Bangkok Sightseeing

Not many people are aware of theatre in Bangkok – butit’s a great way to mix up a typical Bangkok sightseeing routine.

Right now for example, there’s “The Carving Knife”. It’s a mystery thriller that revolves around a murder case.

But there is something special about this: the play is not taking place in a theatre, but instead in a real apartment in Bangkok. So it’s almost as if you’re really witnessing a murder case.

All the actors speak English and are professional actors, so it’s absolutely accessible for foreign visitors too.

The whole thing is organized by the Mahidol University International College, and if you are in Bangkok before June 26 you still have a chance to see it.

They put on the performance every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, starting at 7:30. If you want to socialize a bit first, you can be there at 7 pm already.

For more information just contact us.

If you have any interest in snakes (or just think that snakes are cool since you watched the first Indiana Jones movie) then this will make for an interesting trip.

Every weekday, they demonstrate at 11AM how to extract venom from a snake, and at 2:30 you can handle a snake. Don’t worry, you the snakes won’t use you to deposit their venom – the snakes that visitors are allowed to handle are all tame snakes.
And even if you’d get bitten – fortunately, they have plenty of snake poison venom here 😉 So if you’re looking for a more thrilling Bangkok sightseeing experience, this might be a good choice for you – kids always love it.

This is more an educational and research facility than a tourist entertainment establishment. For example, they also train members of the police how to catch snakes. (In Thailand snakes are very common. On a recent trip to visit her parents upcountry, they spotted a cobra in their rice field. If a person gets bitten by a cobra in such a remote place, it can end deadly, as snake venom is not readily available). So it makes sense that people receive training in how to catch snakes without getting bitten.

Snake Stories & Facts

A visit here is not just entertaining, but can also be really educating, because they will tell you stories and facts about the snakes and their life. You will learn about herpetology – and that has nothing to do with herpes, but it’s the study of reptiles and amphibians. (Although SNAKEOLOGY would surely sound more awesome).

For example – snakes are completely deaf. They just can’t hear sounds. However – they can pick up vibrations with their jawbones.

Another interesting fact about snakes is that some of them can even swallow a tiger. A whole tiger that is! Snakes can swallow animals that are three times as large as their own mouth, because of special tendons in their mouth.

There are around 3000 kinds of snakes in the world, but less than 400 of them are venomous.

And in Thailand, especially upcountry, snakes are sometimes eaten.

About the Snake Farm

The snake farm is a rather old institution. It was founded in 1929. Several members of the royal family founded the Simaseng Fund (The Four Snakes Fund) and donated their own money into it, to support the Red Cross Society of Siam. Their donations also paid for the construction costs of the Simaseng building where venomous snakes and other poisonous animals are kept for biological and medical research purposes and for public education.

You can also be sure that the snakes here aren’t abused, drugged and tortured. The Bangkok snake farm at the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute is associated with the Thai Red Cross Society and they take good care of the animals.

Every year around 40000 visitors come to watch the snake shows here, and there are often also international filmmakers that shoot documentaries here.

The Vertical Gardens in Bangkok made headlines all over the world.

And it’s easy to understand. In a world made out of concrete, these living walls just add something to our environment that s a lot more natural for us. It enhances the air quality and turns the modern world into a better habitat for us and our kids.

This is an example of indoor walls – but vertical gardens also work for outdoor walls. In fact, it’s not even necessary to have soil – sometimes all that is needed is a good water supply.

It was Patrick Blanc who pioneered this idea. He saw plants in the wild – plants that grew vertically without any soil. And he got the idea if this would work in our urban environments too.

On average, a vertical wall weights less than 30kg per square meter. That means: pretty much any kind of wall can easily support it.

The vertical gardens in Bangkok at the Siam Paragon shopping mall are used for decorative purposes, and to enhance air quality. However, vertical gardens can also be used to grow food crops, and thus supply nourishment for people.

Sometimes, it is also referred to as organic architecture.

It’s easy to include a visit to the Siam Paragon in a Bangkok sightseeing trip and enjoy the living walls there.

Another place in Bangkok was the Emporium. Do you know these looong elevator tubes that lead all the way up a shopping mall – that are in plain sight. Well, instead of just making it from glass, or a normal wall, at the Emporium they grew plants around it, and not it looks almost like a huge tree that has plants grown around it. Which is very befitting, especially if you consider that not too long ago, Bangkok was a wilderness 🙂

Photocredit

The Dusit Zoo in Bangkok makes for a nice and relaxed day with kids. Now, you might expect a lot from a zoo in tropical Bangkok – but honestly, there is nothing that great or special about Dusit zoo. It’s a rather plain and at times almost boring park.

This zoo is about 70 years old now and it’s built in pretty much in the style of an English park with plenty of animals (more than 1600 to be precise). It was built by King Rama V (Chulalongkorn), originally as his private garden next to the royal palace. However, after his death the garden wasn’t taken care of for several years, until in 1938 the city of Bangkok changed it into a zoo.

If you have the option to choose, we suggest coming here during the week instead of the weekends, as you will enjoy a lot more calm and private experience. On the weekends, many Thai families come here with their kids, and it is just more crowded.

You can have a picnic in the shade or rent a little boat and enjoy a calm and relaxed ride on the lake. It makes for a relaxing Bangkok sightseeing experience.

Each year, around 2.5 million people come to visit the park.

First of all:

let’s associate.

What comes into your mind when you read these two words:

massage & Bangkok

let your mind wander…

and wander…

ok, that’s enough.

I think I made a valid point here.

Yes, most people think of “special” Thai massage

(with a “happy ending)

but that’s not what this one is about.

We’re talking about

traditional Thai massage

a healing bodywork modality

(and in case you didn’t know

you’re fully clothed during this kind of massage

and no one is touching you “down there”).

Funny enough – traditional Thai massage actually comes from India.

It was a friend of the Buddha who developed this bodywork modality first.

But now, it can’t be found in India anymore.

Travelling monks brought it to Thailand,

where it took on it’s current form.

If you’ve been on a long Bangkok sightseeing trip

you’re feet might be tired

your body might ache

and you’re just generally exhausted

(that’s what the heat can do to you).

And that’s when it’s the right moment to experience a traditional Thai massage.

Wat Pho is usually the number one place to receive one.

Although the quality there is hit and miss.

Some practitioners are excellent

other’s are… well, let’s call it “(possibly) becoming excellent (one day in the future)”.

In general, if a Thai massage therapist is watching TV while giving you a massage,

that’s a good indicator that your therapist isn’t really in the meditative state that giving a original Thai massage requires.

(They don’t have TVs at Wat Pho by the way, but many small massage shops around Bangkok do).

Thai people love to play. One of Bangkok’s trend hostels recently had a promotion: if you manage to say a Thai tongue-twister, you can stay one night free.

Of course, there is an evil marketing genius behind all of this, and they have socialmediarized the whole story. Check out these two funny youtube clips – and if you’re in Bangkok right now and still don’t have a place to rest your head… you better hurry, because this offer ends today:

But even if you don’t want to twist your tongue, staying at the Lub.d can be a good choice 🙂

When Paris really was the center of culture, it was also a wild city, where prostitution was a nearly as public as it is in modern day Bangkok. Bangkok Noir seems like a spin-off from those long gone days. And not a particular tasty one in my personal opinion. But that’s the thing about art – what some people like is what others don’t like. To me, it seems like a phenomenon that’s largely catering to dirty old men who don’t like to think of themselves as dirty old men.

I love a good Charles Bukowski. But the man was brilliant. And that’s what the Bangkok Noir guys are lacking. The “Thailand Interest” bookshelves are filled with “bar girl books” and “poor farmer girl sells sex to buy rice for her starving family” fairy tales. Most of the time the people who buy this are: single retired foreign men. It’s cheap fascination.

But be free to disagree. You might like it – check out the Bangkok Noir blog.

Otherwise, there’s a lot more interesting art going on in Bangkok. Just sneak into Chulalongkorn university and talk with the art students there to get a feel for what’s going on in modern Thai art.

It’s often the small things that make Thailand such a special place. Sure, we have the Grand Palace – but how small does it seem compared the magnificense of the Taj Mahal? Sure, we have five star hotels and luxury shopping malls – but how pale do they seem compared to the almost obscene riches of Shanghai, the smell of money in Manhattan?

No, the reason to come to Bangkok is the small joys and adventures that fill your day here like nowhere else.

One fragment of this adventure are the taxi rides in Bangkok. Because each taxi here is a little micro-universe.

Want to experience a Bangkok taxi ride yourself? Well, if you’re not in Bangkok, then just head over to Still Life in Moving Vehicles.

Dale is a expat in Bangkok, who captures his Bangkok-taxi-ride-adventures with his camera and shares them on his blog.

And part of every Bangkok sightseeing trip should at least be one Bangkok taxi ride. In fact, there’s a whole science to it. When you start out, you’ll probably often fall for one of the taxi scams. It’s not that taxi drivers in Bangkok are conmen – it’s just that some of them are. And these have mastered the art of picking greenhorns. They wait in all the places where first time visitors spend their time. And they mastered the art of luring the clueless into their cabs.

But over time, you’ll graduate in Bangkok taxiology and learn about the City of Angels of the East through the stories of Bangkok taxi drivers.

Today Thai’s celebrate Visakha Puja Day. This is one of the most important Buddhist holidays in Thailand. It marks the birth, enlightenment and passing of the Buddha.

There are many ways to celebrate it, but celebrated it is.

In the early morning, millions of people make offerings to monks. In the evening, they walk around in temples with candles, incense and flowers and pray and meditate.

Even if you are not Buddhist – it is a lot of fun and a very interesting experience if you have a friend or a Bangkok tour guide to show you around, explain the meaning of certain things for you. You will also notice that Buddhism is a very open religion – it doesn’t matter if you are a Buddhist, a Christ, a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, a Taoist, a Sikh or of any other faith (or none at all) – Thai Buddhists will welcome you friendly, without trying to push their religious beliefs upon you.