Bangkok travel guide

Thailand is one such place where no matter how many days you have on hand, there would be enough to see and do.

Bangkok (BKK) likewise is a place where you need to have done your homework before you land there as hardly anyone speaks English and like I said, there is so much to do, it pays to have done some pre-reading and prioritisation. The THB 1,000 per person visa on arrival (VOA) for Indians is pretty hassle free. A list of documents required for VOA is  listed at the end of this post.

The transportation from the airport to the city is simpler than it reads on all the articles on the topic. Google the distance between your hotel and airport and accordingly decide what mode to opt for. The airport line of sky train, the taxi or the metro train.

BKK has a reputation for traffic jams, but going from India, the traffic seems 'not that bad' except the time between signal change is too long, making the journey seem longer.The underground metro (MTS)and sky trains (BTS) makes commuting in the city very simple. Print a map of the metro and train lines and rest is a breeze. Check the fare from the map at the station, get the bill broken at the counter(meaning get change from the counter for buying tickets from the vending machine) and at the machine is a 4 step process to get the token/card. If you are using the BTS after 7PM, then make sure you have the change on you, cause there would be a lot of people buying tickets at that hour, the person doling out change would have left for the day and many machines go 'out of service' probably being out of change.

I loved the way, the sky train stations connected directly to the malls, so even without stepping onto the road you could go over the entire town. Well, almost. We had 3.5 days in Bangkok and this is what we opted to do:

1. Shopping: Please understand that if someone is telling you BKK is cheaper they just don't know enough. The Thai Baht is almost twice as strong as the Indian Rupee so everything is half as expensive in India in terms of amount in absolute terms, but convert it and its almost what it would cost in India. There is one product which is an exception and that is television. TV's are really cheap, half of what it would cost in India (after conversion of course)

Having settled the 'inexpensive myth', this is a city with endless malls and malls all over the world are so similar, it is hardly worth going into them. There are 'markets' though, like the endless roadside shops in any Indian city, where bargaining is the essence of shopping.

We chose MBK(10:00 - 22:00, National Stadium BTS) and Chatuchak weekend market (Sat and Sun 09:00 - 18:00, Mo Chit BTS, it is open on fridays as well but not sure of the time). MBK is in a building, but there is a section there which resembles the roadside markets, that's the section you should be going into. Chatuchak has its charm and its huge with all kinds of things available, just start somewhere and go around bargaining the place down.

TV buying is a different ball game, check for offers in the various markets you visit in MBK, Central world, Pahurat(the Indian market, stocks mainly Sony and customers get treated as badly as they get treated in an Indian sole owner shop). After all the looking around, found the shops in the alley of Big C to be the cheapest(opposite to central world-Ratchadamri BTS), you get the TV's here at wholesale price. Make sure you collect the yellow copy of the invoice to claim VAT refund from the airport, which is another simple process of getting the TV inspected at row 'H' of departure area of Suvarnabhumi airport (the authorities will look at it and stamp it) then after immigration, at approach to gate D, there is the VAT refund counter, just line up and get the refund in THB less THB 100 for admin charges. I could be off with the gate No's but not about the simplicity of the process.

* Effective August 26, 2013, all imports of TV's into India will be taxed at 36.05% on the value of the TV being imported including the taxes. So TV does not form part of the duty free allowances allowed for stay of more than 3 days abroad. So evaluate whether it is worth importing it now even if you were to save about 15% on Indian prices as the risks involved of the TV getting handled by so many people in airports and the fear of damage is always present.

 

2. Siam ocean world (10:00 - 21:00, Siam BTS): Not having anything of this league in India, is nice to visit this place although bits of this place resembles a zoo. The walk thorough aquarium is nice with its groupers, rays and sharks. The ticket if bought across the counter/on the website is quite expensive, I bought it on www.sightseeingbangkok.com at almost half the price. There is a glass bottom boat ride and a 5D show as well on the same ticket. The stone fishes, the huge crabs, the jelly fishes, the sea horses, the coral in one of the huge tanks were all beautiful. But nevertheless, this is a zoo.

3. Siam Niramit Cultural show (17.30 - 22:00, Thai Cultural centre MTS, 80 minute show starts at 20:00): Has replicas of Thai village houses complete with mini paddy fields, real croaking frogs and a pond with a wooden boat. The complimentary Thai crackers (roasted rice with coconut) and rice pudding (rice and coconut mixture cooked like our paddu/gunthapangnal/paniyaram) was excellent. Also get to see items used in Thai traditional puppetry, musicians playing traditional instruments and boutique painters at work. There are also pre-show dances which can be photographed. The main show cannot be photographed, don't even attempt it as many keen eyes keep watch. The show is excellent, its been awarded as the highest stage in the world by Guinness book of records, whatever that means, the stage is really nice and the show is excellent with 3 acts on Thai history, culture and beliefs. The only flip side to the show is the usage of an elephant on stage, not to mention goats and a cock. Cost wise again the show on the website is expensive. I bought it on www.Bangkok.com at half the price.

4. Cruise on Chao Paraya river (www.laynova.com): There are many companies organising cruises on the river. We took the sun-set cruise with the only company that was offering vegetarian food. It was too expensive at THB 1600 per person for just 2 hours and I don't think it was worth the money. Can do this on your own by taking a cheaper one without food perhaps or just take the boat buses that ply the river till it gets dark.

5. Temples: The closest BTS to the popular cluster of temples is National stadium, from there its a taxi drive to the temples. There are other ways and routes to getting to the temples but I found this to be the most hassle free. Else, the cheaper one would be to take a train to Saphan Taksin BTS which is close to the river boat station-central pier and take a boat bus from there (but bear in mind, depending on where you travel from, the BTS fare itself could be substantial.) Unless, you are making the BKK trip into a pilgrimage, would think getting the flavour of the Wat's (temples) by a couple of temple visits is good enough. We visited the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho (the birth place of Thai massage, the massage centres are quite popular with tourists here, I skipped it though) and Wat Arun across the river from Wat Pho, the crossing is by boat and costs just THB 3 per person. Mind the dress codes to these temples, no ankle to be seen, like in the padmanabhaswamy temple, no strapless sandals, no tight jeans, well in a word, dress conservatively, or just borrow the temple cover up dress before entering the sanctum.

6. Flower market: Less than a KM walk from Wat Pho is a beautiful flower market with loads of different variety of flowers. The fact that it wasn't on any body's 'must see' was reason enough for me to go there and I wasn't disappointed. Its a 24 hour market, with the loading/unloading busiest from 2AM to 6AM. But stroll in at any time of the day and enjoy the colours and fragrance of the place.

The things we missed/skipped:

1. Missed for want of time: Erawan museum with its 3 headed elephant statue at the entrance.

2. Missed for need of sleep: Ban Nam Pheung Floating market, the closest floating market in BKK, transacts on all days between  4AM to 7AM. Every other floating market is out of BKK.

3. Missed for want of time: Grand palace and Wat Prakeau. Grand Palace is next to Wat Pho. The entrance fees for foreigners though is steep at THB 500 per person. But I would have liked to see the emerald Buddha in Wat Prakeau.

4. Missed for lack of want: China town along Yaowarat Road.  Passed though the market and saw jewellery shops lined up on the entire stretch of the  road. Is it cheap? No idea, with no interest in gold, didn't bother looking it up.

5. Skipped: The elephant shows, Safari World, the crocodile show. Didn't go all the way to Thailand to see how differently Thai ill treat animals. The tiger temple beyond Kanchanaburi was not even considered. Hand raised and drugged show pieces of Tigers are demonic, even if monks do it in the name of taking care of orphaned animals.

We squirrelled one day out of our BKK schedule to go to Kanchanaburi and beyond. Kanchanaburi is around 130 KMs from Bangkok. We took an early morning van from just below the victory monument BTS to Kanchanaburi. The initial plan was to hire a bike there and go around, but ended up hiring a tuk-tuk to take us to Erawan falls about 65 KMS away. Erawan falls is a seven tiered falls in Erawan National Park. It was an hour long trek through some dense deciduous forest to the top level. The trek got difficult as we went higher. But it was worth all the effort as we saw the water gliding down from white limestone hill, the emerald green water pool created by the falls is beautiful and there are very few people who make it all the way up. I would have liked to spend at least a night in the beautiful forest, there is also a youth hostel in the forest, probably the next time I visit.

The drive to the national park is beautiful. We pass through a tree lined winding road with mountains keeping us company all the way through, though it is at some distance to be entirely covered in the view finder. There are quite a few stone carving centres on the way with huge abstract shaped stones on display.

The war cemetery in Kanchanaburi, one of the 3 cemeteries of the II WW PoW. 15,000 PoW's of allied forces and over 100,000 civilians died building the railway line connecting Myanmar (Burma)with Siam (Thailand) in 1943 for the Japanese army. The cemetery is beautifully maintained with the graves of 5,000 commonwealth soldiers and 1,800 Dutch soldiers each marked by a head stone of black marble with name, age, battalion and one liners like- 'He died that we might live, ever remembered', 'In the sweet bye and bye we shall meet on that beautiful shore.', 'He answered his nation's call.', 'His duty, nobly and fearlessly done, greater love hath no man.' and next to each head stone, there is a shrub of a flowering plant. 11 Indian soldiers buried elsewhere in Thailand are also remembered as 'died serving their country and the cause of freedom' through a marble stone plaque at the entrance.

We spent some time on the bridge on river Kwai, made famous by the Oscar winning movie of the same name. The current bridge is a metal bridge that replaced the wooden bridge built under Japanese occupation. There are trains that operate across the bridge and go back all the way to BKK. The train runs at 10KMPH on the bridge to accommodate all the tourists monkeying around the bridge, taking photos. There are extensions all over the bridge for people to stand while the train passes by. The driver smiled at us as he passed us, I was wondering how he could watch the stupid tourists day after day and still find it amusing enough to smile.

Kanchanburi is also a good place to pick up some nice T-shirts with the 'bridge and train' prints on it for just THB 100. The 2 war museums are supposed to be very good with 'not to be missed' audio records of the survivors. We reached there with not much time to spare to the closing hour and hence skipped it and spent some time shopping and on the bridge instead.

The last day in Thailand we travelled to Pattaya, 140 KMS from BKK. We had booked a full day snorkeling trip to the far off islands, but as luck would have it, the weather 'prediction' turned out to be bad and snorkeling trip was cancelled so instead we took the boat from Bali Hai pier to the coral islands. Every island there must be a coral island, I cannot recollect the Thai names of the islands. Anyways just ask the ticket issuer for the better island and you would probably be directed to get off at the second island, this is far less crowded. You could hire a bike or a tuk-tuk to go via land to the first island. The first island and second island is just wrt the boat stoppages, else geographically it is one island. The view of the ocean from top of the island and the forest on the hill are beautiful, its worth making that journey.

The water is shades of blue and green. The water near the beach is transparent and the beach is of course of white sand. On these islands, there are loads of activities. You could hire snorkels, water bikes, banana ride or just hire the  beach chairs with the canopy and watch the tide come in. We opted to sea walk, having never done this before, I thought the height of water would be 4 feet, just enough for me to be able to walk in the water. Well, not really, but neither did I fully understand how we would be doing it.

Some law of physics was at work, not sure which one, one huge glass helmet, open at the bottom covers the face and is attached to a tube from the boat that keeps the air circulating in it as we climb down the boat's ladder into water and go down to the bottom of the ocean about 10-15 feet deep and spend a good half hour at the bottom. we feel the change in pressure as we descend and ascend. The visibility here was about 2 feet, no wonder snorkeling wasn't such a huge thing. There were just 4 species of fishes, but there were loads of them.

If it is sea and sea life you are after, skip Pattaya entirely and instead go to Hua Hin, Phi Phi, Koh Samui or one of the other less popular places, those are equally well connected to BKK, less crowded and quality of sea and sea life far more beautiful than Pattaya.

Yes, Vegetarians are going to have it tuff here. Make this a diet holiday eating just the fresh fruits sold on carts. Pineapple, mango, papaya are all peeled and stocked beautifully in the cart and drinking fresh orange juice freshly extracted and filled in mini plastic bottles and stored in an iced box and served with straw, this is unbelievably nice. The oranges are so small its surprising its so sweet that it doesn't even need sugar. Or you could instead eat burgers from KFC and Burger king. But make sure you try the less spicy version of raw papaya salad sans the fish sauce and shrimp paste. Its really good.

 

Documents to be carried for VOA in Thailand.

1. Passport with a minimum remaining validity of six months-Copy of the passport to be carried along on person at all times during the duration of stay in the country.

2. Return / onward journey air ticket for travel within the next 15 days (As VOC is only for 15 days, but if you have over-stayed, there is a counter at out-bound immigration for paying the differential fees)

3. One passport size (4 x 6 cm) photo

4. Boarding card of the flight of arrival

5. Filled-in Visa on Arrival application (A simple form with minimum details) (can download from Net) Arrival card filled in on arrival and Departure Card to be submitted while leaving the country(provided during the flight)

6. Visa on Arrival fee of THB 1,000 to be paid in Thai currency only

7. Hotel reservation in Thailand

8. Thai or other currency or debit/credit card equivalent to THB 10,000 per person or THB 20,000
per family - This wasn't checked but a printout of the bank account is a simple enough task.