Bangkok Tourism

Busy, bustling Bangkok the capital of Thailand’s is a vibrant, exuberant city with an infectious joie de vivre. Cosmopolitan, glitzy and glamorous, Bangkok represents the modern face of Asia with an overhead web of flyovers, bumper to bumper traffic, flashing neon lights & glittering malls packed with shoppers. Bangkok is a city always on the move - but step around the corner and you catch a glimpse of the old Siam with its beautiful, ornate palaces and temples, its quiet back streets and residential areas with large sprawling houses in beautifully laid out gardens, its Buddhist shrines with white silk scarves billowing in the gentle breeze. And in the midst of all this flows the Chao Phraya River, both a lifeline and a lifestyle teeming with activity in its numerous klongs.

Everything contributes to the distinct personality of Bangkok - very Eastern and yet Western enough to hold its own. Bangkok epitomizes all that is `Thai’- rich, hospitable, beautiful, colourful, noisy- and very interesting.

Please remember that you can bargain at local markets like Pratunam or even MBK centre, but do it in a smiling manner without losing your cool! Don''t attempt to bargain at department stores.

Bangkok is a relatively safe city and you’re more likely to get scammed than have your money be taken from you forcefully. Beware of over friendly strangers offering travelling advice, tuk tuk drivers who would be tempted to over charge, jewellery that may be fake but be sold to you as an heirloom and also be a little cautious about who you accept drinks and cigarettes from as they may be laced.

Bangkok''s buildings and canals were originally modelled on Ayutthaya (capital of Thailand before Bangkok), and designed to reflect the former lost glory of that city.

On entering a private house, it is customary to always remove your shoes.

The polite way to address an elder of similar or older age is to use the title "Khun" before the person''s first name.

Bangkok, the ‘Village of Wild Plums’ that grew to become the ‘City of Angels’, does not really have much of a history behind it- one of the few instances of a capital city that is pretty much of an upstart. Truth to tell, Bangkok became the capital of Thailand only about two centuries ago, when the first king of the Chakri dynasty (the current ruling house), King Rama I, founded the city in 1782. Bangkok started off as an unpretentious little hamlet on the side of the Chao Phraya River. Over the years, the Chakri kings gradually added to their capital- wats, monasteries and palaces were built and Bangkok grew in size and stature. Today, it is not just the capital of Thailand, but also one of the country’s most important administrative, socio-political and cultural centres.