Rattanakosin (historical centre)
The historic center, or Rattanakosin, is home to Bangkok's major monuments, including the famous Grand Palace and Wat Pho, home to the equally famous Reclining Buddha, as well as dozens of other smaller temples. This part of the city was the birthplace of the capital when, in 1782, Rama I began building the first fortifications on the eastern bank of the river, thus becoming Thailand's4th capital after Sukhothai, Ayutthaya and Thonburi.
Orientation. The district is fairly well defined, with the river to the west, Siam to the east and Chinatown to the south. Rattanakosin, the historic center, includes the Dusit district in this guide and ends above the zoo. Sanam Luang Square can be considered the center of the district, where numerous ceremonies and festivals take place every year. Associated with the royal image, the historic district was formed around the Grand Palace, which itself encompasses one of the country's most sacred temples, Wat Phra Kaew.
Transport. It should be noted that the district is currently served neither by the BTS nor by the MRT... That leaves the (random) bus or the boat-bus to stop close to the historic sites. However, once you're there, you'll have to get from one site to another on foot, by tuk-tuk or by cab.
Activities. A real feast for the eyes, a stroll through the historic district is above all a chance to discover the city's oldest buildings. The streets are also narrower and more winding than in other districts. You can move from one temple to the next, discovering the evolution of the city's different architectural styles. Museums such as the National Museum and the National Gallery are also worth a visit. Last but not least, the historic center also includes the backpacker district around Khao San Road. Here, the atmosphere changes dramatically, with a high concentration of bars, restaurants and guesthouses. Young people from all over the world come here to take advantage of the cheap prices. It's a good place to stay in the evening, when the cultural and historical sites have closed, to party and have fun.
Chinatown
Chinatown is located to the south of Rattanakosin. The first Chinese community consisted mainly of merchants who settled on the site where the Grand Palace now stands. When King Rama I decided to create the city, he chose this spot to build the first fortifications. He therefore asked the Chinese community to move to where Chinatown stands today.
As the city grew, the Chinese asked the king in 1902 to build a larger thoroughfare, and Yaorawat was born.
Orientation. Today, Chinatown is built around this artery. The heart of Chinatown is organized around this street and two other almost parallel streets: Charoen Krung Road and Sampeng Lane (Soi Wanit 1). Between these three streets are innumerable small arteries, with or without names, where it's barely possible to get around - a real labyrinth! Little India is a very small district, right next to Chinatown. It's built around Pahurat and Chakrapet streets, which run perpendicular to each other.
Transportation. Like the historic district, Chinatown is very poorly served by public transport. To the south, there are several wharves connected to the river shuttle service that runs on the Chao Phraya. The most accessible are Rachawongse and Si Phraya. There are also Memorial Bridge, Rachini and Marine Department stops, which are not served by all boats. To the west, Chinatown can be reached from Wat Mangkon and Hua Lamphong MRT stations. For the rest, you'll have to get around on foot, by cab or by bus. The most useful is number 25, which departs from Phahurat Road, runs through Yaowarat to Hua Lamphong and continues through Siam Square and Sukhumvit to Ekkamai.
Activities. A stroll through this district is like diving into a whirlpool of flavors, scents and colors. There's always something going on. The district's Chinese are the hard core of the Chinese community, but it's worth noting that more than half of Bangkok's 10 million inhabitants have Chinese origins. Chinatown bears no resemblance to the rest of Bangkok: Chinese signs have replaced those written in Thai, and massage parlors have given way to jewelry stores and restaurants. Red and gold are the dominant colors, and while some Thai temples are still present, there are also Chinese temples with very different decoration and architecture. When it comes to shopping, here you'll find the most ordinary goods as well as rare and very expensive ones, from clothes to jewelry and all kinds of foodstuffs from the most common to the most incongruous, such as the much-loved swallows' nests or sharks' fins. From the typical little herbalist's shop to the gold shop and the seller of copies of luxury watches, the stalls and stalls vomit their wares into the narrow, barely passable aisles. If you've got any euros, dollars or Swiss francs left over, Chinatown still offers the best exchange rates. And if you like bike rides, don't hesitate to contact the Co Van Kessel agency, which offers unusual routes, day and night, through the underbelly of Chinatown. An experience worthy of Jack Burton's Adventures in the Clutches of the Mandarin...
Right next door, in Little India, Indians outnumber Thais here, and you'll come across mostly turbaned Sikhs and women in saris (all descendants of immigrants who arrived in Thailand in the middle of the last century). It's a great place to buy cheap clothes and colorful fabrics. We strongly advise you to start visiting this part of the city early in the morning to avoid the crowds, traffic jams and mid-day heat, which become difficult to bear.
Silom Sathorn
Silom is Bangkok's business district, as evidenced by the ultra-modern skyscrapers housing banks and consulting firms... But as everywhere else in Bangkok, the towers stand next to temples and street stalls. This is where you'll find employees in suits all day long, before they give way to an intense nightlife concentrated mainly in the eastern part of Silom. This is also the district that has seen the most growth in trendy restaurants and bars in recent years. Silom is also home to numerous antique, silk and jewelry stores. Sathorn is quieter, and its more residential outskirts are home to the heart of the French community. The Alliance française is located here, and elegant restaurants can be found in the perpendicular sois such as Sala Daeng and Convent.
Directions. The district includes Silom Avenue, the main thoroughfare. Sathorn is another major street to the south of Silom, while Surawong extends to the north. The streets join Avenue Rama IV, where Lumphini Park extends to the east, while the Chao Phraya River ends the district to the west.
Transportation. The district is well served by public transport, both overground and underground. The most central station, and closest to most of the district's attractions, is Sala Daeng. On the west side, the Saphan Taksin stop provides access to the platform for a river shuttle to Asiatique River Front, Southeast Asia's largest open-air shopping mall. Surasak and Chong Nonsi stations serve as intermediate stops between the two ends of the district. As for the subway metro, you'll need to rely on the Silom stop, the most central and located very close to Sala Daeng, for a possible connection, then Lumphini, very close to Lumphini Park, and finally Sam Yan.
By boat, you can only reach the district by taking the Express Boat from the Chao Phraya. You'll then have to rely on other means of transport to reach Patpong and its night market. By bus, no. 15 departs from the historic district at Phra Athit Road, passing through the Grand Palais, Siam Square, Ratchadamri Road and ending at Silom, while no. 4 departs from Chinatown and Yaowarat, passing through Rama IV Street, Hua Lamphong and Silom.
Activities. The district is less lively during the day than in the evening, as it has many offices where only Thai workers are busy. In the evening, Silom is of course best known for its famous "red-light" district, Patpong, essentially made up of three soi perpendicular to Silom, Patpong 1, Patpong 2 and Thaniya. Now a night market selling many counterfeit goods, Patpong is still home to a large number of girlie bars. Apart from the market where you can buy a few souvenirs, the place may seem rather gloomy and you won't necessarily feel the need to linger; it's worth pointing out, however, that Patpong remains an obligatory stopover during a stay in Bangkok for many tourists; it's up to each traveller to decide. At the western end of these three avenues, you'll find a concentration of luxury hotels on the banks of the Chao Phraya. Despite the presence of these hotels, the district has remained popular and authentic, and it's quite pleasant to stroll along the shady side streets, observing the wooden facades of the old buildings. The main thoroughfare, Charoen Krung, is home to a large number of gemstone sellers and antique dealers.
Siam
Bangkok's central district, sandwiched between the historic Chinatown to the west and the modern, trendy Sukhumvit district to the east, Siam is undeniably the epicenter of shopping. An astronomical number of shopping malls and boutiques selling everything from luxury goods to cheap trinkets are concentrated in a relatively small area. The best example of this is Siam Square, with its series of small streets, some of them underground, selling inexpensive clothes and fashion accessories, opposite the ostentatiously luxurious Siam Paragon, Siam Center and Siam Discovery malls.
Orientation. This area of Bangkok is relatively new, and most of the buildings here were only constructed in the 1970s. Siam could be gridded to the south by Rama I Street, which continues into Ploenchit Road, and to the north as far as the Victory Monument, bearing in mind that most of the malls remain south of Sri Ayutthaya Road.
Transportation. Only the aerial metro covers this area, with National Stadium, Siam and Chitlom stations, as well as Ratchadamri and Phaya Thai to the north. In many cases, you don't even have to walk down the street: walkways take you straight from the metro exit to the air-conditioned malls! By boat, you can reach the district by taking the Saen Saep Express Boat, which follows the Khlong Saen Saep. The nearest stops are Witthayu (at the corner of Wireless Road), Chit Lom near Central Chidlom and Pratu Nam near Central World and Panthip Plaza, the terminus where you can change to continue east towards the historic center, with a possible stop on this line at Hua Chang near MBK. Boats run between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m., with fares ranging from B8 to B20, depending on distance. By bus, line 15 runs from the Ratchaprasong intersection in front of MBK towards Hua Lamphong station, Chinatown and Yaowarat Road to Tha Chang Pier, not far from the Grand Palace. Line 47 runs from Rama IV Street on Silom, up to Phaya Thaï Road and ends not far from Kao San Road at Na Phra Lan Road.
Activities. You'll find everything at every price point. The choice is immense, from Frenchy boutiques like Vuitton, Hermès, Yves Rocher or L'Occitane en Provence in the posh shopping malls, to the chaotic stalls of MBK, where you can choose shoes from thousands of pairs at 100 B or a fun accessory for your cell phone, with a stopover in the labyrinth of stores at the brand-new Central World. Enough to turn the heads of shopping addicts. Thais and Farangs flock here non-stop from opening to closing! Once again, it's striking to see this frenzy of consumerism and religious fervour cohabiting at some distance.
So it's surprising to find the Erawan Shrine on the corner of Ratchadamri Road and Ploenchit Road, right in the middle of the malls, where an endless stream of Thais come to pray and make offerings at all hours. Be sure to make a detour to this small open-air shrine, which is very important to the local population who visit it regularly. The atmosphere here is surprisingly balanced between contemplation and bustle. Not far from the consumer temples, next to the National Stadium station, you can discover a particularly interesting example of Thai architecture by visiting Jim Thompson's magnificent house, a must-see in Bangkok. A little further east, in the soi perpendicular to Ploenchit Road, such as Lang Suan and Ruam Rudee, you enter upmarket residential Bangkok, a mix of attractive houses, some with traditional wooden architecture, and ultra-modern high-rise condominiums. There are also a host of trendy restaurants and bars, as well as superb hotels.
Sukhumvit
This district is popular with expatriates and Thais alike. Sukhumvit is a mix of houses and condominiums of various architectural styles and periods. The more upscale strata seem to have moved to quieter areas, but Sukhumvit Street remains very lively day and night, with a high concentration of hotels, malls, stalls, restaurants and bars of all kinds... It's here that artistic, gastronomic and musical creativity find their greatest expression.
Directions. An extension of Rama I Street from Siam Square, Sukhumvit is one of the longest streets in the world. In fact, it only ends... at the Cambodian border! Most of the addresses in this guide are grouped between the Ploenchit BTS station to the west and Thong Lo to the east. Sukhumvit is international, and this is reflected not only in its choice of restaurants, but also in the people who live there. While Thong Lo and the area around Soi 55 are home to the Japanese community, which has become a very fashionable spot, Soi 12 is more of an Indian quarter, just across from the Korean, and Soi 3 brings together a large Arab-Muslim community.
Transport. Several Skytrain stops (Nana and Asok stations) serve Sukhumvit, but only the MRT Sukhumvit underground metro stops here. You might not think of it, but you can also reach Sukhumvit by boat on the Saen Saep Express Boat, which follows the Khlong Saen Saep. The two nearest stops are Nana Nuea (Sukhumvit soi 3) and Saphan Asok, not far from Phetchaburi station. Boats run between 5.30 a.m. and 8.30 p.m., and cost between B8 and B20 depending on distance. By bus, line 25 runs from Ekkamai station to Siam Square. This is not the best option, as the street is one of Bangkok's most congested.
Activities. In this district, you'll find cutting-edge stores in the fields of decoration, design, IT and telephony. Architectural complexes have even sprung up, such as "H1", "Playground" (both Soi 55) and "Terminal 21" (near Asok station). Bars, restaurants and fashion boutiques are all concentrated in this district. Opposite, on the other hand, at the entrance to Soi 38, a popular market comes alive every evening with its multitude of stalls and strolling restaurants. There's something for everyone: it's good and cheap! Sukhumvit is also famous for its Nana and Soi Cow Boy districts, certainly the hottest spots (along with Patpong) in town. You'll find a multitude of pubs, go-go bars, discotheques, massage clubs..
West shore
Bangkok's west bank is rather unknown. Most tourists only go there to visit the famous Wat Arun on the bank of the Chao Phraya, and quickly return to the east bank to continue their wanderings around Bangkok. Thonburi was briefly the capital of Thailand during the reign of Taksin, before power shifted to the other side of the river.
Orientation. The district is bounded by the Chao Phraya River and stretches westwards. This river barrier is also reflected in the morphology of the district, which is much less developed than the east bank: Thonburi is much more traditional and reveals a more "Thai" face of Bangkok.
Transport. The most convenient way to get to this part of Bangkok is by boat. The Chao Phraya Express Boat stops several times on the west bank of the river, with stops such as Wang Lang or Phra Pin Klao Bridge to reach the Royal Barges Museum, for example. The easiest way to reach the river by public transport is from Saphan Taksin station, which connects with Sathorn Pier. To visit Wat Arun, stop at the Tha Tien Pier stop on the east bank and take a ferry that just crosses the river (3 B). Thonburi has two air train stops. These are Wong Wian Yai and Krung Thonburi. But these stations aren't really interesting for tourists, as they're not very close to any attractions. Exploring the area on foot can be difficult, as the signage is much worse than on the other side of the river and the streets are very crowded. The best option is to take a boat trip through the many khlongs in this part of the city, or to explore it by bicycle, with agencies such as Co Van Kessel, which specialize in discovering the city's unusual places.
Activities. Like everywhere else in Bangkok, there are several temples, the most famous of which is Wat Arun, and a number of museums, including the Royal Barges Museum. But this is above all the khlong district, and people come here above all to walk the canals and visit the first floating markets in the city's surroundings (Klong Lad Mayom Floating Market, Taling Chan Floating Market and Wat Sai Floating Market).
