Bangkok Sightseeing

Bangkok is probably one of the best places in the world to get a massage and other kinds of wellness treatments. There are so many spas and so many qualified therapists here, while the prices are very, very reasonable.

On the low-budget end, you have hundreds of little massage places where you can get 1 hour massages starting at $2. (Those are “you get what you pay for” most of the time though. Often it’s just a foot massage on a little beach chair that is set up in some shopping mall). You also have plenty of places where you can get a 1 hour traditional Thai massage treatment for $6-$12 USD. Some of these places offer a lousy experience, but some are really, surprisingly great.

In fact, the standard price for a traditional Thai massage in Bangkok is around 300 Baht per hour, and you can get a really good treatment for that. If you know where to go to and which massage therapist to select.

And then, you have plenty of more upscale options, that are still very cheap compared to what you would pay in other countries, and considering the high quality standards you get.

Particularly for the more luxurious treatments, there always is some promotion going on that you can take advantage of if you really want to spoil and pamper yourself after a Bangkok sightseeing trip.

The same is true for beauty treatments – right now, you can get a rejuvenation package including an organic facial treatment, a pearl scrub and treatment and seven day access to the fitness center of Phillip Wain for less than $70. In places like Hong Kong or Singapore, the same package would cost upwards of $500 USD.

All these kinds of promotions are time-limited though, and you need to be wired-in in order to know about it. But that’s what we are there for 😉

Bangkok is a good place to buy leather goods. Not only do you get a wide range of different leathers here (including common ostrich, shark, stingray, alligator, snake, calf, lamb, sea snake and more and so on). But you also have excellent craftsmen and -women here who know how to handle it and produce high-quality leather products.

Many of our clients come to Bangkok to buy leather. One of the most popular shops is called Tony Leather – and it’s true that they have quality goods. However, they are not one of our favorites, mainly for two reasons: you can get considerably superior quality for the same price in other places if you know where to shop, and second: they are so popular that they seem to care very little about individual customer satisfaction.

Whereas other shops go out of their way to provide the customer with the products they want, we repeatedly witnessed how the staff there was rather indifferent and uncooperative. However, let’s not get all these stories out. If you need good quality and don’t mind paying more, Tony leather is still a good address.

If you have a little more time on hand, there are other places though. The Chaoroen Krung Road has many leather supply stores, and some of them really good, both in terms of quality and the value that you get for your money. Plus, the service is friendly and attentive.

You can also find several vendors who sell leather goods in Bangkok’s famous weekend market, the Chatuchak market (also known as Jatujak market or JJ market). This one is located at the BTS station Mo Chit, and you can go there Saturday and Sunday. Best time to go from 10 am – 4 pm. However, be prepared for a labyrinth – there are literally thousands of vendors and stalls, and it can be challenging to find your way around there.

Smaller local markets that cater mainly to Thais often do not have leather goods, or only a very limited selection. This is mainly because of the lack of purchasing power – the people who frequent these markets are budget-conscious, and prefer to buy cheap imitation leather that looks like real than spend more money on genuine leather.

You can also find leather goods in shopping malls, but for high prices.

An exception are some stalls in the Platinum mall in Pratunam, where you can also buy leather wholesale.

Whether you want bags, wallets, shoes, boots, accessories, leatherwear, you find it all.

You can also get custom-made leather goods, including fancy things like golf bags, briefcases, leather wine cases and so on. And of course: a leather case for your iPhone 😉

If you want to go on a shopping spree during your Bangkok sightseeing trip, or need a local shopping assistant who can help you to locate the best sources for your needs, as always, feel free to contact us with your requests.

Well, let’s say you’re the independent kind of traveler and want to explore Bangkok on your own. That’s in fact a great idea – it’s a lot more adventerous and you might have a really good time.

Just be prepared for this: finding your way around Bangkok isn’t easy. In most places in the world, if you have a map and an address with a house number, you’ll be able to find the place with very basic map-reading skills, right?

That has something to do with the fact that house numbers are systematically assigned.

Well… in Thailand, we call it “flexible assignement” rather than “systematic assignment”. Or maybe “spontaneous assignement”. Or maybe “on-the-go assignment of house numbers”. Ok, I thing you get the point.

What’s more – not only is it pretty unsystematic, but it’s also cryptic. In fact, it kind of looks like something out of math class:

73/2-7 Soi 15, Thanon Rajadamroen.

Uuhh… yeah… right. Right?

This has to do with the fact that in Bangkok, land used to be sold in lots. Now, the first number (73) is the original number of the lot.

As you can imagine – lots are not very helpful for finding your way around, also because they are not like blocks.

The number behind the slash shows the building number on that lot. Sometimes it’s also not the building number, but the number of the entrance. So if there are four buildings on a lot, and the third building has three entrances, then you have 7 entrance numbers. Right? Ok.

And sometimes it’s done similar to this system, but not quite.

Another thing is – these numbers don’t always run consecutively, for reasons we won’t go into now. So you might be walking down the street, and it goes like this: “88, 89,90,91, 23, 24,25,99″…

Get it? 🙂 You definitely need new strategies of finding your ways around Bangkok, and then it can be a lot of fun.

If you want to go somewhere, where very few western tourists go – Safari world is one of those places. For some reason, it’s very popular with Iranian and Korean tourists, who arrive there by the busloads.

According to their own advertisements, it’s the largest open zoo in the whole world. Although we’re not exactly sure what an open zoo is. However – it’s huge. 69 hectares of wildlife park.

There are two parts: one part where you WALK, and one part where you DRIVE.

You get to see giraffes, rhinos, elephants, lions, zebras, dolphins, monkeys (even orang-utans). There are even pandas, which are probably the cutest animals on earth.

It’s open every day from 9am to 5pm and admission fee is 700 baht, or 450 for kids. Or you just book it together with a Bangkok sightseeing tour, then all transportation and so on is taken care of for you.

Here’s another video with a slideshow of Bangkok sightseeing impressions.

You get to see all kinds of things, and if you’re on a work break and just want to go on a small mental journey for a couple of minutes, this might just be the rejuvenating refreshment you need 🙂

Editor: This one is not about sightseeing in Bangkok – but it’s about something that is meaningful and important. We hope you understand why we share it here anyway, even though it is off-topic.

It’s a good thing that affects Thailand, and we want to do our little part in getting the word out about it. Thanks!

Thailand has made great advances in fighting the spread of HIV.

Yet, there are still those living with it – and some of them are kids who never had a chance to “be careful” or “protect” themselves, simply because they were born with it.

And those kids are often stigmatized in society. Other kids, healthy kids, are often told by their parents not to play with them, and sometimes they’re abandoned by their own families.

There’s a place in the Thai province of Lopburi where these kids are taken care of in an AIDS orphanage.

And the people who contribute their time, energy and money to keep this place going are doing an amazing job in positively impacting not only the lifes of these kids, but also the Thai society as a whole.

Now a movie has been made about this orphanage, and it’s going to be screened in Bangkok in March. It’s a true, inspiring and uplifting story full of drama, joy, happiness and sadness. Maybe you can attend the screening, get your hands on one of the DVDs, make a donation or somehow else support this.

You can find more infos about it in Talen’s post: Living with the Tiger

Thanks again, and have a great day.

Here’s a neat Bangkok sightseeing slide show.

If you just want some idea starters and random visual impressions of what waits for you on a Bangkok trip, this is a good thing to watch.

Bangkok is actually a very laid back and relaxed city. And it’s a lot more difficult than in most other cases to get into a fight. Most people prefer to smile rather than to fight. (That’s one of the reasons why sightseeing in Bangkok is so nice – because between all the sights, you also see a lot of smiling people and happy faces).

Maybe that’s why someone came up with the idea of the Bangkok Fight Club.

This is a place where people fight, and learn how to fight.

They teach Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Submission Grappling, Mixed Martial Arts and Street Self Defense .

So just in case a traditional Thai massage in the Wat Pho temple isn’t causing you enough pain, you might want to toughen up at the Bangkok Fight Club.

If you just drop by to get beaten up… uh, I mean taught a lesson of Submission Grappling it costs 400 Baht.

Right through the heart of Bangkok, there is a huge river floating: the Chao Phraya river, or as the locals call it: Mae Nam Chao Phraya.

It’s like a dividing line between the east side and the west side of Bangkok – although most tourists never make it to the Western shores, with the exception of the Wat Arun temple. This is no surprise, as most things are going on East of the Chao Phraya river anyway.

But as you can imagine – there are quiet a few bridges connecting both sides together. This is the Rama IX bridge, built in dedication to the current reigning monarch, King Bhumipol, opened on his 60th birthday in 1987.

It was the first cable-stayed bridge in Thailand, and at the time of its construction it was the second longest in the world.

Here’s the bridge in numbers:

• total length: 781 meters
• width: 33 meters
• height: 87 meters
• road lanes: 6
• opened: 5. December 1987
• main span: 450 m
• length of side spans: 61.20 m – 57.60 m – 46.80 m
• largest cable diameter: 167 mm
• deck depth: 4.000 m
• deck width: 33.000 m

During the daytime, it looks rather plain, but if you float under it during a Bangkok dinner cruise in the nighttime, it looks impressive and majestic.

There are pretty much dinner cruises for every budget available, and when you have a couple of days to spend for your Bangkok sightseeing activities, it is well worth spending a relaxed night on one of the cruises.

Interestingly, there is even a Google sketchup model of the Rama IX bridge.

Peter Fraenkel & Partners did the feasibility study for this bridge. It was not an easy task – the minimum clearance above the highest water level should have been 41 meters. That’s why there are 1000m long approach viaducts on each side of the bridge.

And finally, more (rather dry) facts:

Concept designer: Hellmut Homberg
Assistant engineer: Paul Medland
Resident engineer: Ralph Anthony Freeman
Engineering: Hitachi Zosen Inc.     superstructure
Material supplier: BTS Drahtseile GmbH     wire rope

Construction materials used

• cables: steel
• piers: reinforced concrete
• pylons: steel