Wat Bang Kung: The Temple in a Tree Near Amphawa

Where the Wat Bang Kung temple in a tree stands

The address is Ban Khai, Moo 4, Bang Kung subdistrict, Bang Khonthi district, Samut Songkhram, and the road out of Amphawa crosses the Somdet Phra Sri Suriyendra bridge to reach it. The market is 6.6 km back, roughly 8 minutes by taxi. That short hop is why the temple turns up on so many Amphawa itineraries.

Drivers coming straight out of Bangkok are looking at about 50 km and under 90 minutes when the road behaves, while the Tourism Authority of Thailand's figure for reaching Samut Songkhram province is nearly two hours. Work from the longer number if the hall has to be seen before 16.30 and the railway market is in the plan as well.

Public transport reaches Amphawa and stops there. Nothing scheduled comes closer: the route on the market's own site is BTS Bang Wa, then Sai Tai Mai, then a minivan, in as little as 90 minutes, which leaves the final 6.6 km to a taxi or to whatever vehicle you already have. Arriving by minivan, agree the short run out to the temple with a driver at Amphawa rather than assuming one will be idling at the gate.

Wat Bang Kung opening hours and how long to allow

08:00 to 16:30 is the window for the grounds, seven days a week, and the Luang Pho Nil Mani shrine inside the ordination hall can be reached at any hour. That makes the temple usable on any day of the week, including the Monday to Thursday stretch when Amphawa's own site lists the market as closed.

An hour is the right budget when the stop sits between the Maeklong railway market and Amphawa. It covers the walk in, the hall itself with shoes off, the shrines and the monument on the open ground, and a few minutes of waiting for the doorway to clear for a photograph. Half an hour is doable, although the queue at the single entrance moves at the speed of people getting their shoes off.

Arrive by mid-afternoon at the latest. Groups that leave the railway market after the 14:30 train tend to land here together, and 16.30 comes round fast once you have spent twenty minutes circling the roots for a clean angle.

Why a temple stands on an old war camp

Dating puts the hall at roughly 1765, the closing years of Ayutthaya, and the land under it was Khai Bang Kung, a camp King Ekathat ordered built while the Burmese were invading. The grounds carry historical standing of their own, tied to the part the Mae Klong people played in the late Ayutthaya and early Thonburi periods, and a monument to King Taksin the Great stands among them.

What survives is the ground rather than the walls, so read the place as a riverside position with a chapel left in the middle of it. Statues of boxers stand among the shrines in the open space around the hall. Most visitors walk that ground first and go inside afterwards, which is the sensible order, since the interior is small, dim and busy with people making offerings.

What to wear and how to shoot inside the root-covered hall

Roots from four kinds of large tree cover the outside of the ordination hall: bodhi, sai banyan, krai and krang. They have grown over the walls and across the roof, so from a few metres away you are looking at timber and leaf with a doorway cut into it. Luang Pho Nil Mani, popularly called Luang Pho Dam, sits inside in the Maravijaya posture, and the hall has a single entrance.

Dress for a working temple before you leave the hotel. Cover shoulders and knees: t-shirts, long trousers, maxi skirts and culottes are all accepted, while uncovered tank tops, spaghetti straps, short shorts, mini skirts and anything see-through are not, and turning up in them can mean renting or buying a cover-up on the spot. Slip-on shoes with a bit of grip earn their place, because shoes come off at the door and go back on in the open.

Photography inside means low light from a single source. Daylight reaches the image through that one doorway, so the interior stays dim even at midday, and people are often kneeling in front of you. Brace the camera or phone against the door frame, accept a slower shutter and leave the flash off, since it carries straight onto the people praying. The roots on the outside of the hall make the better picture anyway.

• Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off at the single entrance
• Slip-ons save minutes when the temple is one stop out of three
• Flash off inside; steady the camera on the door frame instead
• Shoot the exterior roots from the shaded side of the hall
• The shrine in the hall is accessible outside the 08:00 to 16:30 visiting hours

Fitting the temple into an Amphawa afternoon

Plan the day for Friday to Sunday, because those are the days the market at the end of it trades. According to the market's own site those three days run 2 pm to 9 pm, with Monday to Thursday marked closed; one much-copied secondary listing pushes the same days back by an hour at each end, so confirm the hours against your date on arrival.

Trading at the Maeklong Railway Market runs 07:00 to 16:00 every day, yet the awnings lift off the rails only for the four Ban Laem to Mae Klong arrivals, in at roughly 08:30, 11:10, 14:30 and 17:40. Anchor the day on the 11:10 and the rest of it arranges itself: the track lane first, then the temple, then Amphawa as the grilled-seafood boats around the central bridge get going, then the river after dark.

Canal circuits at Amphawa leave from counters by the bridge, a temple tour and an island tour of about an hour each, so a boat-borne temple stop can sit alongside the road one if the afternoon is long enough. Firefly trips are a rainy-season chance, usually May to October, and the display happens in the mangrove fringe along the Mae Klong rather than out in midstream. Sightings are never guaranteed.

Booked days that take in the railway market and Amphawa

Two tours on this site cover the same ground as the itinerary above, which saves you solving the 6.6 km and the 7.2 km yourself. Bangkok: Amphawa Float Market & Maeklong Railway Evening Tour fills 8.5 hours, from THB 1420, and is rated 4.5 ★ (88 reviews); inside the price are an English-speaking guide, an air-conditioned vehicle, bottled water, plus hotel pickup and drop-off if that option is selected. Outside it are meals and the paddle boat at the floating market, listed at THB 150 per person. The group forms up at the MBK Shopping Center G floor entrance, next to The Beef Master restaurant.

The other option, Private Excursion to Maeklong Railway and Floating Markets, compresses the day into 6 to 7 hours, from THB 4100, with a rating of 5.0 ★ (877 reviews). Transport is private, with pickup and drop-off at a Bangkok hotel, though not hotels near the airport or outside the city area. Travelling with you are a licensed English-speaking Thai guide, a private long-tail canal tour of about 20 to 30 minutes, local fruits, desserts and a drink, and accident insurance, which is why the operator asks for every traveller's full name as shown in the passport at booking. A private vehicle is the format that can absorb an extra road stop at 16.00, so ask the operator whether the temple is on the itinerary for your date.

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