The old city center

The old city center 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 Yaowarat 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.

Area around Silom Road

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.

The Silom Road area also has the oldest nightlife district for foreign visitors, called Patpong.

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.

Siam Square

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.

Sukhumvit Road

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, cinemas with English movies and a few good restaurants.