San Chao Hakka Phra Mae Guan Yin

Working shrines like this one aren't sights so much as places you slip into for ten minutes, and that's the right way to treat it. It's Hakka, dedicated to Guan Yin, the goddess of mercy, and it sits on Phlap Phla Chai Road in Pom Prap Sattru Phai, one of the older Chinese quarters in Bangkok. If you've already done Wat Mangkon and the big Teochew and Cantonese temples nearby, the interest here is in the difference: the altar arrangements, the decoration, the smaller and more domestic feel of a diaspora community shrine rather than a landmark.

Go for the incense and the quiet, not for scale. People come to pray, so keep your voice down and don't put a camera in anyone's face. Morning is calmer and the light through the doorway is better. The real pleasure is the walk to and from it, past shophouses and other places of worship packed into a few blocks.