Wat Pho entrance fee will increase by 100% on January 1st

A few years ago, i advised people to go in the late afternoon at the Wat Pho temple in Bangkok to attend the monk chanting at 5 pm. At that time, visitors only paid 50 baht to entry the building with the famous reclining Buddha and could walk freely in the rest of the temple. After an initial 100% increase and the installation of turnstiles at the entrance that transformed the temple into a some amusement park, in 2012, a new 100% increase is planned for 1st January 2015 . The ticket for foreigners visitors will then be at 200 baht.

The Wat Pho entry price will rise to 200 THB in January whih means a 400% increase in 3 years.
Wat Pho is certainly a must see for any visit in Bangkok but turning a religious temple in such a cash cow, raises questions and restarts the old debate of dual pricing visitors Thai / foreign visitors. For Thais, access to the temple is free.

While I can understand it when the entrance fee is 20 or 50 baht, the argument that Thai visitors always donate money to the temple or pay some offerings and at the end it is the price that a foreign pay, I have to say that the average donation is certainly less than 200 baht. And there are foreigners including me who laso donate when they visit a temple.

So let’s  recognize that the only goal is to make money ! Given that 200 THB is only around 5 euros, I am ready to accept it. But it is hard to know what the money is used for. Does it really go to renovate the temple or for charity ?

With the number of foreign visitors that daily enter Wat Po, the temple, with its current rate of 100 THB, earns 500,000 baht a day and so will win 1 million a day from January 1st. So 356 million baht for 2015. And that’s without counting donations !

Anyway, I highly recommend you to visit Wat Po but those who had the opportunity to go there before 2012, will understand why I am nostalgic.