As mentioned in the previous post, I did my best to take shots with less tourists and also only included pics on that post with the least people as possible. I wanted to showcase the beauty of the temple first, because when you see the tourists with the photos it will look like an amusement part... which temples are supposed to be sacred. :/
So I decided to make another post about the whole area specifically with tourists as I don't think I included one in the previous post due to a lot of tourists around.
Before you enter the temple, the street outside is narrow but at the same time there were a lot of stores for refreshments and food. It looks like a residential area for the most part, with stores as their business.
There were like maybe 5 stores that offer rentals of these I assume Thai costumes for tourists so they can visit the temple and take pictures there with all the traditional vibes or something. There were also a lot of photographer for hire options for tourists which is nice actually... although it will be in tourist price hehe. :P
Upon entering the main area, it is already very crowded. I was kinda expecting it to have a lot of tourists but not this much, since our last visit to a temple back in 2022 there were literally only 5 tourists around lol. Which is of course normal and should be expected since a lot of borders are already open nowadays with tourists being comfortable traveling around the world compared in the early 2022.
Everytime I wanted to take a picture of something, there will be tourists taking pictures of themselves too. That's fine... I'm a tourist myself and I do that as well but what annoys me is that they seem to take hundreds of pictures in one area... So they will be taking a LONG time before they go and so you could take 3 pictures of the area in 2 seconds.
Then you see a monk walking from time to time and I can sense that some tourists were thinking of taking a pic with them lol. I was thinking how they're able to go with their day-to-day knowing the temple is overcrowded... and I thought they're monks, I guess they found the peace within and can meditate even with the noisiest area so I guess they're good. :D
There were a few couples that we saw there who seemed to be having photoshoots, maybe for social media or something.
What really annoyed me is the fact that a lot of them were just sitting there on the stairs, loitering the area. Like, overcrowded area is understandable... but staying there for no reason knowing that there's literally a lot of other tourists around is just... I don't know, unetiquette? Knowing there's also a park just beside the area where they could sit down and chill but they thought it's a lot better to sit on temple stairs. XD
I also don't think it's appropriate to tell them to gtfo lol as they paid to be here. It's just, I think it's a bit insensitive or something.
Upon climbing the stairs, you will meet a lot of tourists taking photos as well, so I had to wait maybe 3 minutes til they're done just so I can pass since
Of course, I wasn't surprised...
A lot of them were also taking videos, I assume for Tiktok..
They look like they're watching animals in the zoo... while the animals are filming for Tiktok. XD
This is such a beautiful photo... I'm too lazy to Photoshop them out lol.
What's will all those slippers???
Wat Arun is a gorgeous temple and I get why it can be so overcrowded. I just wished tourists would have proper etiquette when visiting a place. Especially temples.
One of the few photos of me since I was too annoyed to want to be taken photo of lol. I got nice shirt color which makes me stand out hihi.