Erawan Museum

The Erawan Museum is one of the most striking buildings around Bangkok and a perfect half-day for families and the curious. Rising from a garden in Samut Prakan, just south-east of the city, is a gigantic statue of Erawan, the three-headed elephant ridden by the god Indra in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, standing on a domed pavilion that houses the museum. It was created by Lek Viriyaphant, the collector behind the Ancient City and the Sanctuary of Truth, to hold his collection of antiques and to express a cosmology in architecture. The building is arranged in three levels that represent the three worlds. The ground floor is the underworld, the realm of the nagas, and displays the collection: Chinese porcelain, Benjarong ceramics, jade, and antique Buddhist objects. The middle level is the human world, and it is the one that makes people gasp: a soaring rotunda with a pair of ornate spiral staircases, walls of intricate stucco and metalwork, and a vast stained-glass ceiling depicting the world, with the Western zodiac woven in, mixing Eastern and Western symbolism in a way that is wonderfully over the top. From there, a narrow spiral staircase climbs inside the elephant itself to the heaven level, a dim, hushed chamber in the elephant's belly representing Tavatimsa, the heaven of the thirty-three gods, where ancient Buddha images sit among painted walls. The gardens around the building are full of sculptures, lotus ponds and shrines where locals come to pray for luck. The museum is open daily from 9am to 7pm; the foreigner ticket is 700 baht, double the Thai price, and the BTS Chang Erawan station, on the Sukhumvit line extension, is named after it. Some visitors find the price steep for a visit of an hour or two, but the human-world hall is genuinely spectacular.

Making the most of a visit: allow around ninety minutes. Walk the gardens first, which are photogenic and full of detail, then enter through the underworld galleries, and save the most time for the central hall, where it is worth standing still and looking up for several minutes: the stained-glass ceiling, the staircases and the pillars carved with figures from different religions reward patience. The climb to the heaven level is narrow and steep, so take care with small children and anyone uneasy with tight spaces, and expect a short queue at busy times. This is a place of worship as well as a museum, so cover shoulders and knees, remove shoes where asked, and keep voices low in the upper chamber. Photography rules vary between floors; follow the signs.

Getting there: the BTS Sukhumvit line runs out to Chang Erawan station, and the museum is a short walk or quick taxi from there, roughly forty-five minutes to an hour from Siam depending on connections. That makes it one of the easiest out-of-centre attractions to reach without a tour. Combine it with the Ancient City, further along the same line and built by the same founder: a morning at the Erawan Museum and an afternoon cycling around the Ancient City make an excellent day, and Tiqets offers a bundle ticket covering both. Food options at the museum are limited, so eat before you arrive or plan lunch near the Ancient City.

Who it suits: families, because a giant elephant you can climb inside is irresistible to children; architecture and design lovers, for the extraordinary central hall; and travellers who have seen the big temples and want something stranger. It is less essential than the Grand Palace or Wat Pho for a short first visit, and the price is high relative to the time spent, but on a second or third trip, or with children in tow, it is one of the most memorable things to do around Bangkok.