Indian, he asked us to sit in his restaurant, gave us access to the restaurant’s wi-fi and asked us to go online and check out hotels that fit our budget. We found some names, got directions from the Indian waiter, thanked him profusely and hit the road again. We were sweating profusely as it was a super sultry day. We went from hotel to hotel, but did not like the rooms. Finally, our walk stopped at P Chaweng guest house, located on the main market road. We checked into our room, freshened up, had our lunch in the evening and explored the Chaweng beach before the sun set.

The evening was spent exploring the beach and the various shops and restaurants on the Chaweng market road and we ended up having dinner in a large Thai restaurant that seemed to attract a lot of people. The food was really good even though the prices were slightly on the higher side. During dinner, we watched a lot of taxis with blaring speakers and huge hoarding that were inviting people to different events, be it a wet shirt party, a muay thai boxing match, an ice party or others. This was quite a new experience to us,but apparently this was the norm in the islands here. One can sit in these taxis and get a free drop to these hangout joints. But, since we were tired, we decided to explore some shops nearby and then headed straight to the hotel to hit the bed. After all, it had been a hectic day for us and the sun and the humidity had really sapped our energies. But, as I was sleeping, I knew that I could not survive for long in this island city and created plans of getting out of the city as soon as possible.

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How to get to the islands in the Gulf of Thailand?

The Gulf of Thailand is home to some beautiful islands like Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui, Koh Samui being the biggest. All of them are stunning tropical islands, though I personally prefer the Koh Tao island.

There are many ways to get to them from the Thailand mainland. Here is a lowdown on the various ways of commuting to these islands.

1) Take a train  or bus from Bangkok and get down at Chumpon if you are going to Koh Tao. From here you can take a boat to Koh Tao. Boat options are Lomprayah, Seatran Discovery and Songserm. Lomprayah is the fastest and costs the most, Seatran is slightly slower and costs marginally lesser and Songserm is the slowest and costs the least.

2) If Koh Samui or Koh Phangan is your destination, take the train or bus to Surat Thani. From there, you will get a bus to the pier and then the boat to Koh Samui and then Koh Phangan. The options are the same as above.

3) If you wish to fly in, then Koh Samui is your only option. From here, you can take a boat to the other islands. The options are same as above.

4) In high season, there are many boats plying between these islands, including private charters and long tail boats. In low season, the frequency might come down.

5) It is best to get a joint ticket (train + bus + boat) to get to the islands. This is the least hassle option and doesn’t cost you more. In fact, all travel agents quote the same price and there is no scam running here.

Note: If you are here for diving, visit Koh Tao. If you are here for partying, stay at Koh Phangan. If you want a relaxed vacation, stay at Koh Samui. If you want to visit Ang thong marine national park, stay either at Koh Samui or Koh Phangan. Koh Tao is a bit too far from the marine national park.

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