Wat Arun

Wat Arun, Temple of Dawn, this place was incredible, and i almost opted not to go in because i had spent more than what i thought i should on a weekend trip. So i dished out the two dollars that the entrance fee cost (ok yes, i have a problem with being frugal). Unlike the grand palace and the temple of the reclining buddha, this wat was much more earth oriented, decorated entirely of dull pigmented stone, nothing flashy. We walked through some back streets covered in dirty water as it had just down poured; the second rain thus far. Through tiny windy passage ways and underneath a nearly hidden door and through an archway you felt you had to duck to enter stood before us a structure only completely visible to a head thrust straight back. Wat Arun was enormous, stable in it's concrete wide base, symmetrical stairs on all four sides allowed us to climb not just the first platform, but up three flights, each getting progressively more narrow and significantly steeper. The final stretch where steps literally six inches high, trickier coming down than up because you don't expect your foot to drop down so far, and then you have a small panic attack because your footing seems askew several hundred feet up in the air with noting but a small railing to clench your fist onto for dear life! The view at the top proved very much worth the scare of the climb. All of Bangkok appeared to be at our fingertips, seeing as far as was possible for the eye, across and along the Chaophraya River , city scape after city scape, and small streets with dots of colored flags strewn across the rooftops connecting the opposite side. This site, the closest feeling i've had to being at the top of Eagle Peak, the feeling of vastness the same, but this time i was different in that i was simply seeing what you would everyday from a completely different angle. Amazing how something as common as a city can appear so new and unexplored, but instead of feeling the chaos of life below, you are overtaken with a sense of calming reverence.