This market is more than 100 years old. But it got abandoned many years ago when streets where built. However, there is a very famous floating market in Bangkok, and so members of the local community got the idea that they could also revive their floating market here.
This market is a lot smaller, more laid back and relaxed than the other markets. There aren’t as many sellers, and there isn’t as much choice as in the big floating market. But if you want an “untouristy” experience, then Bangnokkwaek is a good choice.
You can also take a free boat trip. It will stop at the house of a man who is selling traditional herbal drinks. The whole trip takes around 30 minutes, and it’s nice. Buy some herbal drinks, it’s good for you and good for the old man 🙂
The market is only open on weekends between 8AM to 5PM, and it’s a nice break from typical Bangkok sightseeing hustle and bustle 🙂
You might have heart of hot yoga. Now, in Thailand it’s not exactly difficult to find a hot place – but at Absolute Yoga, you will find rooms that are heated to 37 degrees. Sweating guaranteed!
26 to 35 yoga postures are performed – all of this will strengthen, tone and stretch your muscles, and reduce stress at the same time.
This really only makes sense if you stay in Bangkok for longer – at least six weeks.
One reason why it’s performed in a hot and humid environment is because it reduces the risk of injury and faciliated deeper stretching at the same time.
Don’t think that just because this is Thailand Yoga here is cheaper than elsewhere – the prices are pretty much the same like in USA or Europe. But it is also a nice way to get to know new people and so something really good for the wellbeing of your body and your mind.
There are all kinds of ways how we can set up boundaries between people, separate them from each other: race, religion, income, and so on. But in the end, there are just two kinds of people: good people and bad people. Or, to be more precise: those who love chocolate and those who don’t love chocolate.
Well, we from the Bangkok sightseeing team are good chocolate-loving people of course.
And that is one of the reasons why we like the Kakao Cafe in Bangkok. Two storys of sweets and desserts. Many are completely unchocolatish, but nonetheless great.
But this is just a little tip for those who are worried that they might burn too many calories during their Bangkok sightseeing activities 😉
99/361-8 Sukhumvit Soi 24
Phone: 02 661 1766
They open at 11AM and close at 10PM. There also are comfy places to lay in a sugar-coma upstairs 😉
Bangkok, Thailand, 17 June 2011 – As a proud sponsor of the Siam Opera, Rembrandt Hotel would like to invite all Opera lovers to Mae Naak, “the most popular opera of Somtow.” Mae Naak is a Thai folk-legend assumingly based on true story of a young beautiful lady who dedicated her life and true love to her husband.
The revival of this original production is a prequel of more to comes as the performance prepares for its London tour in September 2011. Somtow Sucharitkul, the artistic director of the Bangkok Opera and Siam Philharmonic Orchestra, has brought the show up to international standards and has prepared to share this traditional Thai story with the world. The show has been a huge success in its past two performances in Bangkok and the third performance is looking to top that success.
Starring Nancy Yuen as Mae Naak with Kyu Won Han as her deluded lover, the performance features a star-studded international cast at Chalerm Krung theatre from July 12-13, 2011 on 8 p.m. Tickets are available at Bangkok Opera Foundation +66(0)2231-5273 or Thai Ticket Major +66(0)2262-3456.
The Rembrandt Hotel is happy to live up to its name as a patron of the arts and proud to maintain its position as official sponsor of the Opera Siam. Supporting local business, environmental initiatives and charitable causes are all engrained in the vision of the Rembrandt Hotel providing for a stronger and more unified community.
About Rembrandt Hotel & Towers
Rembrandt Hotel offers luxury, outstanding services, and facilities to satisfy all travellers to Bangkok, Thailand. The property is conveniently located in Bangkok’s Sukhumvit district, near the central business district as well as shopping attractions, city landmarks and vibrant nightlife. This quality Bangkok Hotel is just a short 5 minute walk to the Asoke skytrain (BTS) and Sukhumvit metro (MRT) system. It is a great location for both tourists and business travellers, who will find easy access to all of Sukhumvit and Bangkok.
Bird’s Nest Soup is one of those strange things that you come across in Bangkok. It’s a Chinese delicacy that is also very popular among the Chinese in Bangkok.
Now, before you venture out to try it, you should be aware of one thing: it’s made out of bird saliva. Yummy!
Certain kinds of swiftlets build their nests out of threads from their saliva. These bird nests are then boiled in water, and it creates this kind of gelatinous soup.
Chinese people believe that bird’s nest provide many health benefits:
improve the voice
increase libido
strenghten the immune system
increase concentration
aid digestion
From a Western perspective, the nests have high amounts of iron, potassium, calcium and magnesium.
A nests takes about 35 days to built, and it’s only the male swiftlet birds that do it.
The highest quality Bird’s Nest soup is made from red cave nests that can only be found in limestone caves on some islands of Thailand. These bird nests can catch very high prices on the global market (red blood nest can fetch prices of up to $10,000 USD per kilogram).
A much cheaper supply of Bird’s Nest comes out of Indonesia. Since the demand for Bird’s Nest is so high, businessmen didn’t to to restrict themselves to harvesting nests from caves. So they started building houses made out of concrete for the birds to nest in. There are several towns in North Sumatra where bird’s nest harvesting is one of the main sources of income, and in total of 0.5% of the Indonesian GDP comes out of the bird’s nest trade.
But also in Southern Thailand these buildings can be found. A couple of years ago, a hotel owner found that the swiftlets nested in the basement of his hotel. He’s now making more money from the birds in his basement then from the hotel guests. Word spread around fast – and people started to build these concrete buildings for bids like they did in Indonesia.
So just snap one up when you’re on a Bangkok sightseeing trip. The prices for Bird’s Nest Soup in Bangkok are some of the lowest in the world – here, a bowl costs around 7$, whereas in other places you’d pay around $30 for a comparable bowl.
There probably isn’t a much more uniquie way to go sightseeing in Bangkok than with a Tuk Tuk tour. These three-wheeled motor-rickshaws are a typical part of the city. Even thought they can’t drive faster than 60 km/h (around 37 mph), it feels like you’re sitting on a rocket-propelled chair.
It’s funny that Tuk Tuks don’t actually come from Japan, at least historically – they were first imported from Japan.
You can just hire a Tuk Tuk on your own – but be aware that Tuk Tuk drivers are nowadays some of the most notorious hagglers, they will often try to overcharge you or bring you to some shop (mainly tailors and jewelers) where they get a commission for bringing you into the store. Also, most of the tourist attractions where they like to bring you will pay them a commission too – so the fact that they tell you that the snake show is the greatest snake show on earth doesn’t really mean it’s the greatest snake show on earth, but it means that this particular snake show operator pays the highest commission in Bangkok to Tuk Tuk drivers who bring customers.
The advantage of an organized Tuk Tuk tour is that you don’t have to go through all the hassle – and you get someone who can actually speak English, is knowledgeable and happy to show you interesting and fascinating places, answer your questions and explain the meanings of things you see.
If you haven’t seen the funny James Bond advertisement featuring a Tuk Tuk yet – well, watch it:
Two people fit comfortably in a Tuk Tuk (well, as comfortable as it gets in a Tuk Tuk), and three is still ok if you are a mid-sized foreigner. For adult Thai people, six can squeeze into on Tuk Tuk, and for kids, up to twelve, although the few instances where I have seen this looked like the kids were all performing yoga-poses.
Tuk Tuks are now being exported to other countries all over the world, including Brazil, Egypt and Morocco. But even in Europe there are some companies who are trying to bring Tuk Tuks to the streets – although typically, the Tuk Tuk doesn’t measure up to European safety standards.
However, a Tuk Tuk tour doesn’t mean you just sit in a Tuk Tuk – you also get out, walk around a bit. If you’re new in Bangkok, we recommend visiting the Wat Pho temple, the amulet market and the beautiful flowermarket with it’s millions and millions of colorful flowers and plants, and many traditional Thai desserts that vendors sell here.
Warning:However, before you decide to join a tuk tuk tour in Bangkok, please be aware of this: it’s an open vehicle. The air quality in Bangkok isn’t good. You’ll be exposed to a lot of exhaust fumes in a hot climate. If you’re mentally prepared for that, then it’s ok – the fun you’ll have can more than make up for the annoyances. But if you are sensitive to exhaust fumes, we wouldn’t recommend this trip for you.
And here finally a video that shows a Tuk Tuk factory and how it’s assembled:
10,622 sq.m of duty free shopping in the middle of Bangkok – that’s what you get at the King Power Complex in Rangnam Road.
It’s important that you bring your international flight ticket when you go shopping here – otherwise they won’t sell you the merchandise without taxes.
All merchandise that you purchase here will be transferred for you to the airport where you can pick it up on the day you fly.
It also has the largest watch center in Southeast Asia.
If you are looking for cheap stuff then this is not the place to go. But if you want good deals for brandname merchandise, it’s worth a trip. It’s a very modern shopping mall, huge (you can really spend a whole day here) and they also have a theatre right next to it.
There’s an artist in Bangkok who creates gigantic Transformers statues from car wracks. It’s quite amazing to see them in real life, but it might already be amazing to just see them on a picture.
But this one is staged and performed in Thai language – which is, given the complex use of the English language in the piece – not an easy task.
The director is Nopamat Veohong thinks that Macbeath is a timeless and universal play, and is sure that it can also well be translated into Thai culture.
The legendary Sodsai Pantoomkomol has a strong interest in politics. He was part of the student movement and witnessed it’s crushing by the army in the 1970s in Thailand. He says one of the reasons why he likes Macbeth so much is because it also is something that relates to present day Thailand. Macbeth got all he wanted – but it still left him unsatisfied. One of the reasons was that in order to get the things he wanted, he had to step over many people and do things that he himself considered amorale.
There are 48 cast members, so it’s quite a big play.
It will be performed until June 19, 2011, so you gotta hurry. There are 300 seats per performance available, at 800 baht per person (for students 300 baht). At the Sodsai Pantoomkomol Center of Dramatic Arts. It’s located on the sixth floor of the Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Building of Chulalongkorn University, and the next BTS station is Siam.
Performances on Wednesday to Sunday, at different times, but in Thai language only.
If you are interested in theater in Bangkok and other cultural activities that you want included into your Bangkok sightseeing trips, just contact us. 🙂
Hangover Part 2 has brought Bangkok into the cinemas all over the world again. The movie starts out with a scene on the famous Lebua State tower in Bangkok. And while the crew was shooting there, the barkeeper Alex Holzer created a new cocktail and gave it to the crew and movie director Todd Phillips. Since they all liked the drink, he called it “The Hangovertini”.
And in this video you can see how the Hangovertini is made:
(But nowhere will it be as good as on the rooftop bar, so why not just make it part of your Bangkok sightseeing experience?) 🙂
