Discover Bangkok : The districts of Bangkok

Rattanakosin (historical centre)

The historical center or Rattanakosin gathers the major monuments of Bangkok of which the famous Grand Palace and Wat Pho, which shelters the quite also famous lying Buddha, but also tens of other temples of less importance. It is this part of the city which is the cradle of the capital, when in 1782, Rama Ier starts the first constructions of fortifications on the Eastern bank of the river, thus becoming the^4th capital of Thailand after Sukhothai, Ayutthaya and Thonburi.

Orientation

. The district is rather well delimited, on the west by the river, on the east by Siam, on the south by Chinatown. Rattanakosin, the historic center, includes in this guide the Dusit district and ends above the zoo. Sanam Luang Square can be considered the center of the district where many ceremonies and festivals take place each year. Associated with the royal image, the historic district was formed around the Grand Palace, which in turn encompasses one of the country's most sacred temples, Wat Phra Kaew.

Transport

. It should be noted that the district is not served by the BTS, nor by the MRT for the moment... You can take the bus (random) or the boat-bus to stop near the historical sites. You will have to walk, take a tuk tuk or a taxi once you arrive to go from one site to another.

Activities. A real pleasure for the eyes, walking in the historic district is above all to discover the oldest buildings of the city. Moreover, the streets are also narrower and more tortuous than in other districts. You can go from one temple to another and thus discover the evolution of the different architectural styles present in the city. You should not forget the museums like the national museum or the national gallery. Finally, the historical center is also composed of the backpackers' district around Khao San Road. The atmosphere is very different and there is a high concentration of bars, restaurants and guesthouses. Young people from all over the world come here to enjoy the cheap prices. What to stay in the district the evening, when the cultural and historical places closed, to make the party and have fun.

Chinatown

Chinatown is located south of Rattanakosin. The first Chinese community was mainly composed of merchants who settled on the site where the Grand Palace now stands. King Rama I, when he decided to create the city, chose this place to build the first fortifications. He therefore asked the Chinese community to move to where Chinatown stands today.
As the Chinese grew, they asked the king in 1902 to build a more important artery, and Yaorawat was born.

Orientation

. Chinatown today 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, there are countless small streets with or without names where it is barely possible to move around, a real labyrinth! Little India is a very small district stuck to Chinatown. It is articulated around the streets Pahurat and Chakrapet, perpendicular between them.

Transportation

. Just like the historic district, Chinatown is very poorly served by public transport. In the south one will find several quays connected to the service of river shuttles which circulate on 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. In the west, one will be able to join Chinatown from the MRT Wat Mangkon and Hua Lamphong stations. For the rest, you'll have to walk, take a taxi, or take buses. The most useful is the 25 which leaves from Phahurat Road, goes through Yaowarat to Hua Lamphong and continues through Siam Square and Sukhumvit to Ekkamai.

Activities. To walk in this district is to make a dive in a whirlwind of flavours, scents and colours. There is a constant hustle and bustle. The Chinese of the district constitute the hard core of the Chinese community, but it should be noted that more than half of the 10 million inhabitants of Bangkok have Chinese origins. Chinatown does not resemble the rest of Bangkok, the Chinese signs replaced those written in Thai, the massage parlours deserted for shops in particular of jewellers or restaurants. The red and gold are the dominant colors and if certain Thai temples are still present, one also finds Chinese temples with decoration and architecture quite different. As far as shopping is concerned, one can find here the most ordinary goods as well as rare and very expensive products, from clothes to jewels, passing by all kinds of food products from the most common to the most incongruous such as the very appreciated swallows' nests or sharks' fins. From the typical small herbalist shop to the gold shops and the seller of copies of luxury watches, the stalls and stalls throw up their goods in the small, barely passable alleys. If you have euros, dollars or Swiss francs left over, the best exchange rates are still in Chinatown. And if you like bike rides, don't hesitate to contact the Co Van Kessel agency, which offers unusual routes, day and night, in the underbelly of Chinatown. An experience worthy of Jack Burton's Adventures in the Clutches of the Mandarin

... Just next door, in Little India, the Indians are more numerous than the Thais here, and you'll see mostly turbaned Sikhs and women in saris (all of them are descendants of immigrants who arrived in Thailand in the middle of the last century). It is a place to buy cheap clothes and colorful fabrics. It is highly recommended to start visiting this part of the city early in the morning to avoid the crowds, traffic jams and heat of the middle of the day which become difficult to bear.

Silom Sathorn

Silom is the business district of Bangkok, as shown by the very modern skyscrapers that house banks and consulting firms... But as everywhere in Bangkok, the towers are next to temples and street stalls. The employees in suits are here all day long before they give way to an intense night activity essentially concentrated in the eastern part of Silom. It is also the district which developed the most these last years in restaurants and bars with the mode. One also finds on Silom of many shops of antiquities, silks and jewels. Sathorn is quieter and its more residential surroundings are home to the heart of the French community. The Alliance Française is located here, and there are elegant restaurants in the perpendicular soi such as Sala Daeng and Convent.

Orientation

. The district includes Silom Avenue which is the main street. Sathorn is another important street that lies to the south of Silom while Surawong lies to the north. The streets join Rama IV Avenue where Lumphini Park lies to the east while the Chao Phraya River ends the district to the west.

Transportation

. The district is well served by public transport, as much by the underground as by the aerial subway. The most central station and the closest to most of the attractions of the district is Sala Daeng. On the west side, the Saphan Taksin stop provides access to the platform to take a river shuttle to the Asian River Front, the largest open-air shopping mall in Southeast Asia. Surasak and Chong Nonsi stations serve as intermediate stops between the two ends of the district. As for the underground metro, you will have to count on the Silom stop, the most central and located near Sala Daeng for a possible connection, then Lumphini near Lumphini Park and finally Sam Yan. By boat, only the access from the Chao Phraya with the Express boat allows to arrive in the district. It will be necessary to count on other transports to join in particular Patpong and its night market. By bus, the n° 15 leaves the historical district at the level of Phra Athit Road, passes by the Grand Palace, Siam Square, Ratchadamri Road and ends in Silom while the n° 4 leaves the Chinese district and Yaowarat to pass by the street Rama IV, Hua Lamphong and Silom.

Activities. The district is less animated in the daytime than in the evening because it has many offices where only Thai workers are busy. In the evening, Silom is of course known for its famous "hot" district, Patpong, essentially made of three soi perpendicular to Silom, Patpong 1, Patpong 2 and Thaniya. Patpong has also become a night market selling a lot of counterfeit goods and still has a large number of girl bars. The place, apart from the market where to buy some souvenirs, can seem rather gloomy and you will not necessarily feel the need to linger; it should however be stressed that Patpong remains an obliged stage of a stay in Bangkok for many tourists; with each traveller to decide. At the western end of these three avenues are concentrated very luxurious hotels bordering the Chao Phraya. In spite of the presence of these hotels, the district remained popular and authentic, and it is rather pleasant to stroll in the small shaded secondary streets while observing the wooden frontages of the old buildings. The main artery Charoen Krung concentrates in this part of the city a great number of salesmen of invaluable stones and antique dealers.

Siam

Central district of Bangkok intercalated between the historical district and Chinatown in the west and the modern and trendy district of Sukhumvit in the east, Siam is undeniably the epicenter of shopping. On a rather small area, there is an astronomical quantity of shopping malls and shops selling luxurious items as well as cheap trinkets. The best example of this is Siam Square, with its series of small streets, some of them underground, selling cheap 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 built in the 1970s. Siam could be squared in the south by the street Rama I which continues in Ploenchit Road and in the north would extend to the Monument of the Victory knowing that most of the malls remain located at the south of Sri Ayutthaya Road.

Transportation

. Only the subway covers this area with the stations National Stadium, Siam, Chitlom but also Ratchadamri and Phaya Thai in the north. Often you don't even have to walk in the street, walkways take you directly from the metro exit to the air-conditioned malls! By boat you can reach the area by taking the Saen Saep Express Boat which follows the Khlong Saen Saep. The closest 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 make a change to continue east to the historic center with a possible stop on this line at Hua Chang near MBK. The boats circulate between 5h30 and 20h30, price between 8 and 20 B according to the distance. By bus, the line 15 passes by the intersection of Ratchaprasong in front of the MBK in direction of the station Hua Lamphong, Chinatown and Yaowarat Road until Tha Chang Pier not far from the Grand Palace. Line 47 leaves from Rama IV Street on Silom, goes up to Phaya Thai Road and ends near Kao San Road at Na Phra Lan Road.

Activities. One finds of all and at all the prices. The choice is immense between the so Frenchy

shops like Vuitton, Hermès, Yves Rocher or L'Occitane en Provence in the posh shopping centres, the chaotic stalls of the MBK to choose shoes among the thousands of pairs at 100 B or a funny accessory for your mobile phone, by making a stopover in the labyrinth of shops of the flamboyant new Central World. It's enough to turn the heads of shopping addicts. Thais and Farangs are crowding in non-stop from the opening to the closing! Once again, one is marked to see cohabiting, at some small distance, this frenzy of consumption and the religious fervour. Thus it is astonishing to find at the angle of Ratchadamri Road and Ploenchit Road, in the middle of the malls, the Erawan Shrine, where an uninterrupted flow of Thais comes to pray and make offerings at any hour. Do not miss to make a detour by this small altar in the open air, very important for the local population which goes there regularly. There is a surprising atmosphere between meditation and agitation. It is also not far from the temples of consumption, next to the National Stadium station, that one can discover a particularly interesting testimony of the Thai architecture by going to the splendid house of Jim Thompson, an impossible to circumvent of Bangkok. Going a little further east, in the soi perpendicular to Ploenchit Road, such as Lang Suan and Ruam Rudee, one enters the upscale residential Bangkok, a mix of beautiful houses, some of which have retained traditional wooden architecture, and high-rise condominiums of ultra-modern housing. There are also plenty of trendy restaurants and bars and superb hotels.

Sukhumvit

This district is appreciated by the expatriates like Thai. Sukhumvit is a mixture of houses and condominiums of various architectures and periods. The more upscale strata seem to have expatriated to quieter areas, Sukhumvit Street remains very lively by day and night with a large concentration of hotels, malls, shops, restaurants and bars of all kinds... It is here that artistic, gastronomic and musical creativity is most expressed.

Orientation

. Sukhumvit is one of the longest streets in the world. In fact, it only stops... at the Cambodian border! Most of the addresses mentioned in this guide are grouped between the BTS stations Ploenchit in the west and Thong Lo in the east. Sukhumvit is international and this is reflected in the choice of restaurants and the people who live there. If Thong Lo and the surroundings of Soi 55 shelter the Japanese community, which has become a very fashionable place, Soi 12 is rather an Indian district, just in front of the Korean, and Soi 3 gathers a vast Arab-Muslim community.

Transportation.

Several stops of the Sky train (Nana and Asok stations), serve Sukhumvit, but only the stop of the underground MRT Sukhumvit stops there. You may not think of it, but it is also possible to get there by boat by taking the Saen Saep Express Boat which follows the Khlong Saen Saep. The two closest stops are Nana Nuea (Sukhumvit soi 3) and Saphan Asok near Phetchaburi station. Boats run between 5.30am and 8.30pm, fares between B8 and B20 depending on the distance. By bus, line 25 leaves from Ekkamai station and goes to Siam Square. This is not the best option as the street is one of the most congested in Bangkok.

Activities. There are trendy shops in this area in the fields of decoration, design, computers and telephony. Architectural complexes were even born, like "H1", "Playground" (both Soi 55), "Terminal 21" (near the station Asok). In this district, bars, restaurants and fashion shops are concentrated. Opposite, on the other hand, at the entrance to Soi 38, a popular market comes to life every evening with its multitude of stalls and strolling restaurants. There is for all the tastes: it is good and not expensive! Sukhumvit is also famous for its Nana and Soi Cow Boy districts, certainly the hottest places (with Patpong) of the city. You will find a multitude of pubs, go-go bars, discotheques, massage clubs..

West shore

The western bank of Bangkok is rather ignored. 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 in Bangkok. Thonburi was briefly the capital of Thailand during the reign of Taksin before the power changed place and settled on the other side of the river.

Orientation

. The district is bounded by the Chao Phraya River and extends to the west. This river barrier also exists in the morphology of the district, much less developed than the Eastern bank: Thonburi is much more traditional and reveals a more "Thai" face of Bangkok.

Transport.

The most practical means to go in this district of Bangkok is the boat. The Chao Phraya Express Boat stops several times on the western bank of the river with stops such as Wang Lang or Phra Pin Klao Bridge to join the museum of the Royal Barges for example. The easiest access by public transport to reach the river is the Saphan Taksin station which joins Sathorn Pier. To visit Wat Arun, you have to stop on the east bank at Tha Tien Pier and take a ferry that just crosses the river (3 B). At the level of the air train, Thonburi has two stops. They are Wong Wian Yai and Krung Thonburi. But these stations are not really interesting for the tourist, because close to any attraction. To discover the district on foot can be difficult, because the signposting is much less good than on the other bank and the streets are very congested. The best thing to do is to take a boat trip through the many khlongs present in this part of the city or to ride a bicycle, with agencies specialized in discovering unusual places in the city such as Co Van Kessel.

Activities. One finds like everywhere in Bangkok several temples of which most known is Wat Arun, some museums of which that of the Royal Barges, but it is especially the district of the khlongs and one comes here especially to survey these channels and to go thus until the first floating markets of the surroundings of the city (Klong Lad Mayom Floating Market, Taling Chan Floating Market or Wat Sai Floating Market).