Bangkok, Thailand Travel Guide

By: Michele Ann Jenkins

Arrival
If you arriving by tourist bus chances are they’ll drop you off outside their favorite guest-house on Ko Sarn Road (see below). Arriving by local bus will plunk you down on the outskirts of town where your best bet (especially at night) is a metered taxi. Trains pull into the huge, and surprisingly nice, Hualampong station, right in the middle of downtown. The station has a good tourist office (only listen to the people at the Info desk, anyone walking around offering to help you ‘find’ a hotel or taxi is just a tout).

Most travelers will be flying into the giant Don Muang International Airport about 45 minutes from downtown (4 hours at rush hour). You can change money 24 hours a day and left luggage is around $1/day. In April 2003, the train station at the airport is out of service. The very convenient airport bus runs 3 times an hour from outside both terminals from 6am – 11pm. Buy a ticket (100 baht) at the booth. If you’re going to Ko Sarn Road, you’ll want bus A2 (it’s the 4th stop, just follow the crowd). This is a safe, easy, and relatively quick way to get into town. If you land after 11pm you’ll have to take a taxi. The price into town is fixed, but you don’t need to buy a ticket from the booth in the terminal.

Local Transportation

Local river ferries

Bangkok has a lot to see so the sooner you brave the public transportation system, the better. The first stop should definitely be the Chao Phraya River. Don’t get bullied into buying a ‘tourist pass’ – the local boats are relatively easy to figure out and cost 3-9 baht depending on how far you go. For some reason every map numbers the boat stops differently, so just remember the name. There are about a half dozen different types of boat – express, direct-express, local, express-local-indirect (just kidding), and so on. Usually you can just keep asking for your stop when a boat pulls up and they’ll wave you away or shove you on board. The ride itself is more than worth the price of admission. You can see most of Bangkok’s major sites from the river: the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Po, Wat Arun, as well as Bangkok’s many bridges and waterfront neighborhoods.

Local buses are cheap and crowded and cover every inch of the city. It’ll take some effort to figure out where to get on and off, but learning one or two routes can save a lot of walking or taxi money.

The Bangkok Skytrain deserves a visit simply for the Disneyland space-ageness of it. Built in a desperate effort to ease Bangkok’s insane traffic and pollution, the Sky Train covers most of downtown and is especially convenient for visiting the Siam Square area. There isn’t, unfortunately, a station near Banglampu District (aka the Koh Sarn Road area), but you can take a river ferry to within a few blocks of one of the lines (Tha Sathorn stop, under the Sathorn Bridge).

Finally, what would Bangkok be without the dreaded and beloved tuk-tuks? You’ll know them when you hear them, you’ll hate them when you smell them, these three-wheeled contraptions blaze around Bangkok leaving a black cloud of smog in their wake. For anything more than a 5-10 minute jaunt they really are not worth the price, and the price will usually be 4 or 5 times what it should be anyway. If the rip-off doesn’t bother you then maybe the ecological impact will – these puppies are the main reason locals wear those little cloth face masks. A few days breathing downtown Bangkok “air” and you’ll want to invest in one too.

Accommodations
Thailand may not be as cheap as India or Cambodia, but it sure beats a weekend in New York. A basic single room (we’re talking a cot-in-a-box with a fan) in Bangkok will cost around 150 baht. A room you’d want to actually hang out in (ie: windows, maybe a bathroom, a table, and some space to move around) will be closer to 250 baht. Some guest houses go up to the 400-500 range for hot showers, balcony, an old poster of young monks, etc. The big budget killer is air conditioning. If you absolutely must get out of the heat, you’ll be coughing up at least 800-1000 baht.

Always ask to see the room before taking it. Most rooms will not have bedding, so bring your own sleep sack or sarong. Towels, soaps, toilet paper, etc, are also not provided in basic guest houses. You can usually buy water and toilet paper at the front desk for around 5 baht each.

Outside of the big cities you can find rooms for around 100 baht less than in Bangkok or Chiang Mai. On the islands, the standard accommodation is a bungalow – a free standing hut.

Koh San (aka Khao Sarn or Sahn) Road

Koh San Road

Ko San Road is, technically speaking, a small street about three blocks long located about a block from the Chao Phraya River in Banglampu District northwest of downtown Bangkok. To say it is the “backpacker neighborhood” is like saying you can buy a drink on Bourbon Street or that Ireland has Guinness. Within the Koh San Road area (it started to overflow the original street years ago) you can find over 200 guest-houses, restaurants, bars, tattoo parlors, Internet cafe-bookstore-travel agents and massage/beauty parlors.

On a more practical level there are also pharmacies, money changing booths, ATMs, shoe stores, laundry, and optometrists. Everything a traveler could possibility want or need can be found within a block – need a new strap for a bag? New contact lenses? A visa for China? An international student ID or driver’s license? It’s all here. Everyone is ready and willing to get you where you want to go. Buses depart daily for all corners of South East Asia: the islands in the south (even overnight to Singapore), the border to the North, Phom Phen in 12 hours, Saigon in 18. It’s really that easy.

Now for the downside. Koh San is a pit. A seething, churning pit of backpacker debauch. Foreigners outnumber Thais 10-to-1. Drunk hippies pass out on sidewalks; mangy half-wild dogs fight over street scraps; it smells like rotting Daqueris and congealed beer. And you won’t want to leave. The heat, the booze, the easiness of everything all conspire to keep you from moving more than a block or two in any direction. You meant to leave for Malaysia, but they’re showing that movie at that bar, and oh, tomorrow is 2-4-1 Big Chang beers at this club, and you can always buy that bus ticket later – the travel agency is open 24 hours.

Eventually you have to ask yourself: is this what you came to Asia for? The 24 hour partying? The shopping? Watching hours of bootleg movies while drinking huge $1 beers? OK, maybe that’s exactly what you came for. In which case, welcome home. Otherwise, think of Koh San Road like a corner convenience store: it’s easy, it’s flashy, but you wouldn’t want to live there.

Accommodations and restaurants are hard to recommend, since places spring up and disappear on a monthly basis. Keep in mind that anything on the main drag will be loud and anything with exterior windows will get hot. Try walking a block or two off Koh San proper to find something with a little personality – or at least a little quiet. The street past the police station end of the block has reasonable little bars and restaurants that are starting to spill out onto the sidewalk. The road gets darker and quieter as it wraps around the wat grounds. The post office end also has a few original spots – including a great veggie restaurant and cooking school.

Banglampu Sights
Banglampu is the district around Koh San Road containing most of Bangkok’s “must see” sights. The Grand Palace and Wat Pho are a 20 minute walk from Koh San, but a confusing and hot one if you aren’t familiar with the area. If you decide to take a rickshaw, don’t listen to anyone telling you they are closed for ‘Buddhist holiday’ or only in the afternoon. Both sights are open everyday, pretty much all day (dawn till dusk). It’s worth giving each place a full day since the heat and glare are very wearing and there is a lot to take in.

Chedi at Wat Po

Highlights range from the enormous mural of the Ramayana decorating the exterior wall of the Wat Phraa Kaew (part of the Grand Palace compound) to getting a traditional Thai massage at Wat Pho.

Both Wats are actually series of courtyards full of chedhi towers in gold and broken porcelain and smaller wats containing Buddhas of various poise and size. The largest laying Buddha in Asia at Wat Po is a mind blowing sight. At Wat Phraa Kaew, visitors line up around the building for a chance to walk by the Emerald Buddha with offerings of lilies and incense.

Beyond these two tourist magnets, Banglampu is just an interesting place to walk around. The Banglampu park, just beyond Koh San Road, has a great view of the river and the Japanese-style suspension bridge. The area just beyond the park has a number of small river-front guest-houses which can be an escape from the noise and chaos of Koh San. The Banglampu market is a good place to pick up cheap Thai knock-offs of everything from jeans to Italian sneakers, as well as a few posh Thai silk stores. Food stalls also abound in this area. Just wander around and get good and lost. When you’re done, just ask around for Koh San and people will point the way out.

Downtown/ Siam Square
Downtown Bangkok is a lot more grown up, and dressed up, than the rest of Thailand. Suits and heels replace sarongs and flip-flops, restaurants and bars are air conditioned and expensive, movie theaters have ushers, and the shops are more likely to feature Gap or Versace than hand woven native rugs or bamboo chopsticks.

Siam Square would like to be the Times Square of Bangkok, and it does a pretty good job. The bar and restaurants here cater to upper class Thais, shopping-spree Malaysians, and working ex-pats (as opposed to your usual lay-about ex-pats). If you’re not up for a trip to the Gap or a $3 pink martini, it’s still worth a visit just to see Bangkok-of-the-Future. The four movie theaters in the area are good night out. Less than $4 gets you a few hours in a plush, old fashioned theater house – complete with air conditioning and assigned seats. Hollywood and Asian blockbusters are featured nightly, all with the required standing ovation to the king.

Jim Thompson House is full of silk and mystery as well as a good dose of Thai history. The infamous OSS/CIA operative and father of the modern Thai silk industry had this house assembled from six traditional Thai-style houses. The tour is a little expensive but it’s the only way to see the complex.

Maj at the Grand Palace

Patpong is the place to ogle the freak show of human degradation or just shop for bootleg CDs! You might want to take a deep breath and a few shots before heading into the insanity of Patpong. The throngs of middle age tourists shopping for sarongs and chopsticks just makes the sex shows going on in every open door that much more surreal. Prepare to be harrased in a major way by touts armed with laminated ‘menus’ of acts you can order up. Once inside (or so I’ve been told) you’ll end up spending a ton of money on drinks to watch sad looking barely-teens perform unhygienic acts with various garden-party accessories (lawn darts, ping-pong balls, etc etc). If you simply must take a peek, make sure you know the deal (door charge, drink minimum, and so on) before you get within arm’s reach of the bouncers.

Food
The food alone is really reason enough for a trip to Thailand. Curries, fruit shakes, stir fries, fresh fish made a zillion ways – and that’s just the beginning. Food in Thailand can be as cheap and easy as 20 baht Phad Thai cooked at a street stall or as expensive and complicated as a $100 ten-course meal by a royal chef served in one of Bangkok’s 5 star hotels. Since most backpackers will be sticking closer to the first than the second, it’s one of the great things about Thailand that food from stalls and tiny sidewalk restaurants is usually quite safe. Unlike some Asian countries, travelers should worry more about overeating or too much curry spice than about unclean kitchens and bad food. In fact, street restaurants, where you can see what you’ll get and everything is cooked on the spot (usually in a pool of germ and diet killing vegetable oil) are the safest option.

Vegetarians will have an easier time in Thailand than just about anywhere in the world (except maybe San Francisco). Tofu is a traditional Thai ingredient and they aren’t afraid to mix it up in some non traditional dishes such as omelettes (with or without eggs), submarine sandwiches, and burritos. Since Thai dishes are usually made when ordered, it’s easy to ask for anything on the menu to be made without meat or fish. Bangkok features several fantastic veggie and vegan restaurants, but outside of big cities make sure to check that your idea of “veggie” matches the chef’s.

Money
The Thai currency is the baht. Currently (mid-2003) there are about 40 baht to the US Dollar/Euro. Baht comes in coins and bills ranging from 1 – 1000 baht. The most useful bills are 20s and 100s as many small shops and stalls do not have a lot of change. ATMs can be found all over large cities such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket, but many areas – including smaller islands – won’t have a bank you can withdraw money from so traveler’s checks are essential. Many hotels and guest houses will change money if you are staying there, but expect a hefty commission and unfavorable rate. US dollars in small bills (1s, 5s, and 20s) are great to have if you will be continuing on to other countries such as Laos or Vietnam. Almost anyone in Thailand will take dollars in an emergency (like when you absolutely must buy that CD, for example).

Language
The official language of Thailand is, unsurprisingly, Thai. There are dozens of small linguistics groups in the tribal areas of the north, and a couple of places where Thai speakers are few and far between. Just about anyone involved in the travel industry will speak English – and likely German, French, Italian, and Chinese as well. Thai is a tonal language (think about the difference in your voice when saying “yes.” versus “yes?” – that’s tonal) which can make it tricky for Westerners to learn quickly. Despite this, everyone will appreciate any attempt you do make so pick up a phrase book and give it a go.

Thai script will look like complete gibberish, but most street signs and some shop signs will have Roman transliteration (aka “western alphabet”) as well. The upside is that, when there is Roman script, it will usually be fairly phonetic. For example “Sawadee”, or “hello”, is pronounced just like it looks: sa-wa-dee. The downside is that no one can really agree on how to transcribe some Thai letters that just don’t have a Roman equivalent. So Ko Sarn Road might be written as Ko Sahn or Ko San. Make sure to get a map with both Thai and Roman lettering. This will help locals help you.

Guides
The Rough Guide Bangkok City Guide
The Rough Guide Thailand
South East Asia on a Shoe String
Frommer’s Thailand
Lonely Planet Thailand
Nancy Chandler’s Maps
www.ThaiBlog.com

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Questions?
If you want more information about this area you can email the author or check out our Asia Insiders page.