The Giant Swing

You look, you photograph, you move on. That's the honest shape of a visit to Sao Ching Cha, the scarlet teak frame standing 21 meters over the plaza in front of Wat Suthat. It went up in 1784, two years after Bangkok was founded, for the Triyampawai, a Brahmin ceremony in which men swung in high arcs to grab a bag of coins tied to a pole. Accidents, some fatal, ended the swinging in the mid-1930s. The rite itself carries on quietly inside the Brahmin temple, Bot Phram, a short walk away.

The frame you see is not the original. The pillars have been rebuilt several times, most recently in 2006 with six teak trunks brought from Phrae province, and King Bhumibol rededicated it in 2007. The old timbers are in the National Museum. It's been a registered monument of the Fine Arts Department since 1949.

Don't come for it alone. Wat Suthat sits directly behind it, so do the two together and the trip earns its taxi fare. The swing is free and you can see it at any hour, but it stands on a raised base in the middle of traffic, so it's a thing to look at from the plaza, not to touch. Bamrung Mueang Road, either side of the swing, is lined with shops selling Buddha images and monks' supplies, and Democracy Monument is about 550 m north.