3 perfect days in Bangkok

Morning9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Best light: The first hour after it opens, before the aisles fill and while the light still reaches down between the tarpaulins — by noon it is a crowd in a tunnel

Afternoon2:00 – 4:30 PM

Best light: Late morning, when the light comes through the garden onto the dark teak — the interiors are dim and the contrast between the shaded verandas and the green outside is the shot

Afternoon2:00 – 4:30 PM

Best light: After dark, when the Chinese and Thai neon signs are all lit over the traffic — this is a night street and photographs of it in daylight are of a traffic jam

Evening8:30 PM · after dark

Best light: The hour before sunset from the top terrace, looking west over the old city towards the river — and just after, when the stupa is lit and the city switches on beneath it

Morning9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Best light: Early morning, before the Grand Palace crowd walks down — and late afternoon, when the chedi field goes warm and half of it is in shadow

Afternoon2:00 – 4:30 PM

Best light: The first entry of the morning, at half past eight — the gold takes low light beautifully and the compound is genuinely walkable before the coaches arrive around ten