Wat Samphran Dragon Temple Bangkok: the pink tower in Nakhon Pathom

The pink tower and the dragon wrapped around it

The main structure is a cylinder of 17 storeys, 80 metres high, painted pink, with a dragon wound around it from the base to the roofline. Walk to the far side of the grounds and look up: the dragon's body is thick enough to hold a staircase inside.

That staircase is the point for most visitors. The dragon is hollow and the spiral stair inside can be climbed, though it has deteriorated to poor condition in places, so expect uneven treads, an enclosed shaft and very little room to pass anyone coming down. A visitor account reports that the door to the upper floors stays closed on weekdays and that nuns open it at weekends, with a donation requested before you go up. That comes from a single visitor report, with nothing posted at the temple. Ask at the temple when you arrive, and build a day that still works if the door turns out to be shut.

At the top there is a shrine and an open walkway where the dragon's head rises above the parapet. The land west of Bangkok is flat orchard and canal country with nothing tall nearby, so the view runs a long way and the city skyline sits low on the horizon.

Down at ground level there are large Buddha images to walk between and a turtle pond, which most people find on the way back to the car park. The grounds are compact and level, so the stop is short unless you climb.

Daily hours at the dragon temple and the time the climb needs

Opening is 6am to 6pm, every day. Registered as a temple in 1985, it works as one, with a resident community and grounds in daily use.

Counting the drive out and back, a visit takes about half a day. The grounds themselves do not need long; the climb, and the wait to find out whether the upper door is open, are what stretch the stop. If the staircase is what you came for, go at a weekend, and go early in the morning while the shaft is still cool and the stairs are empty.

The hours leave two sensible slots. Arriving close to 6am gives you the grounds almost to yourself and the softest light on the pink exterior. The last hour before the 6pm close is the other good window, with the tower lit from the side rather than from overhead.

How to visit Wat Samphran from Bangkok

The temple is in Amphoe Sam Phran, Nakhon Pathom province, around 40 kilometres west of Bangkok, and 30 to 45 minutes from the centre of the city by car. That drive time assumes a clear run, which the western exits out of Bangkok rarely give you between about 7am and 9am.

Direction matters as much as distance. Nakhon Pathom sits on the same side of the city as the long haul southwest to Damnoen Saduak and the short hop to the markets on Bangkok's western edge, so the temple falls on a line you are already driving. Phra Pathom Chedi, also in Nakhon Pathom, is 52.9 km from Bangkok and about 46 minutes of driving, and it keeps longer hours, 7:00am to 8:00pm daily.

Plan Wat Samphran as an add-on to a day already heading west out of the city. Half a day of travel for one building is a thin return; add a market and a meal, and the trip earns its place.

What to wear and leave on your feet

Thai temple dress applies: shoulders and knees covered. A t-shirt with long trousers gets you through the gate, and so do maxi skirts and culottes. What will not get you in is a tank top or spaghetti straps worn uncovered, short shorts, a mini skirt or anything see-through, and arriving in them can mean renting or buying a cover-up at the temple before you are allowed inside.

Shoes come off before you enter temple halls, so slip-ons save time across a day with more than one stop. Thin, light trousers are the compromise worth making if your morning starts on an open boat at a market and your afternoon ends inside a shrine.

• Shoulders and knees covered, the same code enforced at any Thai temple on a market itinerary
• A t-shirt with long trousers, a maxi skirt or culottes will all do for the climb
• Short shorts, mini skirts, see-through fabrics and uncovered tank tops will stop you at the door
• Footwear you can step out of quickly, since shoes stay outside temple halls
• A cover-up may have to be rented or bought on site if you fail the code

Photographing the tower

The pink cylinder reacts badly to midday sun. Overhead light flattens the dragon's coils into one bright band and burns out the paint, which is why the first hours after the 6am opening and the last hour before 6pm repay the drive. Side light picks out the scales.

The whole 80 metres will not fit in a frame from close to the base. Walk back across the grounds, shoot from the far corners, and use the Buddha images and the pond edge as foreground if you want the height to read. Inside the dragon the stair is an enclosed shaft with low light and no room to step back, so a phone held at arm's length is about the limit.

Season decides the sky. Between 3 May and 28 October the chance of a wet day in Bangkok runs above 36 percent, and September averages 8.6 inches of rain across about 20 wet days, which means flat grey cloud behind the tower as often as not. December averages 0.9 wet days, so the dry months are when you get a clean background and hard shadows on the coils.

Pairing the temple with a market morning

The temple's 6am to 6pm span is wide enough to sit either side of a market, and the market should set the clock. Damnoen Saduak lies 80 to 100 km southwest of Bangkok, 1.5 to 2 hours by road, with the useful part of its morning running roughly 07:00 to 09:30, so on that day the temple belongs on the drive home. Add the railway market and the temple has to fit around a timetable: trading there runs 07:00 to 16:00 daily, but the awnings only lift four times, for trains reaching Mae Klong at roughly 08:30, 11:10, 14:30 and 17:40.

A weekend visit is easier to plan around. Bangkok's own two markets are both trading: Khlong Lat Mayom from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, a quarter of an hour from Bang Wa BTS, and Taling Chan on weekends only, roughly 08:30 to 16:00, with live Thai music between 11:00 and 14:00. Both sit on Bangkok's western edge, both are short drives, and both wrap up early enough to leave the afternoon open. A weekend is also when the dragon stair is reported to be open.

Amphawa works differently. Its own site lists Friday to Sunday, 2 pm to 9 pm, closed Monday to Thursday, so the morning is free for the temple before you drive on. Check the hours against your date: a widely copied secondary listing gives an hour later at each end.

Two tours on this site run west out of Bangkok in the same direction. One is Bangkok: Floating Market and Train Market Experience, 8.5 hours long, from THB 792 and rated 4.9 ★ (3750 reviews); a train ticket, a boat ride, an air-conditioned vehicle and a licensed English-speaking guide come with it. The other, Private Excursion to Maeklong Railway and Floating Markets, keeps to 6 to 7 hours, from THB 4100 and rated 5.0 ★ (877 reviews), and puts you in your own vehicle from a Bangkok hotel with a licensed English-speaking Thai guide and a private long-tail canal tour of about 20 to 30 minutes. The dragon temple is not listed among the stops on either, so plan it as its own short run on a different half-day.

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