AÂ friend asked for my Bangkok itinerary, so I thought I might as well type it out here for everyone’s future reference! See below for activities and tips, hopefully you’ll make less mistakes than we did!
Wednesday Night Traffic
Day 1 (Wednesday)
Afternoon
Arrive at Don Muang International Airport. Catch cab to Lemontea Hotel, Pratunam.
Get the meter taxi at the counter at Gate 8! Big difference from the taxis right outside the International Arrival Gate.
You can get a tourist sim card right outside the International Arrival Gate, there are many people selling sim cards. They all seem to have similar packages THB299 for 7 days including 4G data.
Lemontea Hotel in Pratunam is a nice, clean, cozy and spacious hotel. It is near all the Pratunam attractions but a bit of a walk to a BTS station. You can get here from Don Muang International Airport for around THB270. There’s a 7 eleven next door and an abundance of massage parlours and tuk tuks nearby.
Night
Walk around Pratunam area.
The big malls (Platinum Fashion Mall, Big C, Central World) are all in the left direction along the main road. You’ll need to cross one of the 3 overhead bridges to get to all the malls.
There’s lots of food trucks further down from Platinum Fashion Mall (infront of Novotel)
BTS is very near the Central World Mall. Just follow the huge white ‘shelter’ bridge thing. Can also access through Gaysorn Shopping Center. Here’s the “big white shelter” haha:
Night scene in front of Platinum Fashion Mall
Day 2 (Thursday)
Day
Sab X 2 Wonton Noodles, Pratunam, Soi 19
Get your first meal of the day nearby. This store is on the Soi 19 street, right opposite the Grand Diamond Building / the road beside Shibuya 19 shopping mall.
If you see a huge yellow banner saying, “No Branch in Singapore”, there it is!
You can get dry or soup noodles and pork rice. All very tasty. Matt liked the chilli on the table.
This place is closed on Tuesday.
More pictures on my Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSWUSN4gwWP/?taken-by=daphnesiaw
Bangkok Art and Culture Center (Free)
Take the BTS to National Stadium. It’s right outside & opposite MBK.
It wasn’t very impressive to us, but you could probably spend about an hour there. Read more about this place HERE.
You can walk around the area after that. Apparently Jim Thompsons House is in the area too. But we didn’t know that at the time so we didn’t go. Look it up!
Night
Siam Discovery
Since Siam Station is just one stop away, we went to discover Siam Square. There are alot of malls in the area but we spent time in Siam Discovery.
It has fantastic interior design on every floor and lots of pretty things to buy.
Check out the top floor, it’s beautiful, with a game & collectibles store and huge co-working spaces.
There’s also cool electronic stores there like DJI, Alienware, etc.
Siam Discovery
Siam Discovery
Siam Paragon
Siam Paragon is like Pavilion KL. We ate at the food court downstairs, but there are also many restaurants on the top (I think ) floor.
If you choose the foodcourt, you MUST TRY Gyoza Teraoka. Order the mentai cheeze gyoza. We went back twice.
We also went to watch Ghost in the Shell in Paragon Cineplex in 4D (where your chairs shake, and you get to see bubbles in the air, smell weird smells,etc that supposedly spices up your experience lol) It’s quite similar to the 4D rides in Universal Studios if you’ve been.
OH YA, you can get Koi milk tea at the opposite mall from Siam Paragon. Just cross the BTS area, it’s on the right, up a short flight of stairs. Bubble Milk Tea is not common at all in the malls, so if you miss it, you can get your cup there.
Gyoza Teraoka
Day 3 (Friday)
Day
Grand Palace & Emerald Buddha, Wat Pho, Wat Arun (Entrance Fees Apply)
All these places are very near each other. Best way to get there is by Chao Phraya Express Boat. This express boat system is like a boat version of an MRT system, with a ferry-like boat that stops at every station (which are called Piers).
Tuk tuk drivers and other “helpful” people at the piers might want to give you “advise” and charge you more than normal. Focus on where you need to go.
TO GET THERE: Take the BTS to Saphan Taksin station. Go down under the bridge to Central Pier (Sathorn Pier) and take the Chao Phraya express boat coming from your left, and get off at Ta Chang pier (pier N9).
The boat fare should only be a few Ringgit. If someone tries to sell you a boat ticket more than THB100, walk away. Make sure you’re at an actual pier instead of some random dock to avoid this.
When you arrive at Pier 9, walk straight through the market, and you’ll see the white Grand Palace walls in front of you. There are police there, so you could ask them for directions.
The Grand Palace closes at 4.30pm. Would advise you to go early in the morning because it can be VERY HOT and crowded in the afternoon. Bring an umbrella if you have.
For the Grand Palace, you need to wear decently, cover shoulders and knees for women. Don’t remember what for men, I think it’s long pants. Look it up. Haha.
When you go in to see the Emerald Buddha, you got to take of your shoes and leave them outside (I’m paranoid so Matt and I took turns to watch our shoes, but it should be fine to leave them there.)
Wat Pho is about a 10 minute walk down the road. You could see the huge Reclining Buddha there.
Wat Arun is across the river from Grand Palace. We did not go in but we had to pass by it to get to the Pier to get back to the Central Pier.
Chao Phraya Express Boat Looks like this
Not like this:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSTUYv4AKOY/?taken-by=daphnesiaw
Emerald Buddha
Queen of Curry Lunch
We actually ate here before heading to the Grand Palace because we woke late everyday haha.
This place is very near the Central Pier, near Shangri-la Hotel
It’s rated well on Trip Advisor. To us, it was not bad, but we didn’t try to curry because the weather was hot enough. Here’s a picture of one of the dishes:
Night
Asiatique
Since you’re already along the river and at Central Pier, you might as well take the FREE Asiatique boat to Asiatique. Make sure you’re in the correct line for the free boat. The boat has a pink stripe on the roof and an Asiatique flag.
Asiatique is a pretty place by the waterfront where there is food, shopping, markets and a ferris wheel.
We ate western at Why 97 and listened to the live band there.
Asiatique Riverfront
Why 97 Restaurant
Day 4 (Saturday)
Day
Chatuchak Weekend Market
I guess we should all go see the famous Chatuchak Weekend Market at least once.
There’s lots of things to see such as clothes, food, pets, art, furniture, etc. It’s easy to get lost in there because there are so many sections and nothing is in order.
I thought it was quite an interesting walk though, because there is just so much to see. Even though the quality of clothes I’m interested in isn’t the best. I bought only one romper which is already spoilt. It’s color also stained the rest of my clothes in the wash HAHA.
Night
Ninive Games (Board Game Cafe)
We went to a this humble little board game cafe because Matt’s a board game geek, and also because this place is quite near a BTS station.
They had nice wood fired pizzas.
Nice place to chill over tidbits, and play some boardgames if you’re into that kind of thing.
Chatuchak Weekend Market
Day 5 (Sunday)
Day
Shopping at Platinum Fashion Mall
We decided not to go to very touristy places on Sunday incase it would be packed, so we went to shop nearby.
Platinum Fashion Mall is filled with very trendy clothes. Very cheap, like THB200 a blouse kind of cheap. The more you buy, the cheaper. Only downside is that you can’t try them.
I bought 2 women’s blouse which are of so-so quality. Bought guys T-Shirts, which are not bad. I think because men clothes shapes are pretty standard, unlike women’s.
It’s an interesting walk in there though, as you can see other little businesses going on such as people pushing trollies of clothes (maybe to bring back to other countries to sell). You can also see people with plastic bag trollies, selling plastic bags to the stores inside. There are also little food carts here and there.
Shopping at Central World
Central World is like Mid Valley, KL. There are high end and mid end brands. Bought Stradivarius and Pull and Bear denim there.
Ooh, I think we saw a super fancy Razor Show Room here. They sell few things there, but have lots of stuff to let you “touch” and play with.
Also, kinda weird that majority of restaurants here are Japanese. It’s like Thai really like Japanese food, while they speak lots of Chinese.
Night
Battlefield Bangkok
We went to another boardgame store that night which was a little further. Lots of games, Matt was excited. However, the games were not cheaper than purchasing them from Malaysia, so he only bought a small game called Timeline. Which was a very fun, easy, educational game.
This store is very near this famous dining place called Devilish Eats, Bangkok. It has high ratings but we didn’t eat there.
Day 6 (Monday)
All Day
Shopping at Siam Center, Siam Paragon (Siam Square)
It’s very hot in Bangkok, and we haven’t bought anything, so we decided, we should get some shopping done in a cool place. haha. Also, we are really bad at shopping at flea markets.
We bought quite a lot of stuff in Siam Paragon’s departmental store. Tourists can get VAT refund above THB2,000 (if I remember correctly).
At night, we went to catch Beauty and the Beast in Paragon Cineplex again. Oh yeah, before any movie begins, we will be asked to stand and pay respect to a song featuring their King.
Day 7 (Tuesday)
All Day
Terminal 21Â
Checked out Terminal 21 at Asok BTS. It’s a mall known for different city themes at every floor such as Tokyo, Istanbul, San Francisco, London.. It’s not as huge and impressive as Central World or the malls at Siam. But there are a lot of small boutiques there. We were done with the place in an hour or two.
Central Plaza: Muji & Greyhound Cafe
There are not alot of Mujis in Bangkok and we wanted to get the neck pillow since Matt’s sit-sleeping posture is just detrimental to his health. So we went there and got everything we could have gotten in SG / KL.
Greyhound Cafe however, was superb! Great western food. Beautiful environment. Highly recommended for western food.
Fresh Squids and Prawn Salad at Greyhound Cafe. Recommended!
Chill and Send Postcards
We were winding down, and weren’t very adventurous this day. We wanted to go to a rooftop bar at night but it drizzled, so no luck there. We end up going back to a few of our favourite things:
Finish walking ALL AROUND Siam Paragon (visited Kinokuniya in there – MAJORLY INSPIRED BY THE BOOKS)
Buy another cup of Koi Milk Tea near Siam BTS
Ate Gyoza Teraoka’s cheese gyoza AGAIN
Bought some Postcards in Central World at this gift stand near the escalator called Jumbo Gift. It’s near the Adidas Store. That’s the only place where I found interesting postcards. It’s really hard to find artsy postcards in the city! You should buy local stamps straight from that same store, its THB15 to send around the world. Standard rate. They’re friendly and will let you write on your postcards there.
There’s a postoffice at B4 floor of the same building where you can post the postcards. They don’t sell stamps there, they just stick some boring black and white mail sticker that’s also THB15. So yeah, getting stamps from that gift store earlier is cooler. I didn’t know this then. 🙁
There’s also a little art store near the gift store. I bought loose/individual Prisma Color Pencils there!!! Yes, they had full boxes, and sold the pencils individually. Was so happy. Managed to stock up on colours I was lacking.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSQzyP-gaP4/?taken-by=daphnesiaw
Day 8: Leaving Bangkok
The hotel can hail a cab for you at a fix rate of THB400. They’ll say it’s extremely hard to hail a meter cab there. Since our meter ride to the hotel was THB270 on the first day, we thought the difference was acceptable. So we let them get us a cab. You can also check out Grab Taxi and Uber for transportation options.
Finally, additional notes:
Personally didn’t want to catch a Tuk Tuk to any BTS because they aren’t very honest and need to be haggled with. We rather walk.
All massage parlours in the area offer 1 hr massages for about THB250. We thought it was cheap because it’s 5 times more expensive in Kuching. Our go-to massage place is the Singapore managed one that is very near the 7-eleven near Lemontea Hotel. It’s better than the one by the mainroad. They’re more detailed.
There’s a western-ish breakfast place called The Period beside the same massage place, if you miss coffee.
Thai coffee is quite nice. But their milk is quite sweet. Had a 100% Arabica coffee in Chatuchak. Pretty good. There’s also drip coffee in the Art and Culture Center, smelled nice but didn’t try.
There’s an abundance of Japanese restaurants everywhere.
Thais seem to speak more/better Chinese than English.
Most trains are generally full of people at all times of the day. Didn’t even meet with that many people in Singapore and Japan. So, avoid rush hours!
Lastly, check out the Erawan Shrine in the evenings (Near Central World BTS). There are dancers there and people praying. Interesting site.
Hope all this is informative enough! Do leave a comment if you have any questions or email me at artsydaphy@gmail.com
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THANK YOU!!!!
Stumbled on the World Food Expo 2017 in front of Central World. Decorated to be like Santorini.
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