, who will regard you with a broad grin, that you want to go to the Phra Gaeo Temple, which houses the sacred Emerald Buddha, he will head with great pride to Wat Arun. A ‘Wat’ is a Thai Buddhist temple, and Wat Arun is one of the most important stops on any tour of Bangkok. This magnificent structure, adorned with millions of fragments of porcelain in the shape of flowers, is one of the leading examples of Thai architecture, and all drivers have an irresistible urge to take their fares there. After you’ve been taken there a few times, you’ll begin to recognize the streets. But since the Thais smile continuously in such a way that you can’t get angry, perhaps these strange journeys are even enjoyable in some sense, even though you can’t ever seem to get where you want to go...
A parenthesis here: if you haven’t brought one along, a hat should be your first purchase, preferably one of straw. Otherwise you might learn the hard way about Bangkok sunstroke.