Bangkok

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Set astride the majestic, churning Chao Phraya River, the Thai capital Bangkok represents all that is good and bad about an Asian megalopolis. Loved or loathed, it's a city with everything for some and nothing for others, and a place that almost every visitor to Thailand will find themselves in at some stage.

For many travellers, Bangkok, or Krungthep to most Thais (Krungthep mahanakhon amonratanakosin mahintara ayuthaya mahadilok, popnopharat ratchathani burirom ubonratchaniwet mahasathan amonpiman avatansathit sakkathattiya witsanukamprasit to those who like to refer to places by their full name), is anything but charming on first impressions. Spend some time here however, peeling back its multitude of layers, and you may well grow to enjoy this fascinating city.

Yes, it's dirty and heavily polluted, and the traffic remains appalling despite two mass transit systems opening over the last few years. Glistening skyscrapers perpetually darken wooden slums and squats, while sparkling new Mercedes dodge food carts being pushed along the slow lane. Bangkok is a city of have and have-nots and the contrast can be alarming.

But the City of Angels harbours enough sights and experiences to keep travellers occupied for months, with one of the best ways to grasp its splendour to simply wander through its colourful streets, where the pedestrian takes second place to the thousands of taxis, buses, motorbikes, tuk tuks, bicycles and private cars clogging the streets.

Many find it exhilarating, for rare are the quiet moments and rarer still are the moments when you fail to feel utterly alive. Prepare to dive into marvellous aromas drifting from food stalls interspersed with wafts of stinking canals and belching car exhausts.

Bangkok has an excellent range of hotels and guesthouses. The Chao Phraya's banks are home to two of the best hotels in the world, the Oriental Hotel and the Peninsula Hotel, as well as many other five-star luxury spots, while the backpacker quarter of Khao San Road is overflowing with budget guesthouses and hostels.

Bangkok's shopping is renowned and you'll find yourself with an overflowing backpack if you spend any time at all in the many malls or markets. While the malls here become ever more salubrious and high-end (you will feel downright grotty in some no matter how you dress up), markets remain places to snag bargains, either various knock-off items or original local designer goods that can be incredibly creative.

And when you're totally exhausted, in Bangkok you're in good hands: quite possibly, the world's best. Whether you drop into a shopfront foot massage place for an hour-long session of bliss or you go upmarket and book yourself into a spa for the works -- think manicure, pedicure, body scrub, facial, four-hand massage -- you'll get value for money and service that has a growing global reputation.

So do give Bangkok a decent chance. Don't let the smog and crowds distract you from what can be an invigorating and sometimes charming city.

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Feature of the month

Bangkok reviews

Backchat from the Travelfish community

Taling Chan Floating Market and Orchid Farm
By SBE (dabbler - 2 reviews)
Written on 29th June, 2009 after a visit to Bangkok in ,
A visit to the weekend floating market at Taling Chan combined with a boat trip to a orchid farm makes a very pleasant escape from the noise and pollution of Bangkok for a few hours. The boat trip in particular is worth doing ... it's quite an eye-opener to discover all that clean air, rural countryside and lack of traffic noise so close to Central Bangkok!

The Taling Chan weekend market is a small but colourful floating food market which still retains a certain degree of authenticity. Entrance to the market is free and you don't get hassled by touts. The pedestrian-only road leading to the floating market itself looks like a miniature version of Chatuchak with stalls selling everything from live terrapins to Buddha images and flowers.

At the floating market itself, there's a large open air floating restaurant where people can sit and eat a wide range of freshly cooked Thai food bought from any of the numerous small wooden boats moored next to it.

Taling Chan is also the starting point for canal boat tours to an orchid farm which takes you past traditional wooden Thai houses, temples, orchards and the even the odd monitor lizard, allowing you glimpses of an older, slower way of life. The tour lasts about 90 minutes and includes a couple of stops at temples as well as a visit to the orchid farm which boasts some very beautiful and unusual orchid species. Plantaholics can buy plants there for very cheap prices too.

It's best to do the boat tour early to avoid the crowds and the heat. The first trip starts about 9.30am and gets you back in time for lunch at the market. Not many foreign tourists go to Taling Chan but it's very popular with Thai people and gets busier as the morning wears on. Most of the Thai visitors come here for the food so you may have difficulty finding a place to sit on the floating restaurant at lunchtime!

How to reach Taling Chan

The market is open 08:00 - 17:00 on Saturdays and Sundays only.

You can get there very cheaply from central Bangkok by taking a #79 air-con bus. The journey time is usually under an hour though this depends on traffic of course. The bus route is convenient for most of the main tourist areas in Bangkok.

An information booth at Taling Chan has the departure schedule for the boat tours and sells tickets. The orchid farm trip costs 90B (adults) and 50B (children). On Sundays only there is also a longer three hour canal tour starting at around 13:00 which includes a visit to a snake farm. This trip costs 150B (adults) and 60B (children).

There's some great pics of Taling Cham on SBE's flickr site here.

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