Wat Arun from the Tha Tien riverside

Wat Arun stands on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, so in the evening the sun goes down behind it, and the picture is taken from across the river, on the Tha Tien side beside Wat Pho. Two moments follow each other. First the central prang, studded with fragments of porcelain, goes dark against a coloured sky, which suits a silhouette of two people at the water's edge. Then, as the sky turns blue, the temple's lights come on and for a few minutes the prang glows over dark water — the frame most couples come for.

The riverside fills before sunset, so a session starts early enough to take a place at the edge, with boats crossing the frame as a moving foreground. Sunset in Bangkok moves by only about an hour across the year, so the photographer sets the time by the date rather than the season. To photograph the temple itself, the cross-river ferry from Tha Tien takes a few minutes; go in the morning, when the sun is on the east face and the porcelain is lit from the front.

At the temple, shoulders and knees are covered and foreign visitors pay an entrance fee. Thai traditional dress is rented nearby, and the temple rules apply in costume too; since January 2026 the temple has required photographers who work with costume-rental shops to complete its etiquette training, so check that it still applies when you book. Kisses and lifts belong on the riverside, not inside the temple walls.