Wat Pho

Wat Pho holds a 46-metre gold Reclining Buddha that barely fits its own hall, and a courtyard complex that stays calm even when the Grand Palace next door is heaving. It is also the traditional home of Thai massage, and the school here still takes walk-ins.

• The Reclining Buddha, mother-of-pearl soles, 108 bronze bowls, and a hall built tight around it.
• The massage pavilions, a proper Thai massage from the school that codified the art.
• The chedi gardens, four giant porcelain-tiled spires and dozens of smaller ones, largely crowd-free.
• The stone hermits, yoga figures that once served as the kingdom’s anatomy textbook.

Come in the morning right after the Grand Palace opens and the coaches head there first, or in the last hour of the day. The Buddha hall funnels one way; let a group clear and you get it nearly alone.

Ten minutes on foot south of the Grand Palace, or the river boat to Tha Tien pier. The cross-river ferry to Wat Arun leaves from the same pier, which makes the three an easy single loop.