Bangkok - parts of the city
Downtown
Downtown Bangkok is nestled into a bend of the Chao Phaya River that makes its boundary to the west, the northwest and the south. Most of the old architectural monuments of the capital lie in this area, among them the Grand Palace and a large number of the most interesting Wats (temples).
Aside from the Grand Palace with its large walled compound, the main landmark of the area is the Democracy Monument on Ratchadamnoen Klang, an eight- to ten-lane road. Near to the Democracy Monument is the Khao San Road area, preferred by Western budget travelers for its large number of low-price guest houses.
The northern downtown is were most edifices of the national government are located.
Chinatown
Chinatown could be considered part of downtown as it lies in the bend of the Chao Phaya River, south of the Democracy Monument area. The main traffic artery of Chinatown is Yaowaraj Road. As any Chinatown anywhere in the world, the Chinatown of Bangkok is characterized by an above average density of population.
As a shopping area, especially for foreign visitors, Chinatown is widely overrated. While there are some bargains available, the selection and more so the quality of consumer goods is inadequate by Western standards. Most of the items to be found are not only cheap but also rather cheapish. For those who have never seen a Chinatown, it’s worthwhile to go there once for a stroll.
There seems to be much more traffic congestion in Chinatown than in the actual downtown a few kilometers to the north, and the smell of the area is one of car exhausts and sometimes open sewers.
Silom Road Area
The Silom Road area is a modern business and tourist district with a high density of banks as well as the finest hotels in the city.
It is not a main shopping area, and in spite of many tourist oriented hotels, it is not the main area for tourists on package tours. For shopping, the Siam Square area has many advantages over the Silom Road area, and the newer and faster expanding area for visitors on package tours is along Sukhumvit Road.
For the business traveler, Silom Road is convenient because the distances to banks and offices of internationally active companies are short. However, Silom Road is one of the parts of town with a particularly bad air pollution.
The Silom Road area also has the oldest nightlife district for foreign visitors, called Patpong (for details, see chapter Nightlife).
Near to Silom Road is Lumphini Park, indeed a nice walled garden of about one square kilometer in size, with an artificial lake, big enough to support a company that rents out small rowboats, and a joggers’ path furnished with structures and instruments for exercising. Lumphini Park closes at about 20:00 - actually a shame because it would be nice to stroll there in the evenings. During much of the day, Bangkok’s climate is too hot for walking around outside.
Sukhumvit Road Area
The Sukhumvit Road area is the largest modern tourism district of the Thai capital and also the area by far most preferred by foreign residents in Bangkok.
Sukhumvit Road actually is not just a city street but also the city street’s cross-country extension for more than 400 kilometers along the eastern seaboard, passing Pattaya and up to Trat at the Cambodian border.
In Bangkok, Sukhumvit Road is a long straight 6 to 8-lane road with only a few major intersections. Except for a few, all side streets (a side street is called Soi in Thai) are dead-end streets. While this sounds depressing at the first moment, it’s actually a major advantage of the Sukhumvit Road area as a residential district. As the side streets are dead-end streets, there is no passing traffic and in some of the Sois one can live as quiet as in a small town.
While the lower Sukhumvit Road between Soi 3 and Soi 21 is rather touristy, the upper part up to Soi 71 is where many foreign residents live. Around Soi 33 is an area with an especially good Western infrastructure, with a large supermarket as well as butchers, bakers and newsagents (see chapter Shopping), cinemas with English movies and a few good restaurants.
Siam Square Area
The Siam Square Area is the main shopping district of the Thai capital. There are several very large department stores, some of them Japanese. It’s primarily an shopping district for up-market locals but foreign visitors will find many of the items they would want to buy - and at prices lower than in tourist districts and especially lower than in the Silom Road area.
Thonburi
Thonburi ranks somehow higher than just as district of Bangkok as it is encompasses all the areas on the western bank of the Chao Phaya River. Administratively it’s no longer an entity separate from Bangkok, and actually, for most of its history it wasn’t. Bangkok several hundred years back was just a fishing village, located mainly on the eastern bank of the Chao Phaya. When the settlement was upgraded, the communities both on the eastern and the western bank of the Chao Phaya became Thonburi. All of Thonburi became Krung Thep in 1785. Today, Colloquially the part of town on the eastern bank of the Chao Phaya River is called Bangkok, the part on the western bank Thonburi.
In contrary to Bangkok, Thonburi still has many canals (Klongs) and one can get around by boat almost as well as by car or bus. The major sightseeing attractions of Thonburi are Wat Arun and the Royal Barges.
Bangkok Noi, Bangkok Yai
The foreign visitor may find it irritating but these two districts are not in Bangkok but in Thonburi.
Klong Thoey
This port district of the Thai capital, along the left bank of the Chao Phaya River in the south of Bangkok, is one of the poorest parts of the capital. There are no real slums in Bangkok but squatter areas in Klong Thoey come pretty close to qualify as such. Penang Market in Klong Thoey has the reputation of trading in smuggled electronics at prices lower than those of areas with legitimate merchandize. Best access to the Klong Thoey district is via Rama IV Road.
Phrakanong
Much of the Sukhumvit Road area described above administratively belongs to the district of Phrakanong, a designation which is, however, not in use among foreign residents in Bangkok.
In a more narrow sense, Phrakanong is the lower Sukhumvit Road area, around Soi 71. Despite its closeness to the middle and upper Sukhumvit Road area, the Phrakanong area around Soi 71 is not much frequented by foreign residents, and even less by foreign tourists. This may change as it actually is a good shopping area, especially for household products. There are several department stores and prices are lower than in the Siam Square area.
Hua Mark, Bangkapi
These are two districts in the northeast of Bangkok. Hua Mark has the huge Ramkhamhaeng University, one of the largest in the world. It’s not one of the long established and rather exclusive Thai universities where studying entails considerable expenses but rather an institution for students from poorer families.
Bangkapi is a large northeastern district of Bangkok. The Hua Mark area administratively is part of Bangkapi. Most of Bangkapi are pleasant residential areas with much less air pollution than more central parts of Bangkok. It’s not quite as industrial as the extension of Sukhumvit Road to Bangna or areas more directly to the north of the actual Bangkok. Many townhouse as well as single house villages for middle-income Thais have been built in Bangkapi in recent years, and it’s a good area to rent a home for those who do not have dealings in central Bangkok every day. Commuting into the Silom Road area will take around two hours on an ordinary day.
Dindaeng, Ladprao
The Dindaeng district is northeast of the Siam Square area. Because of its proximity to the northern downtown area where most of the ministries of the national government are located, the Dindaeng district also has a considerable infrastructure of public offices.
The main traffic artery of Dindaeng is Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, a wide road where traffic flows better than in many other parts of Bangkok. Furthermore, Vibhavadi Rangsit Road leads directly to the international airport, 20 kilometers to the north at Don Muang.
Ladprao is the district north of Dindaeng. The main traffic artery of the Ladprao district is Ladprao Road.
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