| Brief Guide to the Top Ten Things to do in Bangkok |
No holiday or siteseeing trip to Bangkok is complete without a visit to the dazzling royal enclave known as the Grand Palace. Spread over 24 hectares (60 acres), it was once not only the royal residence, but a centre of administration. It includes numerous pavilions and throne halls from a range of eras dating back to the late 18th century - many of them delightful confections of tiered roofs and exuberant finials, glistening with gold-leaf and mosaics of coloured glass.
The Grand Palace was one of the first projects to be constructed when Bangkok was founded by King Rama I in the 1770s, following the destruction of the old capital Ayutthaya by the Burmese a few years before. In the outer section of the palace compound is the magnificently ornate Wat Phra Kaeo (wat means temple; note that Ph in Thai names is actually pronounced like a P, not an F). It is also called the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, after its greatest treasure: a small but much-revered 15th-century statue of the Buddha, in fact made of jade. It is personally dressed by the king at the start of each of the three seasons, to ensure good fortune during that season.
The Thai royal family is viewed with great reverence, and a strict dress code applies to all visitors to the Grand Palace (and indeed to all temples as well): men must wear long trousers and shirts with sleeves, and women must wear long trousers or skirts reaching beneath the knees (or a sarong), and cover their shoulders; sandals are not permitted.
Tickets to the Grand Palace also include entry to the Vimanmek Teak Mansion 3.5 km (2.2 miles) to the north. This old royal palace, built in the early years of the 20th century, is billed as the world's largest teak house: it is a curiosity in itself and, along with a number of other buildings in the compound, forms a museum of royal memorabilia and high-quality Thai crafts. There are also daily exhibitions of Thai dancing here - a mesmerising traditional art form which, one way or another, you should witness at some point during your stay.
www.bangkoktourist.com
www.palaces.thai.net
Close to the Grand Palace is the largest temple in Bangkok: Wat Pho, or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. It is so named because of the huge gold-leaf-covered statue of the Buddha, lying on his side, measuring 46 m (150 ft) long and 15 m (50 ft high). The soles of his colossal feet are intricately inlaid with Buddha images in mother of pearl. Like many Thai temples, this is a complex comprising numerous elaborate shrines, plus pagoda-like 'chedis', and other buildings, all richly decked with sculptures and carved ornament. Wat Pho is also famous as a school of traditional healing, and this is the place to come for a serious traditional massage, which - it should be noted - is more invigorating than relaxing.
Set in a beautiful traditional building of tiered roofs and gilded eaves, the National Museum is a treasure house of historical artefacts, and provides an excellent introduction to Thailand's rich and distinctive cultural heritage. It contains items from all ages of Thailand's past, from Neolithic times onwards. A splendidly varied collection that includes ancient religious sculpture, royal funeral chariots, Buddha images, musical instruments, puppets, masks and textiles, as well as several beautifully preserved examples of traditional Thai architecture in the form of whole pavilions and shrines
Jim Thompson (1906-?1967) was an American designer and businessman who came to Thailand when serving in the US army at the end of the Second World War. Single-handedly, he revived Thailand's flagging silk industry, creating a brand that is famous to this day for its high quality and felicitous design. His love for Thailand, and the traditions of its culture, is expressed in his home - a complex of six beautiful historic teak buildings, set in a lush garden, and filled with precious antiques, and arts and crafts, from all over East Asia.
In 1967 Jim Thompson disappeared in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia, an unsolved mystery that may relate to his connection with the US intelligence services. Now his house is open to the public as a museum, an oasis of profound charm. Jim Thompson silk goods are available at the museum shop.
Preserved in the verdant grounds of the Siam Society (off the Sukhumvit Road, close to the Asok Skytrain station), the Kamthieng House is a large 160-year-old teak dwelling from the north of Thailand. Although superficially similar to Jim Thompson's House, it offers by contrast an insight into traditional rural life in Thailand, and contains a delightful museum of ethnological artefacts, such as rice-harvesting tools, fish traps, pottery, textiles, musical instruments and furniture.
Life in Bangkok is intense, busy, crowded and traffic-dominated. For a slightly different take on the same theme, go to Chinatown (just to the south-east of Wat Po). It is home to Bangkok's large Chinese population, who have preserved their lifestyle, customs and food in their own enclave. Here you'll find a magical concentration of shops of all kinds: restaurants, teashops, jewellers, tailors, herbal pharmacies, and much more, spilling out onto the narrow streets in a blaze of colour.
Close by is Wat Traimit, also known as the 'Temple of the Golden Buddha'. Its main claim to fame is the large statue of the seated Buddha, 3 m (10 ft) high and made of solid gold and weighing 5.5 tonnes. Said to date from the 13th century, when the Thai capital was in Sukhothai, it was moved to Ayutthaya when that became the capital. To protect it from Burmese invaders, the precious statue was coated in plaster to make it look ordinary, and so it remained, and its true nature forgotten. In the 1950s, when the statue was moved to Wat Traimit, the plaster cracked, revealing the priceless interior.
Shopping in Bangkok is a delight - so many enticing products, such good prices. You could come home with any number treasures: ceramics, clothes and accessories, carved wooden tableware and furniture, jewellery, food specialities. There are thousands of shops in Bangkok, as well as modern malls and departments stores, but for the real Thai experience go to one of the markets, such as the atmospheric Suan Lum night market.
The Chatuchak Weekend Market (Saturdays and Sundays) is colossal, selling everything from 'designer' sunglasses and clothes to antiques and exotic foods and pets. Chatuchak gets crowded and hot, so it's best to go early (around 9:30 am), when you are fresh and in a good mood to bargain.
Bangkok was built on marshland on both sides of its broad, snaking river, the Chao Phraya. In the early days, a network of canals (klongs) was devised to drain the marshland, and to provide the main thoroughfares. People lived along the canals in houses built on stilts. On the east side of the river (Krungthep), the main part of the modern city, these canals have been largely paved over as roads. On the west side of the river (Thonburi) many of these canals still exist. You can visit this fascinating floating world in a long-tailed boat (narrow boats with a long propeller shaft at the back); rides are available from many of the hotels that line the east bank of the Chao Phraya.
On the trip, you can also stop at the picturesque Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), which overlooks the river from the west bank. Its impressive 79 m (260 ft) tower, or 'prang', representing the mythical Mount Meru (the centre of the Universe), and the many tiered chedis, is ingeniously decorated with thousands of pieces of glinting pottery dishes, said to have come from ballast used by ships sailing from China. Also on the river is the Royal Barges Museum, a collection of eight large and fabulously ornamented boats used in ceremonies on the river.
For a vivid glimpse of the kind of energetic passion that drives Thailand, go to a Muay Thai fight - a contest of professional kick-boxing. It's worth witnessing this national sport, not just for what goes on in the ring - but to watch what goes on around it, enlivened by frantic betting. There are two main stadiums: Lumpini Stadium (Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays), and Ratchadamnoen Stadium (Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays).
www.muaythaionline.net/features/thaistadiums.html
Thai cooking ranks very high among the great cuisines of the world. The delicate mixtures of exotic flavours - lemon grass, coriander, cardamom, ginger (or galingale), coconut milk, nam pla (fish sauce: an intense, watery flavouring based on anchovies), kaffir lime leaves, chilli paste, fragrant rice - cast a spell like no other. Dishes can be mild and soothing, or stonkingly chilli-hot. One of many key, unmissable dishes is tom yum goong, a soup of prawns cooked in stock with lemon grass - served alongside main dishes. Other classics include red and green curries, various stir-fried noodle dishes, and shredded beef salad. You can sample this food in just about any restaurant in Bangkok, including some of the food courts in the modern shopping malls. With the reassurance that the freshness of the ingredients and searing hot stir-frying are vital to the cooking, if you are feeling more adventurous you can also eat in the market stalls - top cuisine at astonishingly low prices.
Warning: Missing argument 2 for guidefooterdivs(), called in /home/www/default/briefguides/content/bangkok.php on line 55 and defined in /home/www/default/briefguides/content/guidefunctions.php on line 219
Comments on this brief guide would be welcome. Also, please let us know if you do put in a link to this guide from your website and we will try to reciprocate with a link from us to your site.
Copyright: these pages are protected by copyright and reproduction of this material is strictly prohibited. Copyright belongs to Giant Games Limited, owner of the briefguides.co.uk and onlineshopping.co.uk websites.
© 1997-2006 Giant Games Limited, but you are welcome to have a link to this webpage.