Thailand forum

Hi,
How long is your BKK stay? There are so many things to see and do...
For an EXCELLENT cooking school (one of the very best... bit pricey though...) The Blue Elephant restaurant does amazing things... Alternately, most guesthouses in tourist areas can assist.
If you want to be close to other travellers and also close to the river and the attractions there (Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, National Museum) then Khao San Rd is good. It has lots of cheap places to stay. But it is a bit of a traveller ghetto and you certainly won't see real BKK or Thailand there. It is good to make travel arrangements and things though.
The other drawback is that it is not on the Skytrain line, so it can be a pain getting around from there. (taxis are cheap, but traffic can be hell)
Alternately, there are guesthouses around the Siam Square area which is very central and right on the Skytrain. This bit of BKK is where all the cool students hang out, plus there is fabulous shopping around there... Siam Square, Discovery Centre, Mahboonkrang (MBK) where there are many many shops and stalls. (I particularly love MBK as it has market stalls where you can bargain plus great normal shops. 7 floors of shopping heaven - also it is airconditioned. Another OK area for staying is along Sukhumvit (on Skytrain also).
SHOPPING MUST!!!! Make sure you are in BKK oover a weekend so you can go to Chatuchak market. (on Skytrain - Mo Chit stop.) It is AMAZING!!!! Hectares of stalls selling everything you could possibly imagine. Including great clothes, cool homewares, fab art, lots of craft things and all sorts of mindblowing things... It is great fun but VERY hectic. Also good shopping can be found every night when the market stalls come to life. (Some are better than others, but it always makes the street life interesting...)
If you want more details let me know - I lived in BKK 3 years and know it pretty well.
Cheers ALISON

Keep posting on the forum...we want to know, too!

:) Manna

Aaak...I have no idea why that posted 3 times. Sorry!

I vote for soi kasem san 1. which is across the street from MBK and next to the skytrain. travelfish has reviews on the hotels on soi kasem san 1. i've stayed at Reno Hotel and Muangphol Mansion. Reno cost 20 euro's for a room without tv and fridge. Muangphol cost 14 euro for room with tv and fridge but has cockroaches. People are friendlier at Muangphol.

Hello,

You can buy anything in Thailand. Cities like Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hat Yai Ko Rat etc.. all have big shopping centres (malls) where you can buy stuff the same quality as in your own contry. Be carfull of the fakes tho. Yes, they do look the same and are a fraction of the price but if you buy cheap, fake t-shirts/shoes/hats etc.. form some where like Patpong market or in MBK they are cheap fake t-shirts and in my experience dont last as long as originals that you will find in the malls like central or 'the mall' (Bang kae, ko rat)

When your in Bangkok check out MBK, Siam centre/Discovery/Paragon and also the smaller 'central ' shopping centres.

Hope this helps.
Ant.

I agree with the last post. The camera's seem to be about the same price as in Europe. Sneakers at the malls are still expensive. example: 100 euro for a pair of Adidas sneakers. I suggest buying fake. They might be of lesser quality but it doesn't matter because you can just buy 3-4 pairs instead of 1 "real" pair.

Oh, also I think you are silly if you worry about real/unreal clothes and such. I brought home SO MANY cool clothes (including 'fake' Tshirts) that are still fine after 2 and a half years. anyway, there are many other clothes around that are more intersting than just Tshirts that are very well made and WAY more intersting (and cheaper) than at home...
Including shoes, my shoes I brought home (many again!) are just fine, but who really minds when they were only 200-400B.
ALISON

If you are wondering about stuff to do in BKk, not shopping related...
MUST SEE: Wat Phra Khaow (Grand Palace), which is very bling bling (in a good way) and has amazing murals about the Ramayana and of course the Emerald Buddha. It is rally interstedsting, and it is even good to get a guide to explain what it all means, although that is not necessary. You have to remember to wear proper clothes tho, no singlet tops, shorts, mini skirts, or flip flops. Sandals with a strap across the back are fine, tshorts are fine, long pants are fine, long skirts are fine. They provide you with proper attire if you forget. Other temples aren't so strict - but it is the holiest place in Thailand, so there you go.
Wat Pho - around the corner from Grand Palace. Has the HUGE reclining Buddha, as well as interesting things to see. It also has a massage school. It is cheaper than the Grand Palace.
Wat Arun - if you go to the river (can walk from Wat Pho) you can take the ferry across to Wat Arun (temple of Dawn) this one is different from the other two - it is ceramic. A nice change and a different view from the other side of the river.
Chatuchak Market- Open at the weekends (although some parts are open all the time) it is immense and has everything you can think of, and way more. just wandering around and getting a little lost is great fun. There are huge sheds, but these can get very hot and stuffy. There is also heaps to see around the outside areas, if you don't want to brave the sheds. You have never seen so many stalls! It is organised into sections, so there are Art places, Buddist artefacts and antiique places, pet places, clothes and tourist places, food stalls all over, There is a fun map by Nancy Chandler to help. You get there on the Skytrain it is at Mo Chit station (can't miss it - follow the hordes of people.
OTHER: National Museum - it has lots of intersting artefacts and is worth a look.
Jim Thompson's house - An interesting collection of traditional Thai houses, plus Jim Thompson found lots of interesting Asian artwork to put in, The garden is also nice. Jim Thompson stores are very pricey though.
River ferry ride - Take the ferry and watch the people along the river. It has a totally different feel to the craziness of the rest of BKK.

Well, that is a good start anyway. It will definitely give you a taste of different things around BKK. I am sure other people can add to my list!
Cheers, ALISON

Hey,
I personally wouldn't stay around Silom... but I don't like the whole sleazy feel to that area. IT is worth a look as a cultural interst thing though, And it can be a bit noisy around there.
That is why I would prefer going around Sukhumvit (not quite as sleazy and a pretty good range of places to stay) Or around Siam Square. That is really central and threefore really easy to get around. Although around the river would be Ok with a different feel... It is just at the end of the Skytrain line, so it takes a little longer to go into other places. Not bad though...
Cheers, ALISON

Hey,
Point taken, I was thinking of the area around patpong... so the other bits of Silom aren't too bad, true... And there are places along Sukhumvit to avoid for sleaze... (Nana springs to mind) Both areas are fairly big though, (sukhumvit is a really long street, as is Silom... )
So I understand your surprise... it really does depend on what smaller soi you are thinking of, I guess,
ALISON

Alison / Grantroger
I don't want thread-jack Yun's questions with a debate on the sleaziness of Bangkok , but I will say that the three areas you mention , Nana Plaza , Patpong and Soi Cowboy are not areas of Bangkok that you just stumble onto .

All these areas you must locate them , and enter them .

And yet it never ceases to amaze me how tourists acting as our moral guardians search out these areas , so they have tut-tutting stories to tell back home .

But of course the reality is , these places are quite tame and sanitized .

If they were really interested in seeing sleaze , then they would only need to take a walk around Lumphini Park at night time .

IMHO

Best Regards
ChangFai

Well, we've now spent 5 days in Bangkok and are leaving tomorrow and I can definitely say a big YES to everything posted here.....

Thank you so much for your info, we've had a fantastic time here in Bangkok. I'm now a confirmed fan of Thailand (Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chiang Kong at least).

I would like to add my own experiences to this thread.

Firstly, accommodation. We stayed in a guesthouse called 'Asha Guesthouse' (you can find it on hostelworld.com). It's run by an English man. It's a 15 minute walk from Saphan Kwai skytrain (north - costs 30 Baht one way into Siam), a 20-30 minute walk to Chatachuk Weekend Market or a 45 Baht taxi ride from the weekend market. It's approximately 140 Baht cab ride into Siam. It's relatively cheap, clean as, friendly as, has excellent food (not as cheap as food stalls, average meal costs 50-60 Baht), a small pool, free internet, tv room and pool table. It's down a small lane, so it's really quiet (except for the dulcit, yet not so soothing sounds crooning from the Karaoke bar nearby). I would definitelyn recommend it, however the beds are a bit hard.

The shopping.....We went to the Chatachuk Weekend Market, MBK, Suan Lum Night Bazaar and the market alongside the 'infamous' Patpong area. My summary of these goes like this: the Weekend Market is a definite must see, but you really need both Saturday and Sunday to get through it - we got lost and found ourselves going around in circles. Now we know what a rabbits warren would be like. The MBK is great - the prices in the 'market-like' shops are comparable to the Weekend Market. Suan Lum Night Bazaar was awesome. Near Lumpini Park, it has a great atmosphere. It's half the size of Chatachuk, but seemingly more organised and clean than the weekend market. It sells the same stuff as Chatachuk and the MBK, but there was a section that sold a lot of better quality household furniture etc. The goods were really quite nice. It also has a fantastic food hall with the best food I tasted and live entertainment (a little cheesy, but cool all the same). We found the cheapest shopping (essentiallly all the same things we saw at the other markets) was at the stalls alongside the Patpong area. True, we were constantly asked if we wanted to see a 'ping pong' show as we walked up and down the stall isles, but it wasn't so sleezy to make the market experience uncomfortable. At all the markets there were obviously so many 'knock-offs' that were cheap as chips, but there were also original goods that were priced equivalent to Aussie prices. Some of the electricals were cheaper however.

Sightseeing......Lumpini Park was mentioned above as being sleezy during the evening. This might be so, but luckily we weren't there during the evening. It is really quite a nice park with heaps of people enjoying the outdoors. There's quite a few areas that have circuit/workout equipment to use, freely open to the public. The reclining Buddha at Wat Po was phenomenal. Being that we've been travelling for 14 months, we've seen our share of amazing things, (including gargantuan Buddha's) but this particular experience is a definite must see. It cost 50 Baht to go inside to see the Buddha, and the wats surrounding it are just beautiful. We also went to the Grand Palace, but unfortunatley were too late. Seeing these two things was really easy. We went to the end of the skytrain (Saphan Taksin), and walked down the stairs straight onto Central Pier. We bought a tourist pass for 100 Baht each which allows you to hop on and off the ferry between 9am and 3pm (be careful of this, we thought we would have at least until early evening). There are heaps of things to see along this trip....you can get off and see quite a few temples and there is also a Barge Museum which apparently is fantastic (couldn't see it, all the barges are out rehearsing for the King's birthday later in the year). Chinatown is also along this route. If you intend to hop on and off during the day, I would say the 100 Baht ticket is good value, otherwise just buy a local ticket, it's definitely cheaper.

In a nutshell, everything that has been mentioned in this thread is entirely accurate. Thank you so much.

Cheers,
Deb

Hey,
i am so glad you had a good time and the information provided was useful! Hooray!
Have fun trying to settle into normal life again after the big trip, that is always the hard part.
ALISON