An Insight Guide to Thailand

A bang for your buck? Go to Bangkok! (or at least get the Insight Guide to Bangkok!)

Bangkok has always been associated with cheap and amazing shopping, at least that’s what I thought when I planned a trip there recently. However, Bangkok offers up so much more in terms of cultural immersion and sensory pleasures.

In this issue, we’ve got some picks that have been exclusively recommended by Insight Guide to Bangkok.

Bangkok presents any traveller with the chance to be awed and amazed by it’s rich cultural history and diversity. The best way to experience Bangkok’s cultural nuances is by taking a trip down the heartbeat of Bangkok, The Chao Phraya River. You can take a boat at Tha Chang, a pier near the Grand Palace, or Tha Si Phraya near the River City Shopping Complex. There will be several boat piers as you travel along the river and you can drop at any of them to further explore the attractions within.

One of the must-stops for any visitor is Rattanakosin, an artificial island in the middle of the river. This island is home to the majestic Grand Palace and many other architectural marvels such as the Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and Wat Pho (the city’s largest and oldest surviving temple).
Exploring Rattanokosin can be a full day affair and is best done on foot. So do come prepared with comfortable footwear as well as decent and conservative clothes as most of the temples require visitors to be conservatively dressed before they can enter.

If you find yourself sore all over from all that walking around the immense palace and temple grounds, do take time to visit the Wat Pho Thai Traditional Massage School which is south of the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew complex. They offer cheap hour-long massages, as well as courses for those who want to learn more about the subtle art of Thai massage, and you do not have to worry about quality being compromised as this is The Place to learn about traditional Thai massage and medicine.

The best thing about the place is that if you do get bored or are too overwhelmed with the crowd (it can get pretty crowded with visitors on some days), you can just make your way to the pier and hop onto a Chao Phraya express boat and make your way to another destination along the river, be it Thonburi (where you might find the floating markets if you venture up the canals) or the Old City and Dusit Park. Another bonus is that the admission ticket that you purchased to enter Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace also allows you access to many of Dusit’s sights free of charge like the Vimanmek Mansion and the Royal Elephant Museum. So don’t throw away that admission ticket!

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