Bangkok Things to Do Tips by PS_Lee81

Chatuchak Weekend Market... is the market really open only during the weekend? i dont know... but i personally think it is not true. Maybe there are infact extra shops/stalls open during the weekend, causing the place goes mad during Sat and Sun. And during weekdays, only several open for business...
One thing is true... there are really really really a lot lot lot of shops and stalls selling different different different kinds of stuffs such as:

- Books & Collection
- Decorations
- Plants & Gardening Tools
- Clothing
- Home Utensils
- Handcrafts
- Pets & Pet Accessories
- Furniture
- Antique
- Arts

Same tip as others, go early if you wanted to avoid the crowd, and try to wear light. Bring along more water as you will get dehydrated in the heat of crowd.
One thing i notice is that there are more stalls open along the empty street within the market after 4/5pm. But they are actually the same original stalls, only that they want to grab the visitors walking thru the empty street. So it is still advisable to go in the early morning...

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Address: Mo Chit Station, Bangkok
Directions: Simply take the Skytrain to the end terminal called Morchit which is exactly where the market is located.

if you suddenly appeared at Kao San Road, you must be mistakenly thinking that you are somewhere in western country. Look around, you will find that most of the people (>70%) are foreigners or farangs... with the western style bar, restaurant, etc... everywhere is lifely... along the main street, you can see people doing shoping from the street stalls, people having their hair set, tasting the local foods, etc.
Look carefully at the row of shops, most of them are travel agents, arranging your short and long term travel, getting you budget hostel, getting you bus/train/flight/taxi/cow ticket... almost everything you can ask them to arrange for you...
But if you wanted to experience the local life, go other places...

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Address: T. Khoa San Road (KSR) BKK

we reach here around 6pm, and the sky was so dark as you can see from one of my photo.
I can say this is a more organized and arranged version of Chatuchak Weekend Market. You can see all the shops and stalls are properly line up, with proper path way for visitor to walk around. But here you can see most of the visitor are tourist instead of local people compared to Chatuchak Weekend Market. And of course the price i believe is slightly higher.... My advice is go for Chatuchak Weekend Market first if you have anything to buy, and only come here if you miss out something that you really need to buy.

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Address: Lumpini MRT Station

Wat Phra and the Grand Palace... sound so big and awesome! It really is... Wat Phra is one of the must-see spot in Bangkok. There is the Wat Phra Kew to the left and Grand Palace to the right, all in the same compound.
We reached there around 10.30am and it was already halfly crowded with tourist. The entrance fees was THB250 (as at July'06), including the entrance fees to the Royal Thai Musuem just before the gate into the Wat Phra. I read the entrance fees before heading to Bangkok was THB200, so maybe they just increased the fees not very long ago.

You can see there is a very nice mural about the Thais history along the wall as you pass thru the entrance gate of Wat Phra. A few famous statues are long the pathway as you proceed to the center of Wat Phra. At the center, you can see a nicely decorated Wat, and just imagine how long they actually took to build the whole place... amazing...

after the Wat Phra, you will proceed to the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace is forbidden of entry, so you can just take photo from outside across the grass field... this place really is a must visit spot as you will have totally different experience compare to any photos taken...

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Phone: 02-224-1833
Address: Maharaj Pier, Chao Phraya, Bangkok
Website: http://www.discoverthailand.com/

On the way from Wat Phra (Grand Palace) to Wat Pho, we heard a lot of liars keep telling us that Wat Pho was closed and offered to bring us to other places. Thanks to other VT members' tips, we knew it was a con!

The entrance fee is THB50 (as at July'06) per person. I read about a secret pathway into the wat that you dont need to pay any penny. Guess what, you actually dont need to pay anything to go in, and nobody ever bother about it. But we only found out about it after we bought the ticket from the ticket booth. Nobody ever ask to check our ticket or anything. Everybody just come and go freely... But hey, just treat it as a good will, so that they can use your money to maintain the wat so your son or grandson can come and visit in the future :)

inside the wat, you can see huge golden reclining Buddha just nicely fitted into the house. It will look nicer if the house can be a little bit bigger so you can view the whole Buddha from a distance. At the feet of the Buddha, there are some drawings which i dont really know what it is, but it is nice.. heheheh.... Then you you will come across a long queue where people put coins into a 12" steel container along the way out. You can donate any amount to get the changes to put into the container. Unluckily, we finished putting our coins into the first few containers before the container ends. I think this is for good luck...

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Phone: 02-221-991
Address: Tha Tien Pier, Chao Phraya River, Bangkok
Directions: The entrance to Wat Pho is on Chetuphon road. Entrance is 20B. It's open every day, opening hours are from 08.00am to 5.00pm, with a break from 12.00pm to 1.00pm.
Website: http://www.discoverthailand.com/

as you can see from the photo, it says "I.C.P Flower Market". this place was somewhere near to Pak Klong Talat... we came here with great expectation of seeing a lots lots of pretty and fresh flowers. But it ended up we only saw most people selling veges and fruits. Maybe we went to the wrong entrance. But it was still an experience that we managed to see all kind of differents vege and fruit to be sold at this market.

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we visited Bangkok during the Buddha Days. I think that's why every Wat we went, there surely will be ceremony going on.
They said this Buddha statue was made of pure GOLD. The truth of it was not known until the monks tried to relocate the Buddha long time ago after the Burmish invasion. So now this temple surely worth a fortune... But the magic of it is that once you're in the temple, everything seems very peaceful and relax. Even by just sitting on the floor looking at the Buddha, you can find your inner peace.... hehehe... maybe you wanna try it one day.

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Phone: 623 1226
Address: Thanon Yaowarat
Directions: Near Hualamphong Station

we passed by this place on our way to Chinatown from Wat Traimit. The entrance shows the word 'Tian Hua Hospital'. But from what i can see, there was a temple in the same compound area as the hospital. And you can see the status of The Godness of Mercy in the temple. I think they purposely built it beside the hospital so that the patients or their friends and relatives can pray for the best of their health. ^_^

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First, you'll get to see a lot of Chinese people along the streets. Of course, it is obvious to see Chinese at ChinaTown. But the differrent of the Chinese society here compare to other country's ChinaTown, i think is that most if not all of them speak Thai language, instead of Chinese language itself. Surely the Thai language influence their life very very much. They have little chance to learn Chinese coz everybody is using Thai language as the communication medium. Even 90% of their TV programs are being translated into Thai language...

But the Chinese culture of eating BirdNest and SharkFin is very strong. You can see a lot of BirdNest and SharkFin shops along every streets. See more about SharkFin and BirdNest at my 'Restaurant' page

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Address: Ratchawongsi Pier, Chao Phraya River Tour, Bangkok
Directions: To view typical China Town scences straight ahead to Ratchawongsi Road until the intersection of Yaowarat Road.

we stopped at this place on our way to the Floating Market around 10am... We were shown the way how the local people transformed part of the coconut into sugar. The sugar was actually not in white color as we normally consumed, but was slightly in brown color as you can see in my photo. Besides that, there were also other handcrafts made by using the other part from coconut, such as their trunk, leaves, etc... every parts of coconut seems to be fully usable. The only thing that i think they dont have at this place is Coconut water! ^_^

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