Sights in Bangkok
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Chatuchak Weekend Market
Among the largest markets in the world, Chatuchak Weekend Market seems to unite everything buyable, from used vintage sneakers to baby squirrels. JJ, as it’s also known, is the ideal place to finally pick up those gifts for people back home, not to mention a pretty item or two for your own home. The market is roughly divided into thematic sections, the best guide to these being Nancy Chandler’s Map of Bangkok. Because Chatuchak is a Thai institution, food also plays a significant role, and there are numerous drinks and snack vendors, and several good restaurants on the outside edges of the market. Plan to spend a full day, as there’s plenty to see, do and buy. But…
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Bangkok Art & Culture Centre (BACC)
This large, modern building in the centre of Bangkok is the most recent and promising addition to the city’s arts scene. To date, the compound’s three floors and 3000 sq metres of gallery space have played host to several high-quality exhibitions, but bureaucratic setbacks have delayed the library and art-related shops and restaurants slated for the rest of the structure.
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Wat Arun
Striking Wat Arun commands a martial pose as the third point in the holy trinity (along with Wat Phra Kaew and Wat Pho) of Bangkok's early history. After the fall of Ayuthaya, King Taksin ceremoniously clinched control here on the site of a local shrine (formerly known as Wat Jaeng) and established a royal palace and a temple to house the Emerald Buddha. The temple was renamed after the Indian god of dawn (Aruna) and in honour of the literal and symbolic founding of a new Ayuthaya.
It wasn't until the capital and the Emerald Buddha were moved to Bangkok that Wat Arun received its most prominent characteristic: the 82m-high prang (Khmer-style tower). The tower's…
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Or Tor Kor Market
Or Tor Kor is Bangkok’s highest-quality fruit and agricultural market, and sights such as toddler-sized mangoes and dozens of pots full of curries amount to culinary trainspotting. The vast majority of vendors’ goods are takeaway only, but a small food court and a few informal restaurants exist, including Rot Det, which does tasty stir-fries and curries, and Sut Jai Kai Yaang, just south of the market, which does spicy northeastern-style Thai.
To get here, take the MRT to Kampheng Phet station and exit on the side opposite Chatuchak (the exit says ‘Marketing Organization for Farmers’).
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Victory Monument
This obelisk monument was built by the then military government in 1941 to commemorate a 1940 campaign against the French in Laos. Today the monument is primarily a landmark for observing the social universe of local university students and countless commuters. It’s worth exploring the neighbourhood around Victory Monument, which is reminiscent of provincial Thai towns, if not exactly hicksville. It's also something of a transport hub, with minivans to Ko Samet, Kanchanaburi and Ayuthaya stopping here, and there's a useful BTS stop.
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Baan Krua
This canal-side neighbourhood is one of Bangkok’s oldest communities. It dates back to the turbulent years at the end of the 18th century, when Cham Muslims from Cambodia and Vietnam fought on the side of the new Thai king and were rewarded with this plot of land east of the new capital. The immigrants brought their silk-weaving traditions with them, and the community grew when the residents built Khlong Saen Saeb to better connect them to the river.
The 1950s and ’60s were boom years for Baan Krua after Jim Thompson hired the weavers and began exporting their silks across the globe. The last 40 years, however, haven’t been so good. Silk production was moved elsewhere…
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Wat Pho
You'll find (slightly) fewer tourists here than at Wat Phra Kaew, but Wat Pho is our personal fave among Bangkok's biggest temples. In fact, the compound incorporates a host of superlatives: the largest reclining Buddha, the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand and the country's earliest centre for public education.
Almost too big for its shelter, the genuinely impressive Reclining Buddha, 46m long and 15m high, illustrates the passing of the Buddha into nirvana (ie the Buddha's death). The figure is modelled out of plaster around a brick core and finished in gold leaf. Mother-of-pearl inlay ornaments the feet, displaying 108 different auspicious lák·sà·nà…
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Thewet Flower Market
Thewet shelters Thewet Flower Market, a popular flower market.
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Jim Thompson's House
In 1959, 12 years after he discovered the fine silks being woven across the klorng in Baan Krua and single-handedly turned Thai silk into a hugely successful export business, American Jim Thompson bought this piece of land on Khlong Saen Saeb and built himself a house. It wasn’t, however, any old house. Thompson’s love of all things Thai saw him buy six traditional wooden homes and reconstruct them in this jungle-like garden. Some of the homes were brought from the old royal capital of Ayuthaya; others were pulled down and floated across the klorng from Baan Krua – including the first building you enter on the tour. Beware well-dressed touts in soi near the Thompson…
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Benjakiti Park
This 130-rai (20.8-hectare) park is built on what was once a part of the Tobacco Monopoly, a vast, Crown-owned expanse of low-rise factories and warehouses. There’s an artificial lake that's good for jogging and cycling (bikes can be hired) around its 2km track.
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Wat Benchamabophit
Inside and out, this temple is one of the most unusual, and most extravagant, in the kingdom. Built at the turn of the century on the orders of Rama V, the bòht (chapel) is made of white Carrara marble (hence its alternative name, ‘Marble Temple’) imported from Italy especially for the job. This structure is a prime example of modern Thai temple architecture, as is the interior design, which melds Thai motifs with European influences: the red carpets, the gold-on-white motifs painted repetitively on the walls, the walls painted like stained-glass windows and the royal blue wall behind the central Buddha image are strongly reminiscent of a European palace. It's not all…
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Sri Mariamman Temple
Arrestingly flamboyant, Sri Mariamman is a Hindu temple that is a wild collision of colours, shapes and deities. The official Thai name of the temple is Wat Phra Si Maha Umathewi, but sometimes it is shortened to its colloquial name Wat Khaek – kàak being a common expression for people of Indian descent. The literal translation is ‘guest’, an obvious euphemism for any group of people not particularly wanted as permanent residents; hence most Indian Thais don’t appreciate the term.
The temple was built in the 1860s by Tamil immigrants and features a 6m facade of intertwined, full-colour Hindu deities. While most of the people working in the temple hail from the…
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Bang Kwang & Khlong Prem Prisons
Thailand’s permissive reputation is juxtaposed by strict antidrug laws that often land foreign nationals in a prison system with feudal conditions. A sobering and charitable expedition is to visit an inmate, bringing them news of the outside, basic supplies and reading materials. The regulations for visits are quite involved and require pre-arrival research. You must dress respectfully (long sleeves and long pants), bring your passport for registration purposes, and have the name and building number of the inmate you plan to visit. Inmate information can be obtained from most embassies. Visiting hours and days vary depending on the building the inmate is housed in. Male…
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Siam Society & Ban Kamthieng
Stepping off cacophonous Soi Asoke and into the Siam Society’s Ban Kamthieng house museum is as close to a northern Thai village as you’ll come in Bangkok. Ban Kamthieng is a traditional 19th-century home that was located on the banks of Mae Ping in Chiang Mai. Now relocated to Bangkok, the house presents the daily customs and spiritual beliefs of the Lanna tradition. Communicating all the hard facts as well as any sterile museum (with detailed English signage and engaging video installations), Ban Kamthieng instils in the visitor a sense of place, from the attached rice granary and handmade tools to the wooden loom and woven silks. You can’t escape the noise of Bangkok…
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Vimanmek Teak Mansion
The highlight of the Dusit Park is Vimanmek Teak Mansion said to be the world’s largest golden teak mansion, built with nary a single nail. For all its finery, grand staircases, octagonal rooms and lattice walls, which are nothing short of magnificent, it is surprisingly serene and intimate. The mansion was originally constructed on Ko Si Chang in 1868 as a retreat for Rama V; the king had it moved to its present site in 1901. For the following few years it served as Rama V’s primary residence, with the 81 rooms accommodating his enormous extended family. The interior of the mansion contains various personal effects of the king and a treasure-trove of early Ratanakosin…
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Dusit Zoo
Originally a private botanic garden for Rama V, Dusit Zoo (Suan Sat Dusit or kŏw din) was opened in 1938 and is now one of the premier zoological facilities in Southeast Asia. That, however, doesn’t mean that all the animal enclosures are up to modern zoological standards, with one endlessly pacing tiger being particularly heart-rending. Squeezed into the 19 hectares are more than 300 mammals, 200 reptiles and 800 birds, including relatively rare indigenous species. The shady grounds feature trees labelled in English, plus a lake in the centre with paddle boats for rent.
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Thanon Maharat
The northern stretch of this street is one of Bangkok’s most interesting. On the opposite side of Wat Mahathat’s whitewashed walls, the street is monopolised by ancient Thai industries: herbal apothecaries and amulet dealers. In the cool season, medicinal bowls of ginger-infused broth are sold from steaming cauldrons to stave off winter colds (yes, seriously!). Outdoor displays of pill bottles are lined up and dusted daily like prized antiques. Each remedy bears a picture of a stoic healer, a marketing pitch that puts a human face on the medicine. Further along, the amulet market (đalàht prá krêuang) spills out of its medieval warren into the street, forcing…
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Mahakan Fort
The area around white-washed Mahakan Fort, one of two surviving citadels that defended the old walled city, has recently been converted into a small park overlooking Khlong Ong Ang. The octagonal fort is a picturesque, if brief and hot, stop en route to Golden Mount, but the neighbouring village is more interesting. This small community of wooden houses has been here for more than 100 years. But since the mid-1990s it has fought the Bangkok municipal government’s plan to demolish it and create a ‘tourist’ park. The community blocked progress and even proposed the development of another tourist attraction: a lí·gair museum honouring the dance tradition that traces…
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Bangkok Doll Factory & Museum
This workshop was founded by Khunying Tongkorn Chandavimol in 1956 after she completed a doll-making course while living in Japan. Upon her return to Thailand, she began researching and making dolls, drawing from Thai mythology and historical periods. Today her personal collection includes 400 dolls from around the world, plus important pieces from her own workshop, where you can watch the figures being crafted by hand.
The museum is rather tricky to find; take a taxi from BTS Phaya Thai and get the driver to call the museum for directions.
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Royal Barges National Museum
Every foreign country has its famous religious monuments and museums, but how many have their own fleet of royal boats on display? The royal barges were once used daily by the royal family to get about their realm, but are now used only for grand ceremonies. They are not barges like those wide, lumbering vessels you’ll see hauling sand and produce up and down Mae Nam Chao Phraya. These barges are slender like their mainstream cousins, the long-tail boats, and fantastically ornamented with religious symbolism. The largest is more than 45m long and requires a rowing crew of 50 men, plus seven umbrella bearers, two helmsmen and two navigators, as well as a flag bearer,…
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Rama V Memorial
A bronze figure of a military-garbed leader may seem like an unlikely shrine, but Bangkokians are flexible in their expression of religious devotion. Most importantly, the figure is no forgotten general – this is Rama V, who is widely credited for steering the country into the modern age and for preserving Thailand’s independence from European colonialism. He is also considered a champion of the common people for his abolition of slavery and corvée (the requirement that every citizen be available for state labour when called). The statue is also the site of a huge celebration on 23 October, the anniversary of the monarch’s death.
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Thailand Creative & Design Center
The Thailand Creative & Design Center is a government-backed initiative that acts as both showroom and shop for Thai design. Rotating exhibitions feature profiles of international products and retrospectives of regional handicrafts and creativity. The centre includes a permanent library of design-related books and materials and is a good place to meet young Thai designers and students; the adjoining cafe has free wi-fi and good views.
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Lingam Shrine (Saan Jao Mae Thap Thim)
Every village-neighbourhood has a local shrine, either a sacred banyan tree tied up with coloured scarves or a spirit house. But it isn’t every day you see a phallus garden like this lingam shrine, tucked back behind the staff quarters of the Nai Lert Park Hotel. Clusters of carved stone and wooden shafts surround a spirit house and shrine built by millionaire businessman Nai Loet to honour Jao Mae Thap Thim, a female deity thought to reside in the old banyan tree on the site. Someone who made an offering shortly after the shrine was built had a baby, and the shrine has received a steady stream of worshippers –mostly young women seeking fertility – ever since. If facing…
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Wat Suthat
Wat Suthat’s truly remarkable Buddha image, acres of colourful murals and – during most of the year – relative tranquillity make it arguably the most appealing of all Bangkok’s Buddhist temples. The main attraction is Thailand’s biggest wí·hăhn (main chapel) and the imperious yet serene 8m-high Phra Si Sakayamuni that resides within. The image is Thailand’s largest surviving Sukhothai-period bronze, a serene-looking gilded masterpiece that was cast in the former capital in the 14th century. In 1808 it was retrieved from the ruins of Sukhothai and floated on a barge down Mae Nam Chao Phraya to be installed in this temple and serves as both the centre of…
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Museum of Siam
This fun new museum employs a variety of media to explore the origins of the Thai people and their culture. Housed in a European-style 19th-century building that was once the Ministry of Commerce, the exhibits are presented in an engaging, interactive fashion not often found in Thailand. They are also refreshingly balanced and entertaining, with galleries dealing with a range of questions about the origins of the nation and its people. Each room has an informative narrated video started by a sensory detector, keeping waiting to a minimum. An Ayuthaya-era battle game, a room full of traditional Thai toys and a street vending cart where you can be photographed pretending to…
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