wowpow
March 26th, 2006, 12:54
Welcome to Krung Thep, City of Angels. And cars and concrete. You're going to need the patience of a saint, but hang on in there, keep smiling like the remarkably chipper locals, and you'll find magnificent sights and wonderful food to occupy your time and your palette.
One of the pleasures of visiting a new city lies in strolling the streets, taking in the atmosphere and building up a mental map. But Bangkok is not a walking city. Unplanned 20th-century growth means most of the city is made of concrete and there's no natural centre - hardly conducive to investigative wandering.
Making use of the public transport is the key to a happy stay.
Essential information
Useful information to help you plan your trip
Language English is usually spoken at major hotels, restaurants and sights, but don't expect easy communication everywhere in Bangkok.
Time difference GMT +7 hours
Dialling code 00662 for UK
Money matters ┬г1 = 68.40 Baht
Day-to-day costs Grand Palace and Dusit Park combined ticket 250 Baht, Joe Louis Puppet Theatre 300 Baht, Thai boxing 1000 Baht.
When to go? The city stays hot all year. November to April are the driest months.
Flight times London-Bangkok 11 hours,Bangkok-Sydney 9 hours.
Getting from the airport Taxi touts will charge you 700 Baht, but it is likely to be cheaper by metered taxi, even taking into account traffic and toll road charges. The trip takes 30 minutes plus, depending on the traffic.
Getting around Take metered taxis rather than tuk-tuks - they're air-conditioned and can't rip you off. Apart from the airport, no trip is likely to cost you much more than 75-100 Baht (again, depending on traffic).
The Skytrain costs 10-40 Baht and the river bus 11 Baht.
Eating You can dine cheaply on delicious fried, curried or grilled food at almost any street corner, and there's no shortage of top-class Thai and international restaurants.
Further reading Lonely Planet Best of Bangkok (2005), ┬г7.99 (ISBN 1740597656), Time Out Bangkok & Beach Escapes (2005), ┬г12.99 (ISBN 1-904978-44-4)
Recommended map Insight FlexiMap, ┬г4.99 (ISBN 981-258-124-3)
Further information Tourism Authority of Thailand, Brook House, 98-99 Jermyn Street, London SW1Y 6EE , Tel 020 7925 2511, www.thaismile.co.uk (http://www.thaismile.co.uk)
We visited at the end of October and beginning of November 2005.
Bangkok : Day 1
Morning
Start with a few hours admiring the lavish Buddhist architecture of the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo (Emerald Buddha Temple). The few accessible palace rooms are closed at weekends so if you have a choice, visit on a weekday. The star of the show is the Emerald Buddha, which is Thailand's holiest icon, dressed in one of three gold costumes for the wet, dry or cool season; the two not being worn will be on show in the palace museum.
Next, move up the road to Wat Pho. Where the buildings of the Grand Palace complex have been resplendently restored, Wat Pho affects a more elegantly dishevelled air. The undoubted highlight is the reclining Buddha - so big they had to finish the building around it. Treat yourself to a rejuvenating, traditional Thai massage at the on-site school, which is a bargain at just under ┬г5 for an hour.
*
Head back towards the Tha Chang Pier, and get your first taste of Bangkok's fresh, fiery street food, or try a riverside caf├й adjacent to the pier if you fancy a sit-down.
Afternoon
You could easily spend your whole first day exploring temples, but we recommend you leave the old town for Jim Thompson House, which is tucked away amid the bedlam of Siam Square's shopping district. American silk magnate Jim Thompson built himself a beautiful traditional wooden Thai home and furnished it with antiques and works of art, before he disappeared without trace one day in 1967, while on holiday in Malaysia.
Evening
The Sukhumvit area is your best bet if you want to go out for a meal. We recommend Basil, a swish modern Thai restaurant at the Sheraton Grand Hotel (Sukhumvit Road, Tel 649 8888, Thai curry 400 Baht) where we enjoyed our meal so much we decided to come back to learn how to cook it (see 'Bangkok : More than 48 hours'). Cabbages and Condoms (Sukhumvit Soi 12, Tel 229 4611, fried crab roll, shrimp and water chestnut 150 Baht) is good for a cheap meal, and raises funds to help combat the spread of HIV/AIDS - your bill comes with a condom rather than an after-dinner mint!
Bangkok : Day 2
Morning
Pass the morning in one of Bangkok's rare green spaces at Dusit Park, which is packed with museums and royal buildings, including the Vimanmek Teak Mansion, built for the king at the start of the 20th century in a mixture of European and Thai styles.
Afternoon
Hopefully you'll be in Bangkok on at least one weekend day for a trip to the organised chaos of the Jatujak weekend market. Here, we sat down to some fresh fried fishcakes, then picked up some US military maps of Thailand and Cambodia. You're sure to find something equally esoteric. A word of warning if you are wandering around - we saw a barrel full of bunnies in the pets section (which also features kittens, puppies, snakes, scorpions in a bucket, baby alligators, turtles, hedgehogs and chameleons).
Evening
The Suan Lum night bazaar is a tad contrived, but there are two contrasting attractions. The Joe Louis Puppet Theatre stages delightful traditional Thai puppetry. When we visited the show was only in Thai, but an English soundtrack is promised soon. Lumpini Stadium provides a less sedate spectacle. Muay Thai boxing is a no-holds-barred martial art where pretty much anything (fists, feet, knees, elbows) goes. The atmosphere gets pretty intense, but there's also a brutal beauty to proceedings.
You could eat in the bazaar or, for something posher, make the short trip to the Silom area and try the Eat Me Art Restaurant for modern fusion food (Soi Phi Phat 2, Tel 238 0931, Tasmanian salmon steak with cabbage and coriander coleslaw 650 Baht).
Bangkok : More than 48 hours
After your visit to Wat Pho, cross the river from Tha Tien to Wat Arun (the Temple of the Dawn), decorated with broken crockery.
At 600 Baht for an hour (after much bargaining), a canal boat tour is expensive by local standards, even if you use one of the operators at Tha Chang Pier (don't touch the private boats). The floating markets (only a small portion actually on the water) aren't as vital as Jatujak, but the boat ride itself is pleasantly breezy and shows off a different side of Bangkok living.
The narrow streets of Chinatown are claustrophobic and choked with human and vehicular traffic. But if you don't mind the crush, it's still worth a wander. Drop in on the world's largest pure gold Buddha at Wat Traimit, (this is undoubtedly a great treasure, but quite small once you've seen the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho).
We were so enamoured with Thai food we decided to take a quick cookery course. At the Basil restaurant (see 'Bangkok : Day 1' for details), one of the chefs will spend the gap between lunch and dinner holding your hand through the preparation of a five-course Thai menu (which is selected the day before). Three hours' private tuition (including a five-course meal) is quite a bargain at 2145 Baht (about ┬г35).
The demonstration at the Red Cross anti-venom institute (the Snake Farm) is not for the faint-hearted. You know the deadly cobras are far enough away that they won't be able to bite you, but it's hard not to feel just a little apprehensive when the handler shows you the space where his finger used to be.
What to avoid
For some reason many tourists seem to think it perfectly reasonable to treat the sex-trade area of Patpong as a tourist sight. Don't - it's distasteful at best, squalid and degrading at worst.
There won't be a gaping hole in your life if you don't make it down the Khao San Road. It's the centre of the global backpacker scene, but really, it's nothing more than a string of bars and market stalls.
The UK Consumers Association
One of the pleasures of visiting a new city lies in strolling the streets, taking in the atmosphere and building up a mental map. But Bangkok is not a walking city. Unplanned 20th-century growth means most of the city is made of concrete and there's no natural centre - hardly conducive to investigative wandering.
Making use of the public transport is the key to a happy stay.
Essential information
Useful information to help you plan your trip
Language English is usually spoken at major hotels, restaurants and sights, but don't expect easy communication everywhere in Bangkok.
Time difference GMT +7 hours
Dialling code 00662 for UK
Money matters ┬г1 = 68.40 Baht
Day-to-day costs Grand Palace and Dusit Park combined ticket 250 Baht, Joe Louis Puppet Theatre 300 Baht, Thai boxing 1000 Baht.
When to go? The city stays hot all year. November to April are the driest months.
Flight times London-Bangkok 11 hours,Bangkok-Sydney 9 hours.
Getting from the airport Taxi touts will charge you 700 Baht, but it is likely to be cheaper by metered taxi, even taking into account traffic and toll road charges. The trip takes 30 minutes plus, depending on the traffic.
Getting around Take metered taxis rather than tuk-tuks - they're air-conditioned and can't rip you off. Apart from the airport, no trip is likely to cost you much more than 75-100 Baht (again, depending on traffic).
The Skytrain costs 10-40 Baht and the river bus 11 Baht.
Eating You can dine cheaply on delicious fried, curried or grilled food at almost any street corner, and there's no shortage of top-class Thai and international restaurants.
Further reading Lonely Planet Best of Bangkok (2005), ┬г7.99 (ISBN 1740597656), Time Out Bangkok & Beach Escapes (2005), ┬г12.99 (ISBN 1-904978-44-4)
Recommended map Insight FlexiMap, ┬г4.99 (ISBN 981-258-124-3)
Further information Tourism Authority of Thailand, Brook House, 98-99 Jermyn Street, London SW1Y 6EE , Tel 020 7925 2511, www.thaismile.co.uk (http://www.thaismile.co.uk)
We visited at the end of October and beginning of November 2005.
Bangkok : Day 1
Morning
Start with a few hours admiring the lavish Buddhist architecture of the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo (Emerald Buddha Temple). The few accessible palace rooms are closed at weekends so if you have a choice, visit on a weekday. The star of the show is the Emerald Buddha, which is Thailand's holiest icon, dressed in one of three gold costumes for the wet, dry or cool season; the two not being worn will be on show in the palace museum.
Next, move up the road to Wat Pho. Where the buildings of the Grand Palace complex have been resplendently restored, Wat Pho affects a more elegantly dishevelled air. The undoubted highlight is the reclining Buddha - so big they had to finish the building around it. Treat yourself to a rejuvenating, traditional Thai massage at the on-site school, which is a bargain at just under ┬г5 for an hour.
*
Head back towards the Tha Chang Pier, and get your first taste of Bangkok's fresh, fiery street food, or try a riverside caf├й adjacent to the pier if you fancy a sit-down.
Afternoon
You could easily spend your whole first day exploring temples, but we recommend you leave the old town for Jim Thompson House, which is tucked away amid the bedlam of Siam Square's shopping district. American silk magnate Jim Thompson built himself a beautiful traditional wooden Thai home and furnished it with antiques and works of art, before he disappeared without trace one day in 1967, while on holiday in Malaysia.
Evening
The Sukhumvit area is your best bet if you want to go out for a meal. We recommend Basil, a swish modern Thai restaurant at the Sheraton Grand Hotel (Sukhumvit Road, Tel 649 8888, Thai curry 400 Baht) where we enjoyed our meal so much we decided to come back to learn how to cook it (see 'Bangkok : More than 48 hours'). Cabbages and Condoms (Sukhumvit Soi 12, Tel 229 4611, fried crab roll, shrimp and water chestnut 150 Baht) is good for a cheap meal, and raises funds to help combat the spread of HIV/AIDS - your bill comes with a condom rather than an after-dinner mint!
Bangkok : Day 2
Morning
Pass the morning in one of Bangkok's rare green spaces at Dusit Park, which is packed with museums and royal buildings, including the Vimanmek Teak Mansion, built for the king at the start of the 20th century in a mixture of European and Thai styles.
Afternoon
Hopefully you'll be in Bangkok on at least one weekend day for a trip to the organised chaos of the Jatujak weekend market. Here, we sat down to some fresh fried fishcakes, then picked up some US military maps of Thailand and Cambodia. You're sure to find something equally esoteric. A word of warning if you are wandering around - we saw a barrel full of bunnies in the pets section (which also features kittens, puppies, snakes, scorpions in a bucket, baby alligators, turtles, hedgehogs and chameleons).
Evening
The Suan Lum night bazaar is a tad contrived, but there are two contrasting attractions. The Joe Louis Puppet Theatre stages delightful traditional Thai puppetry. When we visited the show was only in Thai, but an English soundtrack is promised soon. Lumpini Stadium provides a less sedate spectacle. Muay Thai boxing is a no-holds-barred martial art where pretty much anything (fists, feet, knees, elbows) goes. The atmosphere gets pretty intense, but there's also a brutal beauty to proceedings.
You could eat in the bazaar or, for something posher, make the short trip to the Silom area and try the Eat Me Art Restaurant for modern fusion food (Soi Phi Phat 2, Tel 238 0931, Tasmanian salmon steak with cabbage and coriander coleslaw 650 Baht).
Bangkok : More than 48 hours
After your visit to Wat Pho, cross the river from Tha Tien to Wat Arun (the Temple of the Dawn), decorated with broken crockery.
At 600 Baht for an hour (after much bargaining), a canal boat tour is expensive by local standards, even if you use one of the operators at Tha Chang Pier (don't touch the private boats). The floating markets (only a small portion actually on the water) aren't as vital as Jatujak, but the boat ride itself is pleasantly breezy and shows off a different side of Bangkok living.
The narrow streets of Chinatown are claustrophobic and choked with human and vehicular traffic. But if you don't mind the crush, it's still worth a wander. Drop in on the world's largest pure gold Buddha at Wat Traimit, (this is undoubtedly a great treasure, but quite small once you've seen the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho).
We were so enamoured with Thai food we decided to take a quick cookery course. At the Basil restaurant (see 'Bangkok : Day 1' for details), one of the chefs will spend the gap between lunch and dinner holding your hand through the preparation of a five-course Thai menu (which is selected the day before). Three hours' private tuition (including a five-course meal) is quite a bargain at 2145 Baht (about ┬г35).
The demonstration at the Red Cross anti-venom institute (the Snake Farm) is not for the faint-hearted. You know the deadly cobras are far enough away that they won't be able to bite you, but it's hard not to feel just a little apprehensive when the handler shows you the space where his finger used to be.
What to avoid
For some reason many tourists seem to think it perfectly reasonable to treat the sex-trade area of Patpong as a tourist sight. Don't - it's distasteful at best, squalid and degrading at worst.
There won't be a gaping hole in your life if you don't make it down the Khao San Road. It's the centre of the global backpacker scene, but really, it's nothing more than a string of bars and market stalls.
The UK Consumers Association