Seeing the World One Step at a Time Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok = two words: HOT, HUMID. Thats it. When you talk to travelers who have been to Bangkok they always mention those words. You leave for another tropical country which is hot and humid, but you find out its not really that bad until you return to Bangkok and have something to compare its own weather too.
There is absolutely no other city like it in the world; it is so full of life...everywhere. You cannot help but be caught by the hustle and bustle, the crowds and congestion - all day and all night. This is not to be ignored but is to be jumped into full throttle.
This is a city of many things; it is a city of crowds, congested streets, gleaming golden temples called Wats and an ever present ebb and flow of life - all day and all night long. At first glance nothing appears to be static here - 3 wheeled automobiles called Tuk-Tuks weave in and out of traffic, the sidewalks are filled with throngs of moving people and there always seems to be another skyscraper under construction. However, there are some sights that seem to remain the same year after year - calm places like the estate of Jim Thompson, not so calm places such as the famous Wats of Po and Arun, and of course, the Grand Palace.
"Wat Hunting Without Map" is a favorite activity of mine when I am in Bangkok. I visit new streets that I haven't been to before, see new shops, and find new attractions. Every time I go "Wat Hunting Without Map" I become hopelessly and utterly lost! This is fun - I never worry too much - I always carry the handy card map of my hotel in my money belt and I have the name and street memorized in case I do lose the map card.
When I randomly disappear into crowds somewhere on the streets of this huge city it may appear that I am in the middle of nowhere. Usually I am the only visible foreigner in the crowd, no one is speaking English and everything looks, smells and feels "exotic" compared to what I am used to at home. For some reason this is comforting and refreshing to me.
Bangkok is a town of over 8 million. From the center of this metropolis you can look 360 degrees in any direction and all you can see is buildings, some tall, some not so tall.
In general, the Thai people are among some of the nicest and friendliest people that I have met in all of my travels. They have a "way of being" with themselves and with other people that is gentle - not appearing to be angry or mad at the world. I meet many people in Bangkok. In one restaurant I was the only one eating and the hostess invited me to meet her daughter and her sons. We started talking and I didn't leave the restaurant for 3 hours. Weather I have been to Bangkok during parts of 6 different months. It is always incredibly hot (usually in the 90's Farenheight) coupled with humidity that is often in the upper 90's. Either humidity or heat by itself can be somewhat bearable but when you combine both together it becomes stifling, steamy and sweaty. It should be noted the following are places where you can escape this heat and humidity, inside most of the taxis, the major shopping centers, the sky train, inside some museums, restaurants (not all), hotels (not all) and inside the "godsend" that is available on almost every block called 7-Eleven. (well not quite on every block - but almost every one!)
You do want to avoid becoming chilled - this wasn't a big problem but some locations in Bangkok have quite powerful air conditioning units and you might get cold after coming in out of the hot humid weather.
Almost all Thai men wear long pants. This is customary but can be quite warm and irritating for those not used to this weather. However, many of the tourists wear shorts and its acceptable in the big cities if you are a foreigner. (Also most wats require individuals to wear long pants before entering) I recommend light weight cotton type pants with several pockets. Wats You may wonder if all that gold foil you see on statues and in temples in Bangkok is real. Yes, this is real gold ranging in purity from 96.5 to 99.99 percent pure. It is an extremely time consuming process to create gold foil that thin from the original gold bars. Once the gold reaches the stage where it is thin enough to be shipped to the Wats bamboo scissors are used to cut it into small square pieces. Regular scissors are not used because the gold foil sticks to the metal of the blades.
There are hundreds of wats in Bangkok. Some of the ones that I visited on my trips to Bangkok are listed below.
Wat Phra Chetuphon or also called by the name Wat Po is home to the reclining Buddha. This is the oldest and biggest temple in Bangkok - it is quite impressive and well worth your time to visit it. There are colorful temples, tall spires and ornate artwork everywhere! Upon close inspection you will find that the colorful buildings, spires and statutes are decorated with thousands of small pieces of colored glass. Colorful paint is liberally applied to many of the statues. When I visited this wat, the temple that houses the reclining Buddha was under construction. Scaffolding was everywhere, as a result it was quite difficult to get a good view of the entire reclining Buddha. This Buddha was created from concrete and bricks and is covered with a layer of real gold. The feet of the reclining Buddha are quite impressive - they are layered with mother of pearl.
Hundreds of murals on the walls were being painstakingly restored by patient individuals. While there I watched one of the workers work on a mural. It was almost painful to watch - his progress was excruciatingly slow but it was neat to see the restored work compared to the original. Estimated visit time 60 minutes.
Wat Arun , a smallish temple located on the western side of the Chao Praya River, is accessible via ferry boat from Wat Po directly across the river. There are many small local restaurants located along the wood planks that border the edge of this portion of the Chao Praya River. For authentic Thai cuisine you can't beat some of these restaurants.
There are some excellent views of the Grand Palace and of Wat Po from Wat Arun. You will certainly be attracted like a magnet to a refrigerator to the tall tower, called Phra Prang, which is in the center of Wat Arun. This tower is 243 feet tall and is decorated with thousands of little pieces of colorful porcelain. Estimated visit time 45 minutes.
The Royal Grand Palace first started construction on in 1782, is definitely worth seeing. It is open from 8:30am to 3:30pm each day. The palace is bordered by four roads - Mahathat, Thai Wang, Sanam Chai, and Na Phra Lan. Completely surrounded by high walls on all four sides, the Grand Palace encompasses several acres and contains many buildings. It is located next to the Chao Praya River. Being one of the most recognizable landmarks in Bangkok it is easily characterized by its gleaming golden temples, brightly colorful roofs tending to be red and orange and many many tall spires. A couple of things you will want to be aware of: Only persons wearing long pants with closed toed shoes are allowed to enter the Palace grounds. The exception to the closed toe shoed rule are sandals with straps around the heel and women's high heeled shoes (fashion - so its ok). If you do not have on the proper attire, you will be forced (hopefully not physically) to change into the appropriate attire, although I found that these rules do not seem to apply to many of the local men who work in the palace. There is a changing room and shoes and long pants available for use. In order to use this facility and the clothing you need to leave a passport or driver's license with the attendant. When you return the clothing the attendant will return your passport or driver's license.
It is also interesting to note that Thai people can visit the Royal Palace for free. In addition if you are a foreigner and you are with a Thai person this association also grants you free entry. Estimated visit time 120 minutes.
The Royal Museum is located just inside the Viseschaisri Gate. Walk straight past the clothing attendant on your right and in several hundred feet turn left (probably where most of the people are congregated). This is the ticket office. Immediately take a right through an unassuming entrance into the Royal Gold Museum - sometimes you need a ticket sometimes you do not (in any case one of the tickets purchased at the main gate works for this museum). I suspect most tourists fly right by this museum - I never saw this the first time I was at the museum - I wanted to get inside the Royal Palace as quickly as possible.
This museum is well worth visiting - not to mention the air conditioning inside works quite well. The first floor contains gold, silver, bronze and copper coins and other memorabilia for sale. Upstairs is the heart of the museum. Hundreds and hundreds of ornate gold items from the royal family line the display cases. Several tour groups were touring this museum, so one minute a room was quite full of people and then the next minute quite empty. The tour groups seemed to be pushing their tours through quite rapidly, probably in anticipation of seeing the actual palace.
The Royal Museum recently opened a new wing which contains a great collection of coins and other items historically used for money.
Tickets to the Royal Palace are about 200 baht. You will be inspected for the proper clothing at the main gate. Be sure to pick up one of the very informative brochures available in several languages at the gate. This brochure provides a map inside and also describes in detail the history of the buildings and the palace. The Grand Palace was built in 1782 and contains royal residence halls and also government offices.
Aside from the sheer impressiveness of the all the detailed gold and glasswork in the buildings (bring your sunglasses!) you will want to visit the famous Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The Emerald Buddha (inappropriately named because it is actually made out of jade) was first found in the northern province of Chiang Rai in 1434. It was originally covered with plaster and when a priest saw some green coloration through the plaster, he mistakenly thought it was emerald, and the name has stuck through the centuries. The hall that contains this Buddha feels intensely spiritual. The Emerald Buddha is set about 20 or 30 feet above the floor on top of a gold throne. Often this temple will be filled with people on their knees praying towards the Emerald Buddha. You will probably see many flowers, vegetables and other organic items that have been left here. Depending on the time of year (the seasons - cold, warm & wet the Emerald Buddha will be clothed in different golden clothes. The golden clothes not being worn by The Emerald Buddha are found in the Royal Museum located near the ticket gates (museum mentioned above). When the seasons change, the King of Thailand is responsible for removing the "old" clothes and replacing them with the current season's attire. If the King is sick or unable to do this, usually his brother or another member of the Royal Family will change the clothes.
On of the largest buildings in the Royal Grand Palace is the Chakri Maha Prasat Hall (Royal Throne Hall). Notice the European influence in the lower two thirds of this building - it was designed by a European architect in the 1880's. The upper half contains several tall colorful spires. There are some very nice bonsai trees growing in front of this building. In addition you might want to consider taking your photo with one of the Thai Royal Guards standing in front of this building. Sometimes I've even been able to make them smile for the photo but more often then not, no matter what I say, they retain that grim looking expressionless stare. Wat Traimit is home to The Golden Buddha, the world's largest gold statue of a Buddha (about 800 years old). It weighs over 5.5 tons and is quite impressive. If it is crowded you may need to hold up your camera over your head in order to get a decent photograph. This wat is located close to the Hua Lampong Railway Station (the main train station in Bangkok). If you know where to look there are faucets and hoses just off some of the main paths leading into this wat - these are a good source for splashing cold water on one's face and clothes. Also notice the neat trees in which the branches are thin and cordlike and hang almost to the ground level. Several of the vendors have tied some of their goods to the ends of these branches. Be sure to pick up a free brochure which describes the history of this great stature. Other Attractions Bangkok may not be for everyone. The high heat, humidity, congestion and air pollution may be too much to take for some people. There are so many attractions, including Wats, that a tourist could spend several weeks in Bangkok and still not see everything. It is hard to define the allure of Bangkok. At first glance it is a busy chaotic, polluted city - that is true; it is all of these things. However, once one delves into the history, attractions and starts meeting people perceptions may change. I find short visits are the best - 2 to 4 full days at a time. Every time I leave Bangkok and I come back I feel refreshed and ready to see more of this city. There is so much to see that you should not try to see everything at once. Pick out a few of the highlights. If you have a couple of days and you are a first time visitor to Bangkok I recommend seeing at least the Grand Palace, Wat Po, and another attraction or two. Some of the attractions I visited are alphabetically listed below:
Ayuthaya used to be the largest and main city in Thailand before Bangkok. Its located about 90 minutes from Bangkok by bus. It is well worth seeing if you have a day. It takes most of the day to see this city when you count your travel and visiting time. Ayuthaya is a mix of ruins in both a restored and un-restored state. These ruins are not all in one location - as a result you have to take transportation between each of the ruins. You will want to take the bus from the bus station located near the Mo Chit Sky Train stop.
Bayoke Tower II is the tallest building in the Kingdom of Thailand and certainly in Bangkok. It is clearly identified by its circular shape and the large Blue DTAC sign on one side. Sometimes organizations will hang their sign from the side of this building - I've seen a sign for the Thailand Film Association before. It takes three different elevators to reach the top of this building. If you reach the 78th floor and you eat at the International Buffet restaurant you will find place mats that provide you with statistics such as: the pilings under the building run into the ground to the height of 22 stories, there are 1,740 windows in the building, it is 309 meters tall, there are 2,60 steps from the bottom to the top, which will take most people over an hour to climb, and the observation deck rotates a full 360 degrees.
The International Buffet located on the 76th and 78th floors is worth the price and the experience. These floors are literally surrounded by glass windows so you have excellent views of Bangkok from high above. The buffets are all you can eat Sushi, German, & Thai food and sometimes other cuisines. A variety of salads, meats, deserts and fruits are also available. Note that this food is not excellent but average. You are paying more for the views and atmosphere and experience of eating at the top of Thailand's tallest building. As of late 2003 the price is 410 baht per person. However, also note that during holiday season - esp in December this price may double (unless you are Thai - then the price remains lower) The food is located in the center of the floor and covers 3/4 of the way around the floor!
The 84th floor is the Sky Walk Revolving Roof Deck. If you stand in one place and wait about 15 minutes you will have revolved 360 degrees. This is an awesome spot at night to watch the lights of Bangkok. It is also very impressive to stand at the base of this building and look straight up.
Crocodile Farm www.paknam.com/crocodile.html The Giant Swing is located in front of the Wat Suthat Thepwararam . This used to be a swing but now all that is left is a giant teak arch. For more information and photos visit the following web site: Jewelry Shopping - certain parts of Bangkok are well known for their jewelry shopping. In fact Bangkok is home to the world's largest center for the trade of colored gemstones. There are many many jewelry stores - and to the untrained eye, its often difficult to tell the "real" stones from the fake ones.
I've had good experiences shopping at Rama Jewelry Group LTD . I have also heard recommendations about Rama's from professional jewelers who live in the United States. Rama's has been in business since 1960 and they have 2 stores in Bangkok. I have been to both of these stores.
Their Silom Showroom is located at 987 Silom Road opposite the Holiday Inn Crown Plaza Hotel. Phone: 0-2266-8655. Their other store is the Sukhumvit Showroom located at 599/2 Sukhumvit Road opposite the Emporium Shopping Complex (near MBK shopping center).
For more information please visit their website: www.ramajewelry.com
Another very good reputable jewelry store is located in the Conrad Hotel shopping center, called: Sirima by Pattaya and Phuket World Gems . It is run by a Thai woman who makes all the jewelry herself. Located Unit 112 First Floor CRC Tower (Retail Centre) - All Seasons Place 87/2 Wireless Road Lumpini Phone: +66 (02) 685 3839 Phone/Fax:+66 (02) 685 3893
Email: sirima@worldgems.co.th
Website: www.worldgems.co.th A good jewelry store in Bangkok is the Gems and Jewelry Trade Center Co., LTD. I've had several Thai people recommend this store to me when I polled them on the streets of Bangkok including a Dentist and a well dressed business woman literally covered in jewelry!! This store is well-known for their quality of gemstones.
They are located near a large above ground concrete express way on 12 Soi Rong Muang 2 Road, Prathumwan. Their phone number is: (662) 613 9000 - ask for a Mr. Chairat.
I have also shopped at Thai Gems but have never received any recommendations from professional jewelers about this store. They seem to specialize in large quantities of gemstones at low prices. Their Bangkok store was located at 314 - 314 1/3 - 3 Silom Road. The last time through town, I found they had closed their retail store. You can contact them by PHONE: 66 (0) 2236-3840-1 or visit their extensive web site at: www.thaigem.com
One note: about jewelry shopping and transportation. Sometimes a tuk-tuk or taxi driver will offer to take you to a "fancy jewelry store" on the way to your desired destination. Often they will tell you they can give you a better price if they first take you to a jewelry store. In my experience I have found the "jewelry stores" that they take me to of fairly low quality, it is often a great waste of time, and lastly the price offered for the transportation is not that much less than it would have been. Jim Thompson's House - For a place of quiet, calm and relatively clean air (due to the jungle like setting) be sure to visit Jim Thompson's House located at 6 Soi Kasemsan 2, Rama 1 Road. His home isn't impressive like some of the Wats downtown - however it is quite appealing because of its simplicity and the location is clean and quiet. Jim Thompson was an American OSS officer (precursor to today's CIA) and a businessman who moved to Thailand and started a silk manufacturing empire. He mysteriously disappeared in Malaysia in 1967. Speculation as to what caused his disappearance can be found on his website listed below. The tour guides are women - they all dress in purple. I chose the English tour (tours were available in English or Thai) but I thought I was accidentally assigned to the Thai tour. It was very difficult to understand my particular tour guide; most of the other tour guides seemed to have a better grasp of the English language. The tour winds its way through the interior of Mr. Thompson's teak house. There is no air-conditioning here except in one room which contains rare pieces of pottery and other artwork given to him by royalty and other famous personalities. (Charlie Chaplin visited here once!). The tour is informative and highlights many of Mr. Thompson's pieces of art and furniture. The tour ends in Mr. Thompson's personal bedroom. Note the several inch high wood "bumps" in all the doorways. These were originally put in to keep the rats and other animals from being able to walk from room to room. Photographs are not allowed in the house, but are allowed in the small homes outside the main house which you can tour at your own convenience after the main tour.
After the tour you are free to walk around at your own pace in the personal gardens. Note the many pots filled with water - usually covered with lily pads. Upon closer inspection you will note that most of these contain little colorful fish. Watch out for the big fish in a few of the small pots - these tend to be cannibalistic and they will jump at your finger if you put it in the water!
There is a clean well maintained store on the premises that sells replicas of artwork, clothes, and other knick knacks as well as an excellent selection of silk items - the air conditioning is quite good here! Food is also available in a small cafe. If you are taking the Sky Train you will want to get off on the National Stadium Station along the Silom Line.
For more information about Jim Thompson and his house please visit the official Jim Thompson web site: Khao San Road - For a slice of Bangkok that really doesn't seem to feel like Bangkok visit Khao San Road. This road is the backpackers hub for travel in Thailand - made famous by the movie The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio. While here you will get your fill of foreign backpackers, tattoo parlors, massage parlors, hair weaving vendors, shops that will create fake ID's, driver licenses, international driver licenses, press badges and any of numerous other illegitimate licenses, Internet cafe's and other shops that appeal to budget backpackers. For budget travel this is the place to stay in Bangkok. This is also a great place to meet fellow budget travelers.
The main road here is blocked off to outside traffic. In later years there is a good security police presence and some of the riff raff vendors have been relocated elsewhere. At night this road is a glitter of lights.
While here I was interviewed by a team of journalism students from a local university. They were recording opinions that tourists have of Bangkok and of Khao San Road in general. Apparently there is another road near Khao San Road that in their opinion, might become the next Khao San Road.
Near Khao San Road - next to the Phra Athit Pier on the Chao Praya River I happened upon an English lecture by two young guys, Phil & Frank from Ireland. They had an audience of about 30 Thai people of all different ages lined up on the steps. They were teaching people slang English with the help of portable speakers and a white board. The Thai's were listening so intently - hanging on their every word as if it were a formal English lesson. After Phil & Frank finished their dialogue the students had to practice speaking to one another in the slang English. Whats up? Hows it going. How ya doing? It was all quite amusing.Lumpini Park is best visited quite early in the morning - say from 4:30am until 6:30am. The reason for this is that these are the times when the park is usually the busiest. People get up early to run around the road on the inside of the park, to practice their Tai Chi, and other exercises. Often you will see groups of people congregated around a radio or other speakers all unanimously doing their exercises together. One of the more interesting exercises you will is see is a group of people simultaneously yelling quite loud. For "westerners" it may be a bit of an unusual experience to watch this!
MBK is a very large modern shopping center in the heart of Bangkok. It is centrally located next to Siam Square and the National Stadium. There are many modern stores and restaurants located inside this covered shopping center. You can eat at Pizza Hut here as well as Thai fast food restaurants. To experience the most crowds possible visit MBK on a Saturday night! MBK closes around 9:30pm most nights.
The food court is well worth visiting even though the western stereotype about food courts in malls doesn't exactly conjure up images of tasty food. This stereotype is not justified for the MBK food court. Here you can sample authentic delicious Thai food from a variety of vendors. Some of the soups here are just as good if not better than what you will find from a typical street side vendor in Bangkok. If you like fruit shakes be sure to sample some in the food court. There are only one or two vendors that serve shakes, but you can mix and match and come up with an exotic array of fruit to use in your fruit shake. Did I mention the prices for these are under a $1? Nice.
There is one section of MBK - mostly on the 4th floor where there are what seems like hundreds of small cell phone vendors. Its always interesting to walk through here, esp if you are in the market for a cell phone. Scattered about are supposedly "illegal" DVD vendors. Lately they will only display empty cases of DVD movies - and if you buy one, they will tell you to come back in 20 or 30 minutes while they burn it for you. I'm not sure how this really evades the authorities who sometimes frequent MBK.
Some of the cheapest prices for good quality Thai crafts and handi-works in Bangkok are available on the 6th floor of MBK. ALWAYS bargain here - the prices are not set in stone and you will be surprised how much lower you can purchase an item from its original list price. One store I highly recommend for items made out of coconut wood and other Thai ceramics is the Tai Tai shop. Nadia is the owner - she is real great lady and speaks English. As you face the majority of the souvenir shops her shop is in the far back right hand corner. You can't miss it - her store is clearly signed with the name Tai Tai shop.
A large movie theatre is located on the top floor. Usually only major American movies are played here (movies that are already at least 2-3 months old in the USA). A salute to the King is played after about 30 minutes of commercials before the movie. At this point it is appropriate to stand. Good high speed internet access is also available on this floor - on the opposite side of the floor - across the "central open space" that extends up through all the levels in this big mall.
One experience I had in MBK that you should be aware of in case it happens to you anywhere is the following: I was approached by what appeared to be a mother and her child. She spoke passable English and started telling me a story, all the while speaking quite rapidly. Without mentioning all the details of her story, she told me she was robbed of all her money, her passport, credit cards and all of her other important documents. She was unable to contact her embassy to get a new passport and she needed money for a plane trip back home. After listening for 10 minutes she finally pleaded with me to give her money so that she could buy a plane ticket back home. Something about the way she and her daughter acted and looked tipped me off that this might have been a falsified story and that this was a situation of "fabricated begging". I'm not saying that this couldn't have been a real story, but I've heard about people doing this to tourists just to try and get money.
A good central meeting place at MBK is on the silver metal colored bridge connecting the Tokyu Department store and the National Stadium Skytrain stop. This is the "god" of all urban meeting places in BKK and its where Dave and friends usually gather before traveling somewhere else or diving into the bowels of MBK. Be sure to meet near the Tokyu entrance so that you gain full advantage of their great air conditioning spilling out the doors.
Note: Bathrooms at MBK cost 1baht regardless of sex, however the department store Tokyu has their own free bathroom (much nicer than then ones in MBK). A good phrase to learn right off the bat for Thai travel is "hong nam yoo tee nai" which means, Where is the bathroom? Usually pointing will suffice for getting you moving in the right direction and then you can repeat the phrase again if you do not find the bathroom right away. Unlike other Thai phrases which are dependent on the tone of voice you use, in the author's experience this phrase is readily understood by most Thai people.
The National Museum is located near the Chao Praya River only several blocks away from Khao San Road - bordered by the following streets - Mahathat, Phra Chan Road and Na Phra That. This museum is composed of many separate buildings containing Thailand artifacts, works of art, and other treasured items. It is worth visiting if you like museums, viewing historical artifacts, and you are interested in Thai history and culture. Some of the buildings are air conditioned - most are not. There is a small very inexpensive cafe in the center of this museum.
At the ticket office be sure to pick up the "Brief Guide to the National Museum Bangkok" brochure. This is very informative and contains photos, a map and other directions for The National Museum. Note backpacks need to be checked in at the main gate.
There are a lot of historical items contained within each of the buildings at this museum. I saw very few tourists here. If you do visit there are a couple of highlights. Be sure to see the Royal Funeral Chariots contained in building number 17. Some of these very old chariots were used within the last 20 years for royal events. Another highlight for me at this museum was the golden treasure display in building number 11 - the Wayusathan Amares Hall. This used to be the private residence of a the Prince Successor to Rama II. Shoes must be taken off at the bottom of the stairs leading up to this room.
Tickets are 40 baht (general admission) and are free to students in uniform and priests. This museum is open from 9am to 4pm Wednesday through Sunday. They are closed Monday & Tuesday and also on National holidays. For more information call: (02) 224-1370 Pantip Plaza is usually extremely crowded and is located on Petchburi Road just down the street from the Embassy of Indonesia and the First House (not to be confused with The First House Hotel). If you are taking the Sky Train get off at the Ratchathewi Station on the Sukhumvit Line. This center is 5 stories full of computer vendors selling everything from computers, computer components, DVD's, VCD's and other computer hardware. A word of caution: Be sure you know what you are really purchasing before you actually purchase it here. For example some DVD's will not work on in certain computers. Also the Prime Minister Taksin recently cracked down on vendors selling illegal copies of movies, and software - so you may not find these sold here anymore. However when there is such a demand for such items its hard to squelch the flow. You can find many of these illegal items still for sale in the Pat Pong area near all of the strip clubs. I'm sure these items are also for sale in many other areas of Bangkok. Pantip Plaza just happened to be the most well known area for these items.
Also you may run into individuals offering drugs to the "farang" (Thai word for foreigners) in the back of the center on several of the upper floors. They were harmless - all you had to do was so "no" or in Thai, "mai ow." At last check there was only one Internet Cafe in this center - located on the second floor. Internet access was about 30 baht per 1/2 hour.
The Computer Center is also located just down the street from Pantip Plaza and also sells computers and computer accessories.
The Pat Pong District has a wild reputation for risqué sex shows and "after hours" sexual entertainment. There are still many sex shows at night but it is also an evening market - and you will see people from all walks of life here. It is not dangerous - I've seen families with children browsing the night market. The shows are plentiful - the salespeople with their "sexual show cards" will walk up to you and try to get you to see their particular show - these cards list what you will "supposedly" see inside. From a financial standpoint, be careful if you go to one of these shows - the salespeople may tell you the show is free but that you need to purchase a beer once you get inside. A waitress will show up asking for your order and its not until later that you find the cost of the beer to be like $10/beer. It is best to clarify the cost of the beer before ordering.
Rare and Exotic Fresh Fruit - Bangkok and Thailand is a Mecca for rare and exotic fresh fruits. S.E. Asia seems to have a high proportion of the world's rare fruit and if the fruit was originally from another part of the world, chances are it has been imported and also grows in Thailand! I saw and sampled the following fruits in Bangkok; Durian, Logans, Rambutan, Jak fruit, Mango, Green Papaya, Dragon Fruit, Pineapple, Snake Fruit, Leechee Nuts, Watermelon, Custard Apple (Noina in Thai), Mangosteen, Zalacca (snake-fruit), several varieties of Bananas, Guava, and several other fruits that I couldn't identify.
There are some markets in hard to find alleys tucked away in Bangkok that have excellent varieties of fruit. I'm sure some of the vendors thought it was strange to see a westerner shopping solely for fruit! There are several places I found in which there were a lot of fruit vendors; one was along Ratchadamri Road near the World Trade Centre and the other place was along the Chao Phraya River at the numerous pier stations (the pier stations are where the river boats arrive and leave from - there tends to be quite a few fruit/vegetable vendors gathered around these areas).
The Snake Museum (Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute) is located on Thanon Phr Ram IV near Thanon Henri Dunant PHONE: 252 0161. This is a world class research facility - snake venom is used for snake-bite antidotes which is provided for the entire country. Tourists can watch the "milking" of the snakes for venom, slide shows about individual snakes, and there are large snake skins contained in displays (these make for great photo backdrops!). The Snake Museum is open from 8:30am to 11:30am and then again from 1pm to 4pm on weekdays. Feeding time is around 3pm and admission is 80 baht.
Thai Boxing is called Muy Thai and there are two main viewing locations in Bangkok for this sport. Expect to pay somewhere between 200 and 1000 baht per eight fights of which there are 5 rounds each. Never believe anyone but the actual ticket vendors if they try to tell you the performance is sold out.
Sanam Muay Lumphini is located on Thanon Phra Ram IV ner Thanon Sathon Ti - near Lumphini Park. Visit: www.muaythai.com/En/index.shtml for more information or call PHONE: 0-2252-8765
The other location is Sanm Muay Ratchadamnoen is located on Thanon Ratchadamnoen Nok.
The World Trade Center is located just down the street from the Pantip Plaza (see above for more information about this computer shopping center). This complex is an absolute "zoo" during holidays - its a great place to watch the fireworks on New Year's Eve!! In other words, it is a great place for crowds! On the whole, The World Trade Center has a reputation for being a little more fancy than MBK and for having higher prices. Do not buy Thai crafts here - the prices will be more than in MBK.
The Vimanmek Teak Mansion is the world's largest building constructed of teak wood. It is 3 stories and contains 81 rooms. It is worth visiting not only for the ornateness of the construction but also for the art, jewelry, and other royal treasures contained within. English tours are given. Be sure to wear closed toe shoes and pants here. It is located off of Thanon U-Thong. |
