Insight Guides Thailand

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight
• ISBN:
  9781786715852
• Edition: 17
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

For many, Thailand remains the quintessential Southeast Asian destination - exotic and exciting but accessible, whether you want to soak up Bangkok's bright lights or the sun on a tropical island. Be inspired by the new edition of Insight Guide Thailand, a comprehensive full-colour guide to the 'land of smiles'.
Inside Insight Guide Thailand:
A thoroughly updated new edition by our expert Thailand author.
Stunning, specially-commissioned photography brings this beautiful country and its people to life.
Highlights of the country's top attractions, including diving off Krabi and the Unesco World Heritage site at Ayutthaya.
Descriptive region-by-region accounts cover the whole country from frenetic Bangkok and laid-back Chiang Mai to the country's stunning beaches and islands, including Phuket and Ko Phangan.
Detailed, high-quality maps throughout will help you get around and travel tips give you all the essential information for planning a memorable trip.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides has over 40 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as picture-packed eBooks to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture together create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

'Insight Guides has spawned many imitators but is still the best of its type.' - Wanderlust Magazine

Bangkok

Thailand’s capital offers a mind-blowing array of experiences: royal architecture at Rattanakosin, spirituality at ancient Buddhist temples, shopping at raucous street markets and hip mega malls. Come evening, there are eateries and nightspots galore.

Main Attractions

Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace

National Museum

Wat Pho

Wat Arun

Thonburi Canals

Khao San Road

Vimanmek Mansion

Chinatown

Jim Thompson’s House

Patpong Night Market

At first glance, this Asian super-city of 8.5 million people seems like a bewildering amalgam of new, old and indeterminate, as well as exotic, commonplace and indescribable, all tossed together into a gigantic urban maze. It’s hardly surprising that Bangkok should convey this impression, considering that only a little more than half a century ago, much of what makes up the Thai capital was farmland. Despite the construction of the Skytrain and Metro mass transit networks, which have done much to make this vast city more navigable (and comprehensible), the traveller’s mental map of Bangkok needs a few pointers in order to aid orientation.

The long and winding Chao Phraya River is the city’s most obvious landmark, and cradles many of the city’s most important sites on its eastern bank. On the western side of the river, Thonburi’s canals thread through colourful residential neighbourhoods.

Kinnaree statue at Wat Phra Kaew.

Peter Stuckings/Apa Publications

In the late 18th century Bangkok’s founding king, Rama I, ordered the construction of a canal between two of the river’s bends and sliced off a parcel of land into an artificial island called Rattanakosin. This is the location of the glittering Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, an essential part of any city tour.

Just south of Rattanakosin are the enclaves where foreigners originally settled: Chinatown, Little India (or Pahurat) and Thanon Silom. Today, Silom Bangkok, together with Thanon Sathorn and Thanon Sukhumvit further east, have become important business and commercial centres.

Skytrain station.

Peter Stuckings/Apa Publications

Rattanakosin

The establishment of the old city of Phra Nakorn marked Bangkok’s rise in 1782 as the new capital of Thailand. It was based spiritually and geographically on the former capital of Ayutthaya, which was abandoned after being invaded by the Burmese in 1767. The royal district of Phra Nakorn was the island of Rattanakosin, with its majestic Grand Palace. Moats and ramparts created a stronghold, while canals were dug to transport people across marsh and swampland.

Rattanakosin brims with architectural grandeur; it contains many government offices as well as two of Thailand’s most respected universitiesThammasat and Silpakorn. It is also the religious and ceremonial nucleus of the country. Best explored on foot, the area’s proximity to the river means that it can be conveniently accessed by water transport.

Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace complex

The exotic splendour of Bangkok’s most important attractions – Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace – is breathtaking despite the pressing crowds. These fabulously ornate buildings are an arresting spectacle of form and colour, glistening golden chedi, pillars of mosaic glass, and towering mythological gods.

The Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace complex.

Shutterstock

The site originally spread over 160 hectares (400 acres) around this strategic locale by the banks of the Chao Phraya River. It was initiated by King Rama I in 1782, who ordered a new residence built to house the Emerald Buddha, the country’s most revered religious image, as well as a palace befitting the new capital of Bangkok. The entire compound is surrounded by high crenellated walls, securing a self-sufficient city within a city.

Another view of Wat Phra Kaew.

Peter Stuckings/Apa Publications

The only entrance (and exit) to the Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace 1 [map] complex (daily 8.30am–3.30pm; charge includes entry to Vimanmek and several other sights in Dusit; www.palaces.thai.net) is along Thanon Na Phra Lan to the north. Make sure you are dressed appropriately and disregard touts outside the complex telling you that it is closed for a major festival (it’s a scam usually ending in a jewellery shop).

On the right after you walk in is the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles A [map], which opened in 2012. It has four galleries showing traditional Thai textiles and items from the queen’s personal collection of haute couture. You can pay to view the collection separately or include it in a tour of the rest of the complex.

The ticket office for the whole complex is 50 metres/yards further on. It’s worthwhile hiring the informative audio guide. If you prefer, official guides are also available near the ticket office.

The complex is loosely divided into two, with Wat Phra Kaew encountered first to the left, and the Grand Palace and its peripheral buildings to the right. Most of the Grand Palace’s interiors are not open to the public, but the exteriors are an impressive blend of East and West.

Tip

The dress code for Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace is strict. Visitors must be dressed smartly – no shorts, short skirts or revealing tops, sandals or flip-flops. Suitable clothing may be hired from an office near the entrance, so unless you want to don stale rubber slip-ons and a gaudy sarong, dress conservatively.

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) serves as the royal chapel of the Grand Palace. The magnificent temple compound is modelled after palace chapels in the former capitals of Sukhothai and Ayutthaya, and contains typical monastic structures, apart from monks’ living quarters, a feature found in most Thai temples.

At the main entrance to the temple compound is the statue of Shivaka Kumar Baccha, reputed to be the Buddha’s private physician. First to catch the eye on the upper terrace on the left are the gleaming gold mosaic tiles of the Sri Lankan-style Phra Si Rattana Chedi B [map], said to enshrine a piece of the Buddha’s breastbone.

In the centre of the compound, the Phra Mondop C [map] (Library of Buddhist Scriptures) is a delicately beautiful building, studded with...