Bangkok: Wat Saket
 

Looking for rants, raves and good to know info. Coming from the conrad hotel, can I take the skytrain? What stop do I get off?

Read that the views from the Golden Mount are impressive. How much time should I budget? Anything close by?

from a recent posting of mine, i put the golden mount very low on my list...for good views i would choose a couple of other places....the indian restaurant on the top floor of the rembrandt hotel (decent but not fantastic), the sky bar at the state building at the corner of silom rd and new road---fantastic esp. at nite...expensive beers however...about 700 B for 2 beers; or the observation floor of the bayoike building---tallenst hotel in the world--i may have spelled it wrong---there is a fee or have a drink and then no fee...

we found the golden mount somewhat remote and not all that fantastic...its high but not all that high...

I agree with Bob on this one -- a waste of time.

Thanks - its off my list.

While I agree that the Wat itself is not that interesting, I do note that the area surronding it is interesting. There is a street filled with woodworkers, another street lined with stores selling religious items and relatively close is the Monks Bowl village. If you're only going to be in BKK, this is not a good use of your time. However, if you're there for a week or longer, it's probably worth the investment of a morning just to wander around.

True-- I actually spent a few hours there on my last trip because my friend was looking for some things for a spirit house. It was fun but it should be low on the list of a first timer.

What is the Monks Bowl village?

It is several alley ways near Wat Suket where they construct Monks Bowls from sheet metal by hand. This used to be the way they all wre made. Most are now machine made. The "village" is actually hokey. As soon as you enter, a "guide" rushes to your side and conveys you to the maker of his choice. This is actually sort of annoying, but apparently a necessity. We went with him for a while and then pointedly ignored him after he did not leave our side when politely asked. Eventually, we found an older Thai who made Bowls. We bought 7 after bargaining hard and actually returned a few days later to buy a few more. They make super gifts. After visiting countless Wats, the bowls are enormously ewvocative. You might try putting "Monks Bowl" into the search engine to obtain other thoughts.