Curator’s statement
Bangkok is my second home. I split the year between here and the Emirates, and the city I book for clients isn’t the one people brace for. My version starts with breakfast on a teak veranda the river has been washing for 150 years. It includes a 20-seat counter where southern Thai cooking holds three Michelin stars, and Bang Krachao, the jungle island across the river where the loudest thing is your own bicycle. Yes, Bangkok can overwhelm you. But live it from the river, with boats instead of traffic, and it turns into the gentlest great city in Asia. This guide is how I hand it to travelers.
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Things to do in Bangkok
Cross to Wat Arun at dawn
The crossing ferry from Tha Tien costs a few baht and takes two minutes. Go before eight, while the porcelain spires catch first light and the tour buses are still at breakfast. You'll have the terraces nearly to yourself.
Ride a long-tail through the Thonburi khlongs
The canals are what Bangkok was before the towers. Stilt houses, temple gardens, the odd monitor lizard on a bank, kids waving from porches. A private long-tail for a morning, with a stop at the Artist's House, is a couple of hours very well spent.
Cycle the green lung
Bang Krachao is a river-wrapped jungle island opposite the port with raised bike paths through mangrove and coconut groves, a small weekend floating market, and almost no cars. You reach it by boat in about 10 minutes. I take visiting friends there when the city gets loud.
Walk the flower market at midnight
Pak Khlong Talat never closes, and the late hours are the good ones, when jasmine and marigold move by the armful under fluorescent light. Go after a river dinner.
See Muay Thai at the grand old stadium
Fight night at Rajadamnern is ritual before it is violence: the wai khru dance, live pipes and drums, a crowd betting in hand signals. Ringside seats, dinner after.
Give the Creative District an evening
Bangkok’s real gallery scene lives in the converted warehouses between River City and Warehouse 30. See it with a drink on a riverside terrace afterwards. Skip the sky bars; on this side of town, the river is the view.
Places to eat & drink in Bangkok
Sorn
Southern Thai cooking at the highest level, and the first Thai restaurant anywhere to hold three Michelin stars. Heirloom ingredients come up from the peninsula and meet live fire. This is the hardest reservation in the city, so ask me months ahead, not weeks.
Jay Fai
The queen in the ski goggles. One Michelin star, one charcoal wok, and the crab omelet people fly in for. The queue is real and miserable in the midday heat, so let me sort the timing.
Potong
A fifth-generation family pharmacy in Chinatown turned into a 20-course Thai-Chinese tasting. Smoke, herbs, memory. Have a drink on their rooftop before your seating.
Nusara
Chef Ton’s small dining room looks straight at the spires of Wat Pho, and the menu is his grandmother’s cooking sharpened to fine-dining edge. Take the early seating; the temple at golden hour does half the work.
Krua Apsorn
The local table most visitors never find, on Dinso Road near the Giant Swing. Crab in yellow chili curry, stir-fried banana blossoms, paper napkins. The bill will make you laugh.
Need to know
November to February is the window: Dry and, by Bangkok standards, almost cool. April is the furnace month, and mid-April is Songkran, the nationwide water fight. Wonderful if you’re up for it. Soaking if you’re not.
The rainy months, roughly June to October, mean afternoon bursts rather than lost days, and suite rates soften. I book plenty of happy clients in the green season.
Between 4 and 8 p.m., the river boats and the BTS Skytrain beat any car. Otherwise Grab works flawlessly, taxis are cheap, and you should insist on the meter.
Temples enforce dress: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off. The Grand Palace is the strictest, so carry a light scarf and skip the sarong-rental queue.
The serious rooftops and dining rooms run dress codes after dark. No shorts, no flip-flops.
If anyone near a temple tells you it’s closed today and offers a tuk-tuk tour instead, keep walking. The temple is open.
Tipping stays light. Round up taxis—about 100 baht a bag for porters, 10% where service isn’t already on the bill.
Travel Advisor
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Albina Sharapova
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