Bangkok Travel Video Guide

Bangkok Travel Itinerary

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The headlong pace and flawed modernity of BANGKOK (called "Krung Thep" in Thai) match few people's visions of the capital of exotic Siam. Spiked with scores of high-rise buildings of concrete and glass, it's a vast flatness which holds a population of at least nine million, and feels even bigger. But under the shadow of the skyscrapers you'll find a heady mix of frenetic markets and hushed golden temples, of glossy cutting-edge clubs and early-morning almsgiving ceremonies. Most budget travellers head for the Banglamphu district, which is just a short walk from the dazzling Grand Place and Wat Phra Kaeo and the very worthwhile National Museum . For livelier scenes, explore the dark alleys of Chinatown's bazaars or head for the water: the great Chao Phraya River is the backbone of a network of canals and a useful way of crossing the city.

Bangkok is a relatively young capital, established in 1782 after the Burmese sacked Ayutthaya, the former capital. A temporary base was set up on the western bank of the Chao Phraya, in what is now Thonburi, before work started on the more defensible east bank. The first king of the new dynasty, Rama I, built his palace at Ratanakosin , within a defensive ring of two (later expanded to three) canals, and this remains the city's spiritual heart. Initially, the city was largely amphibious: only the temples and royal palaces were built on dry land, while ordinary residences floated on thick bamboo rafts on the river and canals, and even shops and warehouses were moored to the river bank. In the late nineteenth century, Rama IV and Rama V modernized their capital along European lines, building roads and constructing a new royal residence in Dusit, north of Ratanakosin.

Since World War II, and especially from the mid-1960s onwards, Bangkok has seen an explosion of modernization, leaving

the city without an obvious centre. Most of the canals have been filled in, to be replaced by endless rows of concrete shophouses, sprawling over a built-up area of 330 square kilometres. The benefits of the economic boom of the 1980s and early 1990s were concentrated in Bangkok, which attracted mass migration from all over Thailand and made the capital ever more dominant: Bangkokians now own four-fifths of the nation's cars and the population is forty times that of the second city, Chiang Mai

Your Tips For Bangkok

• Southern Thailand- The Andaman Coast Travel Videos
  Thailand Travel Itinerary
  The landscape along the Andaman coast is lushly tropical and spiked with dramatic limestone crags, best appreciated by staying in the lovely Khao Sok National Park or taking a boat trip around the bizarre Ao Phang Nga Bay. - Thailand
  

• Bangkok Thailand Travel Videos
  Thailand Travel Itinerary
  The headlong pace and flawed modernity of BANGKOK (called "Krung Thep" in Thai) match few people's visions of the capital of exotic Siam. - Thailand
  

• Northeast- Isaan Thailand Travel Videos
  Thailand Travel Itinerary
  Bordered by Laos and Cambodia on three sides, the tableland of northeast Thailand, known as Isaan , is the least-visited region of the kingdom and the poorest, but also its most traditional. - Thailand
  

• Deep south Thailand Travel Videos
  Thailand Travel Itinerary
  As Thailand drops down to meet Malaysia, the cultures of the two countries begin to merge. - Thailand
  

• Southern Thailand- The Gulf Coast Travel Videos
  Thailand Travel Itinerary
  Southern Thailand's Gulf coast is famous chiefly for its three fine islands of the Samui archipelago: the large and increasingly upmarket Ko Samui , the laid-back Ko Pha Ngan , site of monthly full-moon parties, and the tiny Ko Tao , which is encircled by some of Thailand's best dive sites. - Thailand
  

• East coast Thailand Travel Videos
  Thailand Travel Itinerary
  Thailand's east coast is a five-hundred-kilometre string of predominantly dull, grey beaches blotched with expensive, over-packaged family resorts, the largest and most notorious of which is Pattaya . - Thailand
  

• Central plains Thailand Travel Videos
  Thailand Travel Itinerary
  North and west of the capital, the unwieldy urban mass of Greater Bangkok peters out into the vast, well-watered central plains , a region that for centuries has grown the bulk of the nation's food and been a tantalizing temptation for neighbouring power-mongers. - Thailand
  

• North Thailand Travel Videos
  Thailand Travel Itinerary
  Beyond the northern plains, the climate becomes more temperate, nurturing the fertile land which gave the old kingdom of the north the name of Lanna , "the land of a million rice fields". - Thailand