Bangkok, Thailand is one of Southeast Asia’s most vibrant and exciting cities, full of arts, culture, sports, shopping, entertainment, and plenty of delicious food! Even though it is home to around 20,000,000 people, you soon realize everyone is pretty friendly, and it feels more like a small town than a huge metropolis!
Bangkok is an international hub with flights going in and out all times of the day or night, and there are plenty of great hotels near Bangkok airport for layovers, but we feel that too many visitors to Thailand just make the Big Mango a stopover on their way down to the famous beaches! Our recommendation is to stop and spend a few days, there are tons of fun things to see and do! Here are just two of our favourites to entice you to unpack that bag and stay a while!
Chatuchak Weekend Market – This sprawling maze of merchandise is one of the world’s largest marketplaces, with around 15,000 individual stalls lined down its long, dimly lit corridors. You can find just about everything under the sun in there if you can find it! Gallery quality artworks, antiques, furniture, home décor, arts and crafts supplies, musical instruments, new and used clothing, accessories, jewellery, and all kinds of nifty trinkets and souvenirs to take home with you! Although it can be a bit daunting to navigate, it is actually fairly well organized, with most shops grouped together by type, but a map does help! It’s best to visit in the early morning or late afternoon, the midday crowds can make getting anywhere a slow process, and patience is a must! There are several bars that stay open after the stalls close, a great place to relax and listen to some live music over some ice-cold beers!
Wat Arun – Thailand is home to around 40,000 gorgeously decorated Buddhist temples, or ‘wats’, and Wat Arun is among the most amazing! The name translates as The Temple Of Dawn, which is a great time to visit! The centrepiece of the complex is an 82-metre tall Khmer-style pagoda built in the 19th century that towers above the Chao Phraya River like a vision from ancient times. It has the distinction of being one of the few pagodas that people are still allowed to climb up, and those hearty souls who ascend the steep, narrow stairs to their summit will be rewarded with fantastic views of the river and the city beyond! The pagoda is lit up at night so the thousands of porcelain shards that decorate it flash and glitter, a spectacular sight, so make sure to snap some shots from the boat as you pull in or out of the dock! The complex features a pleasant riverside park to stroll about in, and there are soft drinks and snacks available if all that stair climbing gave you an appetite!
Of course, these two attractions are just scratching the surface of all that Bangkok has to offer, but it’s all we have space for today! We hope that when you visit Thailand you will spend some time discovering Bangkok’s many delights for yourself!
