Twenty things that will surprise first-time visitors to Bangkok
The west bank of the river was home to the first European settlers in Siam (as Thailand was then known), 16th-century Portuguese traders, missionaries and mercenaries. Kudichin, also known as Kudijeen, consists of narrow lanes (or soi) and old teak houses, including the ancestral Baan Kudichin Museum. The domed 1770 Santa Cruz Church and nearby Wat Prayurawongsawat ('Turtle Mountain Temple') with its hollow, 60-metre stupa are open to visitors. And look for the small family bakeries that sell the European-inspired tart called khanom farang ('foreigner cake'). See baankudichinmuseum.com
There are cannabis shops everywhere
In 2022 Thailand surprised the world, and itself, by radically loosening its previously strict marijuana laws. Cannabis-based products, supposedly for 'medical use only', were soon on sale across the kingdom in glitzy shops, kerbside vans and street stalls. A new conservative government now hopes, belatedly, to legislate the billion-dollar genie back into its bottle. Whatever the outcome and your herbal inclinations, don't even think about exporting anything.
It's home to the world's largest outdoor shopping mall
Chatuchak Weekend Market is the world's largest, busiest, noisiest and allegedly best-bargain marketplace of all. Catch the SkyTrain north to Mo Chit to find this Mecca for impulse purchasers. With more than 15,000 stalls covering 14 hectares and selling everything from jewels, curios and pets to amulets and electronics, you'll need extra bags to lug home the loot. It's always a long weekend at Chatuchak, which trades full-tilt from Wednesday to Sunday. See chatuchakmarket.org
History lives in the side streets
The dowager Atlanta Hotel sits amid its considerable memories down Soi 2 Sukhumvit Road. The classic Bauhaus-deco lobby is unchanged from the 1950s, when this was the place to dine in Bangkok. A 1962 photograph shows the young King Rama IX playing saxophone there with Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman. The menu in the hotel's original LA-style diner declares: 'Typically, the Atlanta is not moving with the times.' See theatlantahotelbangkok.com
Hotel California isn't played here
Forget the chrome pole clubs or beer bars still playing The Eagles, Bangkok has plenty of cool musical watering holes. The Saxophone Jazz and Blues Pub at the Victory Monument has delivered live Thai-Latino-whatever jazz, good drinks and great atmosphere with no cover charge or go-go dancers since 1987 (saxophonepub.com). Meanwhile, upmarket and down by the river, the Mandarin Oriental's elegant Bamboo Bar stirs smoky jazz into your late-night cocktail musings (mandarinoriental.com). Something similar happens high above the river at the Millennium Hilton's ThreeSixty Bar. See hilton.com
A street corner named devotion
Erawan Shrine in front of the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel is renowned as Bangkok's most wish-fulfilling shrine. Day and night, Thais from all walks of life make offerings before its centrepiece, a four-faced golden Brahma statue. They pray for wealth, health, education or business success, or give thanks for prayers answered. Traditional dancers often perform here. Visitors welcome, respectful photography appreciated. See erawanbangkok.com
The world's most beautiful boatshed
The National Museum of Royal Barges, the most beautiful boatshed in the world, houses the Crown's fleet of gilded, ceremonial vessels. These works of art with swan-necked prows and mythological figureheads glide out on rare occasions for the extraordinary Royal Barge Procession, when they parade, rowed by chanting sailors, past the Grand Palace and its dreaming spires. The barge museum, on the west bank in Bangkok Noi, displays these intricate vessels. Watch as artisans maintain them. See tourismthailand.org
It's still a backpacker mecca
Khao San Road, unofficial world backpacker HQ, gained fame last century with Alex Garland's novel (and subsequent Hollywood movie) The Beach. 'The main function for the street was as a decompression chamber … a halfway house between East and West,' he wrote. It still is. KSR endures, with the dreads-and-tatts crew sharing space with flashpackers and selfie-obsessives. By night the street is closed to traffic and becomes a free-range party zone. Explore it for music in clubs like Brick Bar. Above all, decompress. See thethaiger.com
The nicknames are delightful
Don't be surprise to meet, for instance, a woman called Pla (meaning Fish) or another named Porn. Because formal Thai names can seem as long as a stretch limo, many Thais adopt a short, convenient nickname. Foreigners will be surprised to meet someone called Poo (Crab), Meaw (Cat), Moo (Pig) or Gai (Chicken). As for Porn, forget any preconceptions; it's an auspicious name, meaning blessing or grace. Thais sometimes translate their nicknames into English and you might find yourself chatting with Glass (Kaew), Smile (Yim) or Snack (Khanom), or perhaps plain Pop (as in music).
It's easy to get high, literally
The Great City of Angels lets you brush wings with its namesake celestial spirits via its rooftop bars. From up there you can muse, cocktail in hand, on the glittering street circuitry below or the looping calligraphy of the river as it signs off on its long run to the sea. In this city without hills, vertigo is a rare sensation, except at the MahaNakhon skyscraper. As Thailand's tallest building it trumps the skybars with its 78th-floor skywalk, the city's highest public point. Defy your survival instincts by stepping out onto its glass deck and then looking 310 vertiginous metres down to the toy town cars below. See kingpowermahanakhon.co.th
Tuk-tuks are for tourists (and more expensive than taxis)
Probably, yes. The iconic tuk-tuk (proper name samlor, 'three-wheel') functions today mostly as a tourist rattle-trap. They're unmetered, wind-in-your-hair fun, for sure. A first-time hoot. Until the end of the trip when, if you didn't first agree on the fare, the driver is charging you whatever he likes. For farang (foreigners), they're usually more expensive than a metered taxi. Go local, live like a Thai, catch the SkyTrain, Metro or ferry – all faster and cheaper than a tuk-tuk, even if less Insta fun.
Thailand didn't invent massage, but perfected it
Skip the fluffy rub-downs and five-orchid spa sessions. Try the real thing, where many Thai therapists learn their basics, at Wat Pho temple's 70-year-old Thai Traditional Massage School. Massage as developed here is included on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. For $20, a skilled trainee will turn your shoulder knots to noodles during an hour of pummelling, prodding and stretching. While you're at Wat Pho, visit its famous, 46-metre long, gold-plated Reclining Buddha. watpomassage.com
It has the world's wettest new year celebration
Songkran, the world's wettest new year. Thailand's traditional new year falls in mid-April. Once the first jet of water hits your neck, things can descend into days of being drenched anytime you set foot outside. As a farang, you are an affectionate 'mark', so don't hit the streets wearing or carrying anything you can't afford to have soaked. You've stepped into the middle of the world's biggest water fight. Should you become a target, don't bother to plead: you're painting an even bigger bull's eye on yourself. Often the most indiscriminate water-bombers are inebriated, newbie tourists trying to 'go local'.
The river commute is a fast and furious ride
Khlong Saen Saep, built between 1837 and 1840, snakes its way through the city. Hop aboard a rocket and see how some Bangkokians get to the office. The skinny, 15-metre-long, 50-seat canal ferries rip along the muddy waters, making Formula One-speed pit stops at the khlong's 18 wharves. Leap – almost literally – on and off whenever you dare. A conductor collects fares as the projectile travels the 18-kilometre route. Blasting past temples and shacks, mansions and malls, it's your cheap-as-chips tour of the real Bangkok's backdoors. See transitbangkok.com
The Risky Market is called 'risky' for good reason
Talat Rhom Hoop – literally 'Closing Umbrella Market' – sounds curious enough, but its English name is more ominous – The Risky Market. You look up to see why: a locomotive is bearing down on you amid the market stalls. Their trackside awnings suddenly retract. You press yourself against a wall, flat as a Peking duck, with the train rumbling by, inches away. The fishing port of Samut Songkhram, also known as Mae Khlong, 80 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, is home to this death-defying shopping excursion and its 33-kilometre Mae Khlong-Mahachai railway, the shortest line in Thailand. See thaiest.com
One of the world's longest roads runs through it
Loading
Hail a taxi on Sukhumvit and say: 'To the end of the road, please.' Four hundred and ninety kilometres later you'll be at Cambodia. Thanon Sukhumvit, Bangkok's boulevard of dreams and schemes, is not only the country's longest thoroughfare but one of the world's longest main roads. Until the mid-1960s, rice paddies and aristocratic estates bordered it. Novelist and composer S.P. Somtow recalled his family enclave there as 'our remote little island kingdom on Sukhumvit Road'. The rip-roaring progress monster that ate old Bangkok soon consumed the agriculture and enchantment alike.
It's home to the world's narrowest Chinatown alley
Bangkok is said to be home to the largest diaspora Chinatown in the world. Which might make Soi Itsara Nuphap, between Yaowarat and Charoen Krung roads, the skinniest Chinatown alley of almost anywhere. Inch your way along as it pinches down to a two-metre-wide crush of food stalls, handcarts, shoppers, monks, motorbike delivery drivers, grandmothers, schoolkids and bargain hunters. Ten minutes later you pop out at the other end, having sampled a parallel Thai-Chinese universe at very close quarters. Celebrate with a pickled egg. Watch your wallet. See
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Perth Now
Perth's Jessica De Gouw opens up about her Netflix show
Jessica De Gouw knows her way around an airport, an 11th-hour itinerary, an unseen destination, a new job. But on a recent night-time flight, the lights of the city where she is coming in to land are familiar. De Gouw is home. It's only a lightning-fast visit to Perth to see her sister but finally, after months of being busy, she's taking a beat. Not that it's a lie-by-the-pool type of homecoming. The actor flew on a last-minute flight to get stuck into a different type of work: helping her sister unpack in her new house, and looking after her six-month-old nephew. But as she's secreted away in a spare room somewhere in the house to talk to STM, De Gouw feels a kind of peace being back on home turf. 'Perth makes things very easy,' she says. 'When you come from the hustle of big cities, you go ahhh (sighs). Everything slows down a bit and there's something in that, about being present and being mindful. I can take a breath.' Though now based in London, De Gouw, who grew up in the Perth Hills and studied at Curtin University, has spent the past couple of months in Sydney, reconnecting with her partner of several years, Sophie Roberts. It's been a little over two years since De Gouw first spoke about falling for Roberts, who works as a hairdresser in Sydney. In a 2023 interview with Vogue, she shared the logistics and the love behind maintaining such a long-distance relationship: 'we work in creative industries and don't know where our next jobs will be, so we have to be up for the adventure'. 'We just make the best decisions for each other and ourselves, and what we want, and what makes us happy, and see where the wind blows us,' she told the magazine. 'It's really exciting to be able to be that open about the future.' Jess De Gouw as Olivia in The Survivors. Credit: Netflix © 2025 Five years after their first date, the couple is still commuting back and forth — this Perth pit stop is just one in a long line for De Gouw, who is constantly on the road. 'I have been (in London) for maybe 12 years now, and it's very much home,' she says. 'But because Soph is in Sydney, it's very, very long distance — we are all just about navigating that . . . 'I am either with her or in London, and following jobs — we're very all-over-the-shop.' For now, she's immersed in jiggling a baby and helping unpack boxes, but not for long. In a few days, she'll head back over east, then back to London in time for the European summer. There are as-yet-unannounced work opportunities to get started on, the latest in a long line of high-profile jobs De Gouw has scored since starting her career in 2006 on the children's series The Sleepover Club. In the almost two decades since, the 37-year-old has carved a place as one of the country's most in-demand actors, working across film and TV productions around the world. Just over a decade ago De Gouw briefly relocated to Los Angeles, where she scored leading roles in two major television productions: the superhero series Arrow and Dracula, in which she starred opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers. She came back to Australia to shoot the film Cut Snake, directed by Tony Ayres, who is also the creative force behind De Gouw's most recent project, a TV project for Netflix, The Survivors. Based on the novel by Jane Harper, the six-part limited series tells the story of Kieran, played by The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power star Charlie Vickers. Kieran returns home to the fictional Evelyn Bay in Tasmania with his partner Mia (played by Yerin Ha, who'll soon be seen as the lead in the upcoming season of Bridgerton) to spend time with his ailing father and emotionally distant mother. Charlie Vickers and Jessica De Gouw in The Survivors. Credit: Aedan O'Donnell / Netflix But when his return to town coincides with the discovery of a young woman's body, Kieran is forced to reckon with the traumatic events that altered his life 15 years earlier, when a devastating storm led to the deaths of three people close to him. It's a twisting, turning murder mystery, told through dual timelines and boasting sensational performances from the central ensemble cast, which includes acting powerhouses Catherine McClements and Robyn Malcolm. De Gouw plays an old friend of Kieran who is integral to the story. 'I hadn't read the book (before I got the scripts), but I was aware of Jane Harper, and I was sent one or two episodes and loved it,' De Gow explains. 'Tony and I had known each other for many years, and we'd been looking for an opportunity to work with one another again. 'This feels really Australian, but also very accessible. It's punchy, it's melodrama and it's very entertaining. It's the kind of TV that I like to watch — I think international audiences will love it as well.' Catherine McClements and Jessica De Gouw in The Survivors. Credit: Aedan O'Donnell / Courtesy of Netflix Ayres, who was a showrunner on the Emmy and BAFTA-nominated series The Slap and co-created the hit series Glitch, describes The Survivors as a Trojan horse. 'It's a family melodrama disguised as a murder mystery,' he says. 'Because the things that are really at its heart are things like a son wanting his mother's love and the mother who just cannot afford to give it because her whole world might fall apart.' For her part, De Gouw was also able to explore a new location after landing in Tasmania early last year. 'We shot January through March, which was perfect — it was dreamy,' she explains. 'It's so beautiful — I had never been before, so I had a great time being a tourist as well. We shot in incredible locations, including Eaglehawk Neck, which is an hour outside of Hobart.' It was so idyllic De Gouw found herself browsing online real-estate sites and dreaming of laying down roots in that corner of the country. But an escape to the wilds of Tasmania will have to wait for now. De Gouw needs to get back to the UK. Her last major role was in the critically acclaimed British series The Couple Next Door, which also starred Outlander's Sam Heughan, and there are more projects in the pipeline in that part of the world. Jessica De Gouw in The Couple Next Door. Credit: Supplied / TheWest In many ways, De Gouw's career has played out back-to-front compared to so many Australian actors who follow the bright lights straight to Hollywood. 'I definitely did that path — Perth, Sydney, LA — but then I found myself in London, and I found my community more there than I had in LA,' she says. 'LA is amazing, but it's a tough town, and a town of extremes: extremely wonderful times and extremely stressful times, so I found it hard to be able to sit there, at ease. 'But now I think COVID has changed everything: it doesn't matter where you are now, because very rarely do you go into the room for auditions . . . 'I would love it if audition rooms opened up a little more, but it does provide a lot of flexibility for me. I can be in Sydney auditioning for things in London, and then in London auditioning for roles back in Australia.' More airports for De Gouw, undoubtedly. But also more adventures.
West Australian
5 days ago
- West Australian
Global corporate travel a casualty of Donald Trump's war on trade
Optimism in the global business travel sector has dropped by more than half this year, according to a report published by the Global Business Travel Association. Positive sentiment fell from 67 per cent in November 2024 to 31 per cent in April 2025, according to the report which surveyed more than 900 business travel professionals on the affect of tariffs, tightened border policies and other US government policies announced this year. More than one in four respondents in Canada, the US and Europe said they felt 'pessimistic' or 'very pessimistic' about the industry outlook this year. However, 40 per cent of those surveyed said they felt neither positive nor negative. 'Since I have been in my role for four years, I haven't seen this high of a level of uncertainty,' Suzanne Neufang, the association's CEO, said. The survey showed nearly 30 per cent of business travel buyers anticipate their companies will reduce employee trips this year, while some 20 per cent said they weren't sure, it showed. 'They're not even confident enough to be able to say things will be fine or things won't be fine,' she said. Some 27 per cent of respondents also said they expect business travel spending to decrease as well. A third of business travel buyers said their companies have either changed, or are considering changing, policies regarding travel to or from the US, the report showed. Some 6 per cent said their companies had relocated events from the US to another country. 'From an APAC perspective, and certainly from a European perspective, maybe even LATAM, there's the opportunity to be the source of where these meetings take place,' Neufang said. 'There are many other opportunities to be a winner in this trade game.' Business travel professionals expressed several concerns about the potential for the long-term impact caused by decisions of the Trump Administration this year, led by worries over business travel costs (54 per cent) and problems processing visas (46 per cent). Global airfares, however, are slightly down — about $US17, or 2.2 per cent year-to-date — according to FCM Consulting, a division of the business travel company FCM Travel. Nevertheless, the global business travel market is still on track to top $US1.6 trillion by the end of 2025, Neufang said. However, she said that's only 'if the last 100 days don't impact negatively everywhere'. By 2028, the Global Business Travel Association expects, that number will cross the $US2tr mark, she said. She noted that while business travel volumes haven't returned to pre-pandemic levels, business travel spending fully recovered in 2024, partly as a result of inflation. But she said the trade war initiated by the Trump Administration could spell a bout of new business trips. 'During times of trade wars, business travel may actually increase for at least a period of time — for new partners to be found [and] new markets to be built,' she said. 'You lose a customer, you need to find another one. So I think that perspective doesn't mean all doom and gloom for us.' However, if tariffs remain elevated, 'There will definitely be an impact to U.S. travel ... But I think Europe, Asia, Europe to Asia, Asia to Europe. I think anywhere to Africa, all of those are probably fine.' Leisure travel to the United States has fallen in 2025. International visitor spending is projected to drop 4.7 per cent from 2024, representing some $8.5 billion for the U.S. travel industry, in a year revenues were once widely expected to grow. CNBC
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Your questions: What's the best way to travel around Sicily?
From here, an optional inclusion is Hangzhou, an 11-hour train ride. Hangzhou is one of China's most beautiful cities, sprawling across the banks of the Qiangtang River. A highlight is West Lake, where willow-lined banks, temples, pavilions and arched bridges backed by misty hills has fuelled the imaginations of painters and poets over generations. Hangzhou is also the gateway to the Longjing Tea Plantations, source of dragon well tea, celebrated across China for its fragrance, flavour and elegance. Hangzhou has been a centre for the silk trade for thousands of years and the city maintains its historic connection with it via its lively silk market and the China National Silk Museum. The fastest trains from Hangzhou to Beijing take four and a half hours. My husband and I finish a European river cruise in Budapest in the early European summer. We would like to see a little more of Hungary and then tour Romania. We are happy to join a small-group tour. Are there any companies you can recommend and must-see destinations? J. Mulders, Menai, NSW Apart from Budapest, the main sites to include in a tour of Hungary are Pecs for its early Christian Necropolis, its cathedral and its vibrant arts scene; the Tokaj Wine Region; Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe; Szentendre which is famous for its Baroque architecture, churches, colourful houses and narrow, cobbled streets, and Eger, which has a handsome medieval castle, thermal baths, Baroque buildings and the most northerly Ottoman minaret. Most tour operators tend to lump Hungary together with Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland or all three. One of the few operators that offers tours of Hungary is JayWay Travel, which has a 12-day independent tour, with accommodation, transport and guides provided. In Romania the main drawcard is the Transylvania region, home to Saxon towns with fortified churches, Peles Palace, a neo-Renaissance castle built on the late 1800s by King Carol I and Sighisoara, the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel. Here you can also see bears in the wild, and Romania has Europe's largest population of brown bears. A longer journey would take you north into the rolling hills of Maramures, a rich rural tapestry of villages dominated by timber church spires and high pastures where enormous dogs guard flocks of sheep from wolves. To the east are the painted monasteries of the Bukovina region. To organise a tour of Romania, contact Diana Condrea of Uncover Romania. I have been on an African safari and would love to take my adult children, their partners and one grandchild to Kenya and Tanzania for about two weeks. That's five adults plus one child. We are happy to stay in tented camps and a lodge or two. Is it possible to do it for about $40,000 excluding airfares? J. Stewart, Turner, ACT That sounds like a reasonable budget for your group. Sydney-based Bench Africa are the experts, they've been taking Australian travellers on African wildlife safaris for decades, and they can tailor a tour to fit your needs. Tent-based camping safaris are an excellent concept for family groups, offering immersion in the 'real' Africa, as well as a high level of comfort at a reasonable cost.
