Bangkok Travel Guide

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The Most Visited City in the World is NOT New York

June 11, 2013 at 3:08 PM | by | Comments (0)

If you prefer to travel the 'beaten path' and visit cities that see more than their fair share of tourists, you may want to rethink your itinerary since there has been a shift in where the planet's travelers are heading. It's actually Bangkok, and not New York, that reigns as tourist capital of the world.

The figures are based on a recent survey put forth by Mastercard. The Global Destinations Cities Index lists the Thai capital as tops for foreigners coming to see the sights, eclipsing London, Paris and New York.

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Our First Time at Bangkok's Cabbages & Condoms

May 10, 2013 at 11:31 AM | by | Comments (0)

Don't let the title put you off, this post isn't NSFW. Cabbages & Condoms is a portfolio of restaurants in Thailand that serves up delicious Thai cuisine while nonchalantly discussing the importance of safe-sex and sexually transmitted diseases.

Okay, we agree this might not be the best dinner-party topic, but it's all for a greater cause.

We recently checked out the Bangkok outpost and were pleasantly surprised to find mannequins outfitted in fashion made from condoms and birth-control pills—kind of like Project Runway meets a local clinic-turned-restaurant. Seems like a natural progression, right?

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The Adventures of Travel Cat: Bangkok's Lumpini Park

May 8, 2013 at 1:00 PM | by | Comments (0)

Kitty cats. They rule the internet and, whether we realize it or not, pretty much the world too. Ever noticed how cats sometimes stake out the coolest spots in a city? This new feature—Travel Cat—focuses on exactly that. Submit a photo to be featured by tweeting or Instagramming it to us (details below).

Travel Cat spotted in: Bangkok, Thailand.

This week's world wandering kitty comes to us from the Bangkok equivalent to Central Park. Lumpini Park is large park in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the metropolis where it's common for the health-conscious to jog through the trees and along the banks of numerous lakes. Along with some random cats and birds, it's not hard to spot a large number of Komodo Dragons sunning themselves on the water's edge watching the world go by. Fortunately this cat is not afraid of dragons.

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Traveling in Thailand: Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport Versus Don Mueang

May 7, 2013 at 11:37 AM | by | Comment (1)

If you've been to Bangkok in the past 6 years, there's a pretty good chance you flew into the flashiest airport the city has to offer, Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK).

The predominately concrete, metal and glass building of BKK is simply massive and it's obvious why it ranks as the 6th largest major airport in Asia; it even claimed the title of the most Instagrammed airport in 2012.

On the other hand, if you traveled to Bangkok before the middle of 2006, you most likely landed in the city's other airport, Don Mueang (DMK), which has since given up the official airport code of BKK to the newer, larger counterpart. Now, the airport is primarily home to low-cost carriers such as Air Asia and Nok Air.

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The Adventures of Travel Cat: Bangkok, Thailand

May 23, 2012 at 4:55 PM | by | Comment (1)

Kitty cats. They rule the internet and, whether we realize it or not, pretty much the world too. Ever noticed how cats sometimes stake out the coolest spots in a city? This new feature—Travel Cat—focuses on exactly that. Submit a photo to be featured by tweeting or Instagramming it to us (details below).

Travel Cat spotted in: Bangkok, Thailand.

This week's Travel Cat comes from us here at Jaunted, as we have a nice backlog of #travelcat sightings to pepper in among yours as well.

This little wide-eyed fellow was spotted crouched down next to a large cement pot, along the roadside near Bangkok's tourist favorite, the Golden Mount Temple (aka Wat Saket). He wasn't begging for a meal, just focused on the street action and staying hidden in a tiny patch of shade, understandable given the searing sun and 92-degree temperatures this day.

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The Metal Castle in the Middle of the World: Bangkok's Loha Prasat

April 4, 2012 at 1:21 PM | by | Comments (0)

Just in time for the Thai festival of Songkran, we're sharing a secret favorite Bangkok spot with you...

Imagine the world as a maze—one of those thickly bordered, medium-difficulty mazes from the pages of Highlights—and though the paths dead end at various destinations, there still has to be something in the very center. Whatever it is has been sitting there your whole life, waiting for your travels to eventually loop around enough so that, one day, you are there with the sense that all along, the world has been twiddling its thumbs in anticipation for this moment.

I've had pages and pages of such mazes in my travel history, but none so literal as the journey I made through Bangkok, Thailand to reach the Loha Prasat, or "metal castle."

The Loha Prasat usually doesn't get much of a mention (if one at all) in guidebooks. In fact, I only knew about it from a haunting description in a novel I read months before even setting off for Bangkok. The memory of the pencilled underline of the passage popped up on what was one of my final days in Bangkok, and I set out armed only with a screen shot of Google Maps on my iPhone.

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Inside Paribatra, the Helicopter Departure Lounge at The Peninsula Hotel Bangkok

January 18, 2012 at 10:21 AM | by | Comments (0)

The 34th floor may not sound like so high, but in an area with no other skyscrapers to challenge it, the Peninsula Hotel Bangkok's Helicopter departure lounge might as well be in heaven. Named "Paribatra" after HRH Prince Paripatra Sukhumbhand, Prince of Nakorn Sawan, the Pen's helilounge is one of those sweet secret spaces often heard of a city, but rarely visited. The only ways to access this one? You must either book a helicopter flight transfer for a grand chunk of change or rent out the place for a private function with others who appreciate aviation history; in other words, it's hardcore.

We managed to sneak around the helilounge recently, and though the helipads remained out of reach (for now), we did sink our heels into the rich carpeting, get up close with jet engine parts as wall decoration, and drink in what may be the best view in Bangkok, of Bangkok. You see, The Peninsula sits on the Thonburi side of the Chao Phraya River, opposite like 90% of the central district. Therefore, The Peninsula is essentially gazing over at the metropolis, with the helilounge winking.

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There are Still Airplanes at Bangkok's Flooded Don Mueang Airport

October 31, 2011 at 2:50 PM | by | Comments (0)

Thailand's really tragic flooding of the last few weeks has been all over the news, complete with shots of locals pushing their belongings on rafts, homes lost. The water has reached Bangkok, but luckily still not the very center. It has however reached one of the city's two airports—Don Mueang Domestic Airport—out of which we flew only a month ago.

Don Mueang (DMK) is a huge complex owing to its history as the former main international airport for Bangkok...until Suvarnabhumi opened. Now it's just a hub for a few domestic airlines and it was most recently the makeshift emergency flood operations center. You know it's serious when the flood operations center is itself flooded out.

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Plane Spotting at Bangkok's Golf Course Sandwiched Between Two Runways

Where: Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok, Thailand
October 13, 2011 at 11:22 AM | by | Comments (0)

In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we've discovered quite a slew of odd places to get right up near the big jets; there've been coffee shops, a pool, Venetian water taxis and even an IKEA, but never before have we found a golf course.

At Bangkok's Don Mueang Airport, an entire 18-hole, par 72 golf course sits between the two runways. It's called Kantarat. Seeing it is believing it, and even better is crossing from hole to hole in a golf cart, waiting for a red light to change so you can drive across the tarmac for your next shot.

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Travel Confessions: 'I Was a Dental Tourist in Thailand'

Where: Siam Soi 2, Bangkok, Thailand
October 11, 2011 at 2:54 PM | by | Comments (5)

And now, a first-person confession account of medical tourism:

I was in Thailand with a broken tooth. Granted, it had been broken for a while after chomping on some blackcurrant gummies in London, of all things. And then, while in Bangkok, I broke another one chewing blueberry gum. What was happening to my mouth? But more importantly, could I get this all fixed here for a fraction of what it'd cost me back in the States? Thailand is growing famous as a destination for dental tourism and without a dental plan, my US dentist was quoting well into four digits for a crown, so I decided to give it a go.

While researching and stopping into clinics around the city, the first warning I got was not to necessarily trust the Thai dentist clinics that rank highest in Google Search. Duh. The second was not to ask a local for a recommendation as that's about as trustworthy as the Google Search thing. Oh well, I went against the latter warning and sought advice from a local I trusted and she named The Dentist Clinic by the upscale Siam Paragon mall. Bingo.

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The Musts of Bangkok: Boozing It Up Above the City at Sky Bar

October 7, 2011 at 4:29 PM | by | Comments (0)

These days, when you think of Bangkok, does the "Hangover 2" phrase "Holla, city of squalor" pop into mind? It did ours, until we freaking went there and got tangled in its web of awesomeness. Bangkok is truly a world metropolis to be experienced over more than a few days, but we'll be detailing several places and things that simply can't be left undone. Join us, but watch where you step.

You MUST have a drink on the 63rd floor Sky Bar overlooking the entire city.

Okay, we'll be the first to admit that Sky Bar at the Lebua Hotel at State Tower is possibly the most touristy place you could go in Bangkok, but that doesn't mean it's not an awesome experience we enjoyed in spite of ourselves. The image of the open-air round bar hanging out, seemingly a precipice, 63 stories above the city is a famous one. It's so famous that there are photography guards who do not allow guests to take any snapshots outside of the bar area itself.

If you can deal with those guards and the New York prices of the cocktails, then Sky Bar is an ideal little exclamation point at the end of a great trip to Bangkok. At the very least, you'll be struck with awe at the breadth of the metropolis.

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The Musts of Bangkok: Hopping the Chao Phraya River Boat Bus

October 6, 2011 at 3:31 PM | by | Comment (1)

These days, when you think of Bangkok, does the "Hangover 2" phrase "Holla, city of squalor" pop into mind? It did ours, until we freaking went there and got tangled in its web of awesomeness. Bangkok is truly a world metropolis to be experienced over more than a few days, but we'll be detailing several places and things that simply can't be left undone. Join us, but watch where you step.

You MUST hop the river's bus boats to get where you're going.

If you think there's a ton of ways to get around a metropolis like New York City, then you need to spend some time in Bangkok, which may just take the cake for variety of public transportation options. There's taxis, tuk-tuks, motorbike taxis, buses, songthaews, longboats, the subway, the Skytrain, commuter and hotel boats and the Chao Phraya Express Boat. The latter, if you can't yet tell from the topic of this story, is our favorite by far.

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