Bangkok
Neighbourhoods
Bangkok has no real city centre, but several neighbourhoods, widely dispersed, call for attention.
Northeast of the Grand Palace, a wide, leafy boulevard, Ratchadamnoen Nok, is lined with government office buildings, often with steep traditional roofs. It leads to the Marble Temple, Wat Benchamabophit, a haven of grace and calm. Chinese tiles cover the interlaced roofs, and a pair of huge marble lions guard the entrance to the bot (shrine).
Aside from the elephants and lesser stars, Dusit Zoo, on the north side of Si Ayutthaya Road, has an admirably landscaped aviary. It's also about the best vantage point for watching Thai children and their parents having fun.
In Chinatown, every shop window brings a new discovery, from snake wine to paper dragons. Wat Traimit houses a Golden Buddha seven or eight centuries old, weighing 5 tonnes.
Further east, the area around Siam Square has cinemas, restaurants and shopping centres. Jim Thompson's House, the cluttered home of a devoted collector, is full of oriental art, mostly Thai, mostly priceless. Thompson put the Thai silk industry on the map, then vanished on holiday in Malaysia in 1967. To the northeast, Suan Pakkard Palace ("lettuce garden") consists of fine old wooden stilt houses filled with great Thai art, including scenes from the life of Buddha in gold leaf on black lacquer.
Across the railway line, in the eastern part of the city, Sukhumvit Road marks the beginning of a rambling shopping, entertainment and residential district.
Near the river, to the south, Charoen Krung Road (or New Road), was the first official road in Thailand. Around the General Post Office is one of the original shopping areas, still well supplied with souvenir shops and "instant" tailors.
A final neighbourhood runs northeast of the New Road district along Silom and Surawong, two parallel thoroughfares. The biggest landmark is the spire of the Dusit Thani Hotel. The financial and commercial tone of the zone is overshadowed by the notoriety of two of its small streets, Patpong I and II. From Munich to Melbourne, the name Patpong evokes the image of go-go bars and massage parlours, and it certainly matches its reputation, even if moral campaigns and a growing incidence of crime have put a damper on its former ebullience.
Across Rama IV Road in the University grounds, the Snake Farm, run by the Thai Red Cross, provides snakebite serum for much of the world. Here you can watch hypnotically patterned cobras, gaily striped banded kraits, spotted vipers and other killers being milked for humanity.
Kanchanaburi
Near Kanchanaburi, 130 km (80 miles) west of Bangkok, Allied prisoners-of-war held by the Japanese in World War II were forced to build a section of the notorious Death Railway to Burma, including a bridge over the River Khwae Yai (or Kwai). That bridge was destroyed by bombing in 1945, but parts can still be seen in its replacement. Sound and light shows are sometimes staged at the bridge, and it's possible to take a short ride on the railway. The war cemetery at Kanchanaburi contains the graves of thousands of prisoners who died during its construction.
Hua Hin
Far calmer, less international and cosmopolitan than Pattaya, Hua Hin is an aristocratic resort in all senses. Here, 200 km (125 miles) south of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand, King Rama VII chose to have a seaside villa built in the 1920s. He called it Klai Kangwon or "Far from Cares"-which turned out to be a fitting name for the resort.
With few grand hotels, everything functions at a much slower, more languorous rhythm in Thailand's oldest resort, where even today the Royal Family spends some of the year. Many of the hotels are low, discreet bungalow-style buildings beside pools. An 18-hole golf course has been added to the resort's attractions. The gentle slope of the curving 3-km (2-mile) beach is ideal for families; windsurfing and many other beach activities are practised. While a certain amount of entertainment animates the hotels in the evening, this is an ideal resort to get away from it all, and live in perfect peace surrounded by pristine nature.
See it all from on high by climbing the hill to Wat Khao Lao watching over this former fishing village.
