Bangkok's Golden Mountain

Video Transcript

Welcome to Wat Saket for this pin we gotta walk up to the top of this hill I’m not sure how hard it’s gonna be it’s hot right now um but I’ve and I’ve never been up to the top of here I’m doing this for Teenee I’m doing this because Thai friend of mine is up top waiting for us to uh tell us about this place and then I’ll tell you how hard the walk up was and if it’s worth it for you to make the trek.

So one thing I should point out is that it is 50 baht to get in for foreigners for tourists and it’s free for ties that’s what they call two-tier pricing here in Thailand and it really angers some people it uh it doesn’t upset me at all and as a matter of fact I’m fine to pay an extra fare to go up now let’s just go up these 344 steps and see how much I’m sweating by the time I get to the top and I’ll introduce you to that friend I’m talking about but here take a quick look at the early part of the walk.

All right we made it so um here’s the guest this is Khun Fah again Fah’s back and Fah has brought me up these stairs it wasn’t so bad the stairs yeah they were tiny it said 337 stairs I was a little worried but they were small stairs.
Fah: Yes it’s very tired!
Chris: Yeah it is tired and I’m sweaty so Khun Fah I did a little bit of research tell me how I did I heard that this is called Wat Saket yes and what I heard is that that meat roughly translates into wash hair because king rama one stopped by here on his way back from war to to wash his hair and that’s kind of where this temple name came from.
Fah: Yes kind of but no uh normally Thai people like know this place as the name Wat Phu Khao Thong.
Chris: What does this mean?
Fah: It means mountain golden mountain.
Chris: Oh I can see why and so so so sometimes my research it is that’s not how Thai people what what do Thai people come here for.
Fah: Uh normally they come here for like pay for good luck yes yeah or sometime uh when new year they will come here and pay for like if today is like 31st December right uh in the night at night they will come here and pay for the next new year.
Chris: Oh nice yeah and it looks like an amazing spot for views I heard a lot of people come here to enjoy sunsets
Fah: Yes!
Chris: Maybe post some instagram photos, should we show them the view?
Fah: Yeah sure!!!
Okay so apparently the views the highlight my research was uh it turns up that sometimes what you read on the internet or in a book is not quite what you can get if you get to know some Thai friends so thanks for sharing with me Fah. Fah got some other secrets in Teenee for you have you found them yet you’re gonna share some secrets for them on Teenee?
Fah: Yes sure I will share a lot of uh my favorite sport here in Teenee
Chris: So click around you might see her on a couple of other pins because she’s shown us some of her favorite spots in Bangkok.
Fah: Don’t miss it everyone uh downloads like ios and android.
Chris: Oh I like I like how far operates all right take care Teenee we’re going to enjoy this temple!

Additional Information

Bangkok, Thailand has some of the most epic shopping anywhere on earth. Many of these massive mall complexes would put their counterparts in Europe or North America to shame. The Holy Grail of Bangkok shopping is IconSiam. This is a newly built architectural masterpiece located right on the east side of the Chao Praya river across from central Bangkok. It has anything and everything that you could think of. Whether you’re looking to purchase something from a luxury brand like Gucci, Chanel, Fendi, Rolex, etc. or simply want a basic Tee from Uniqlo, this place has it all. You can even buy a Ferrari right in the mall if you’re looking to spend some serious coin. There’s also an epic food court on the ground level of IconSiam which features all sorts of tasty Thai treats that you can get at street food prices. One thing that’s actually quite common across many Bangkok shopping centres is to have at least one or two food courts that act more like Thai markets than they do a typical eating area. The food in these areas are both tasty and cheap. The reason that these exist is because the developers or owners of these massive shopping complexes want to drive as much foot traffic as possible inside of their real estate. So, they give significant rent breaks to the vendors that would normally have to compete for space in an outdoor market. What ends up happening is that residents find a specific vendor or restaurant that they like, and make it a weekly routine to go and enjoy some food from that specific location, inside of whatever mall it exists in. The food courts inside of these malls actually become attractions on their own, resulting in more foot traffic inside of the mall.