Wat Saket, the Golden Mount

Bangkok is flat, and Wat Saket is the only exception. The hill is artificial: a giant chedi collapsed under its own weight in the nineteenth century, on ground too soft to hold it, and the ruin grew over until it formed an eighty-metre mound. Rama V had the present golden stupa built on top.

You climb a spiral staircase of three hundred and forty-four steps, past bells and waterfalls. The climb takes a quarter of an hour at an easy pace.

From the top you see old Bangkok in every direction: the roofs of Rattanakosin, the Sathorn towers in the distance, and the river. It is the only view of the city that does not require going up a hotel.