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In the first of the Thailand series posts, I will focus on the capital – Bangkok. Read on to find out what sights we visited, where we had amazing food and other tips you should take into account for a short, three day visit!
Where to stay in Bangkok
There’s plenty of options to stay in Bangkok – hotels, hostels, Airbnb, etc. What we did was aim for a mid-range hotel for the first few days that we spent in the beginning of the holiday and a high-end one at the end as Bangkok is famous for great luxury-price ratio!
My advice would be to check and book online in advance through agoda.com as I saw the best prices there (but bare in mind that a little service fee is added at the end of the booking process, so prices shown are not final). And don’t be afraid to splurge at least for a night or two, Bangkok offers a lot of great luxury hotels with amazing views of the entire city and great facilities that have great price-value ratio in comparison to other cities around Asia (and probably the world)! We picked Avani+ Riverside for our last night and were super happy about the awesome infinity pool, the great view of the river from our room on the 11th floor as well as the awesome rooftop bar Seen that I recommend to visit even if you’re not a guest of the hotel – the view is just stunning and the cocktails are delicious!
Bangkok districts
As for the location of the accommodation, I referred to this article to assess which area would be best for our needs. Bangkok is pretty huge, so it’s important to pick a hotel that is situated closer to the places you might want to see and to be well connected with public transport (metro mostly) as I wouldn’t want to get by only with Grab, which is not only more expensive but would also be slower due to traffic jams (more on that in the next section of the post below!). So we stayed in Silom (at La Residence Bangkok) for the first few nights which is connected with the Blue line of the MRT to other key locations around the city. The last night before our return flight, we stayed in Riverside (at Avani+ Riverside), which is a district that offers amazing views of the city and the river but is very limited to public transportation options. So it was good that our hotel provided a free shuttle boat to the other side of the river and the MRT stop Saphan Taksin. Another option that was also interesting for me was Sukhumvit as it’s also a pretty modern district with a lot of cool happenings and nice places!
How to get around in Bangkok
Chances are that you will be travelling to Bangkok by plane and it’s important to know how to get to your accommodation from either one of the two main airports (or the other way around).
- Suvarabhumi is the bigger one with mostly international flights and is very well connected with fast public transportation called BTS (Skytrain) and MRT (Metro) that will spare you the overwhelming traffic jams of the city.
- Don Mueang is the other airport that houses both international as well as domestic flights usually operated by low cost airlines. We travelled from/to this airport to Krabi and from Chiang Mai with AirAsia and Thai Lion Air. Unfortunately, neither the BTS nor the MRT are connected to this airport, so if you wanna opt for public transportation you have the option to choose from four different buses (https://www.don-mueang-airport.com/bus.php) (as well as a free shuttle to Suvarabhumi) that can take or drop you from key locations within Bangkok.
We had pretty early flight to Krabi (5:30 in the morning) and since the buses weren’t running, we took a Grab (the equivalent of Uber in Asia). From Silom the fare was about 350 baht, incl. the 50 baht tax for the highway. You also have the option to take a metered taxi, but we personally haven’t used one in neither of the cities we visited in Thailand as Grab served us perfectly!
Overall, within the city we were mostly using the MRT to go around as well as some river boat shuttles and ferries. The MRT and BTS charge by number of stations and it’s important to mention that since they are separate companies, you would have to purchase two different tickets even for a connected journey.
Buying tickets is pretty straight forward – just find a machine, pick English, choose your station and pay in cash only (coins and notes are accepted). As for the fares, both charge by amount of stations in the route – for example Suvarabhumi airport to Phaya Thai will cost you 45 baht.
Sightseeing in Bangkok
We spent 2 full days in Bangkok and decided not to overwhelm ourselves with tourist sightseeing but focus only on the key locations and have some free time to spend wandering around, instead of having a super tight schedule. Take into account that Bangkok is a big city, so travelling from one location to the other can take up some time (especially if you’re stuck in a traffic jam). Here’s what pretty much every visitor covers (and so did we):
The Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaew
Opening hours: 8:30am – 3:30pm (tickets are sold until 3:30pm but you can stay until 4:30pm)
Entrance fee: 500 baht
How to get there: take the MRT BlueLine to Sanam Chai, then walk 10mins
Important: wear respectful attire, otherwise you won’t be permitted inside (covered shoulders and knees); take off your shoes when entering temples
This spectacular complex of buildings and temples used to be the home of the Thai king, the Royal court and the administrative seat of government. Nowadays, it’s mostly used for ceremonial happenings and rituals. Within the Grand Palace’s walls is also the Wat Phra Kaew or The Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which functions as the palladium (protector) of the Kingdom of Thailand. The whole complex has such beautiful aesthetics – gold, colours and mirror details are all around the buildings. My advice would be to definitely visit if you haven’t previously been to a Buddhist temple!
Tip: Keep in mind that this is the most visited sight in Bangkok and therefore expect crowds of tourists. My advise would be to go early, right after they open or just before closing to try to avoid the crowds and actually have a more peaceful visit.
Wat Arun Ratchavararam
Opening hours: 8:30am – 5:30pm
Entrance fee: 50 baht
How to get there: take the MRT BlueLine to Sanam Chai, walk 5mins to Tha Tian pier and catch a ferry to Wat Arun (3 baht); alternatively get the MRT BlueLine to Itsaraphap and walk 10mins
Important: wear respectful attire, otherwise you won’t be permitted inside (covered shoulders and knees); take off your shoes when entering temples
Also known as the Temple of Dawn, named after the Indian God Aruna (God of Dawn), Wat Arun is situated on the Thonburi side of the Chao Phraya River. It has a 70 meter high grand pagoda, which is decorated with small pieces of coloured glass and Chinese porcelain. The detail work is just stunning! Next to the central pagoda, you can find the Ordination Hall, which we felt was much less visited by tourists but nevertheless was strikingly beautiful.
Wat Pho
Opening hours: 8am – 6:30pm
Entrance fee: 100 baht (incl. a bottle of water that you can redeem inside)
How to get there: take the MRT BlueLine to Sanam Chai, walk 5mins or catch the ferry to Tha Tian pier from Wat Arun (3 baht)
Important: wear respectful attire, otherwise you won’t be permitted inside (covered shoulders and knees); take off your shoes when entering temples
This sight houses Bangkok’s largest reclining Buddha and a common ritual at the temple is to donate coins in a long row of metal bowls placed behind the Buddha statue. Don’t worry if you don’t have enough coins – you can loose change inside. The complex outside of the temple is also amazingly beautiful!
For all other top touristy places such as Khao Sao Road, the red light districts with go go girls, ping pong shows, etc. – we decided to skip those as we didn’t have time and weren’t particularly interested. As we stayed in Silom, we walked through the party area there but honestly, it was too crowded with drunk tourists and definitely wasn’t my type of fun. You can try but just be mindful of the scams that come with such places.
Where to eat in Bangkok
Street food culture in Bangkok is everything! Generally, Thai food is amazing and super diverse, so you shouldn’t miss out and aim to try out as many different dishes as you can!
Here’s a list of the places we ate at during our visit:
- Chinatown: a must visit neighbourhood to try out delicious street food. Walk around the crazy busy Yaowarat Road in the evening hours as usually the street food carts and places set up for dinner.
- Boon: a cute little Chinese restaurant, where we ended up having dinner a few times as it was super close to our hotel; try the sweet and sour pork!
- Padthai Saladang: hands down the best and probably cheapest (only 50 baht) pad thai I had in Thailand! The place work until 2pm, so make sure to go for lunch!
- Baan Somtum: a traditional Thai restaurant with a modern twist. If you don’t want to wait for dinner, then make a reservation in advance (we waited about 15mins). Food is super fresh and delicious but if you’re not into spicy – check explicitly with the waiter!
- Nalin Kitchen: small, family-owned Thai restaurant. Food is delicious and portions are big!
- Sutunthip Vegeterian: for all the vegans out there – try this place! The fried tofu was amazing, crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The fresh spring rolls are also great, especially if you are a coriander fan.
There are a lot more places that I had saved but we didn’t quite had the time to get to:
- Sukhumvit Soi 38: street food court/market that had quite good reviews online.
- Rung Reung Pork Noodle: apparently a great place for tom yum
- Gedhawa: restaurant with traditional Thai cuisine
- Ung Jia Huad: authentic Kra Prow rice
- Talad Rot Fai Train Night Market: more delicious street food!!
- Baan Yai Phad Thai: another great place for authentic pad thai
- Soi Silom 20: market where locals go; open until noon, so go in the morning
Tip: Don’t be afraid to try street food, just aim at places that locals are queueing for as that would indicate fresh and authentic food. If you still don’t feel comfortable, then at least try to visit high rated places on TripAdvisor or Google Maps to avoid going to places that don’t serve authentic food. Everything related to food and restaurants in Thailand I learned from www.eatingthaifood.com – highly recommend to check there too!
To sum up, Bangkok is a huge city and it would be impossible to see everything in just 3-4 days. However, trying out the local dishes and flavours is one of my favourite ways to get as close to the culture and the locals’ everyday life as possible. Here’s a map with all places mentioned in the post that you can quickly save in your Google Maps app and access it on your mobile on the go:
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