Chinatown Bangkok

Bangkok’s Chinatown is a popular tourist attraction and a food haven for new generation gourmands who flock here after sunset to explore the vibrant street-side cuisine. At day time, it’s no less busy, as hordes of shoppers descend upon this 1-km strip and adjacent Charoenkrung Road to get a day’s worth of staple, trade gold, or pay a visit to one of the Chinese temples.

Packed with market stalls, street-side restaurants and a dense concentration of gold shops, Chinatown is an experience not to miss. The energy that oozes from its endless rows of wooden shop-houses is plain contagious – it will keep you wanting to come back for more. Plan your visit during major festivals, like Chinese New Year, and you will see Bangkok Chinatown at its best

Gateway Ekamai Bangkok

Gateway Ekamai mall aims to offer an alternative shopping experience from the other cookie-cutter centres across Bangkok. The mall is meant to epitomise the Japanese lifestyle that Thai people embrace readily with a mix of restaurants, clothes stores, health and beauty shops, as well as an edutainment centre, a large IT zone and a 24 hour supermarket. Whilst it probably won’t deliver for Japanophiles its ease of access via the skywalk link to BTS Ekamai and decent, affordable selection of restaurants under one roof is sure to attract visitors.

The overall experience is very pleasant. A huge Maneki-neko (lucky cat) welcomes you as you step off the train and the building’s soft lines and terracotta colours are warm and inviting. Inside the mall is light and airy, with origami birds floating up high in its central atrium. There are also replica cherry trees, lanterns, a bamboo water fountain, girls dressed as geishas and the sound of J-pop. Although the experience might not be entirely authentic it adds to the soothing atmosphere.

Nana Station Bangkok

Nana looks its best after dark, and this station puts you right at the centre of Bangkok’s nightlife hotspots – the chic and trendy down Sukhumvit Soi 11, while the complete opposite in Sukhumvit Soi 4.

Wat Traimit Bangkok

This temple is well known for its Buddha image, constructed over 700 years ago during the Sukhothai period. Originally the gold image was covered with plaster to conceal it from the invading Burmese and was just rediscovered accidentally about 40 years ago.

On 14 February 2010, Wat Traimit’s new building named “Phra Maha Mondop” was officially opened to the public. And the Gold Buddha was moved here. The first floor of the building is the Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Centre where tourists can learn the history of the Chinese immigrants in Thailand as well as their culture which has become part of the Thai culture.

Chao Phraya River Bangkok

The Chao Phraya[1] (Thai: แม่น้ำเจ้าพระยา (Pronunciation)) is a major river in Thailand, with its low alluvial plain forming the centre of the country. It flows through Bangkok and then into the Gulf of Thailand.

Victory Monument Bangkok

Victory Monument (Thai: อนุสาวรีย์ชัยสมรภูมิ, Anusawari Chai Samoraphum) is a large military monument in Bangkok, Thailand. The monument is located in Ratchathewi district, northeast of central Bangkok, at the center of a traffic circle at the intersection of Phahonyothin Road, Phaya Thai Road, and Ratchawithi Road.The monument is entirely western in its design: in this it is in sharp contrast with another prominent monument of Bangkok, the Democracy Monument, which uses indigenous Thai forms and symbols. The central obelisk, although originally Egyptian, has been frequently used in Europe and America for national and military memorials - its shape suggesting both a sword and an outstanding mark that holds in a territory, here it is designed in the shape of five bayonets clasped together. The five statues, representing the army, navy, air force, police and civilian bureaucracy, are in a standard western "heroic" style, familiar in the 1940s in both fascist and communist states, and were executed by the Italian sculptor Corrado Feroci, who worked under the Thai name Silpa Bhirasi. The sculptor did not like the combination of his work with the obelisk, and referred to the monument as "the victory of embarrassment."

Maeklong Railway Market Bangkok

The unique attraction about Bangkok’s Maeklong Railway Market is the fact that a train literally runs through the market 8 times a day. We made a stop at the Maeklong market on our way to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, and it was a fascinating yet bizarre sight watching the market vendors selling their goods laid out on both sides of the railway track

Maeklong station - about 72 km south west of Bangkok