Bangkok it’s like a mythological being: fascinating but complex. All the more beautiful as it is full of ugliness, smog, and such murderous traffic that travelling on a tuk tuk crushed by the cars in the queue it seems like you can’t breathe, by prostitutes, by those who look for them, by run-down places, by expats who have fled from everywhere. But even for all this Bangkok is alive, an organism in constant transformation. And its atmosphere, when we tourists disembark for a few days, headed to the islands, to the jungle, to the north, passing through to a place even further east, is one of those that Just one breath is enough to make you feel a little more experienced, a little more like a traveler.
Here you will find a mini-guide to experience Bangkok in one day. To capture it in a series of bright images, to collect over the course of 24 hours (or if you want something more) and then set off again loaded with the world. This that follows is a special Bangkok, suspended in the past, and if you fear not understanding its present, know that the real city, the one of everyday life, will make itself felt, will force its way into any program you may make and will make itself breathed in deeply.
1. Sleep at «The Oriental Hotel»
It requires a financial commitment, but even one night is enough to enter the history of Bangkok. When the time Mandarin Oriental Bangkok opened on the Chao Phraya River was the «The Oriental Hotel», the epitome of colonial elegance. It was born in the late nineteenth century, as a small guesthouse on the Chao Phraya River, which traders, officials, travellers, and all sorts of people reached by sailing along the river. But it was the Danish Hans Niels Andersen who took it over and transformed it into the address where it was a given to stop if you belonged to a certain world. It was for the rich, but not only: it was for travellers. As soon as I arrived I went straight to the old wing, the so-called Authors’ Wingthe old 19th century building where there is still the library with the books of the many writers who passed through here. And their photos.
Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, John Le Carré. Also Somerset Maugham (who, to be precise, risked dying of malaria in the hotel, perhaps right where I slept). I’m reading one of his novels, I leave it open in the room with the spine facing up and when I come back I find it on the nightstand, closed, with a bookmark from the hotel on the page I had reached. It’s one of those attentions that make a hotel a five-star luxury, and immediately make you like the place, like the flower on the pillow with a wish for sleep that I find every night, and the fresh fruit in the room.
But the Mandarin Oriental is worth (and costs) precisely for this, for the service, the grand and elegant hall, with a glass window overlooking the garden filled with the hot air of Bangkok, and also because it is an oasis away from the noise, because it overlooks the river and from your room you can stay for hours watching the continuous passage of the boats. And understand the city like this. Inside the hotel there are some of the best restaurants in Bangkok. The Le Normandie and its chef, Alain Roux 1 Michelin star for contemporary French cuisine and for the ambiance (it has among its clients the royal family), but also the Cantonese cuisine of The Chine House in a set that recreates the Shanghai of the 1930s is wonderful (in addition to an excellent Kaiseki restaurants, Thai restaurants, and also Italian). There is the spa (perfect) in a building immersed in a garden on the other side of the river that is reached by private boat. And then there is the Bamboo Bar, which is, by necessity, the second stop..
2. Have a cocktail at BAMBOO BAR
As Lawrence Osborne, the brilliant travel writer who has lived in Bangkok for years, says, it is the most touristic and the most colonial (and therefore chic) ​​bar in the city. But it’s perfect, because it’s exactly what you’d like to find, what a part of your mind imagined existed.
You can’t go with sandals, or with shorts, but you have to have a certain style. Only then, in the end, you feel perfectly in the part and you can order a cocktailprepared to perfection by the barman (the Thai Noonfor example, with vodka, ginger, lemongrass, lemon juice and a touch of coconut) and sip it at the counter, eating fried okra And some peanuts. If you are lucky enough to be there on a Sunday night there is a jazz trio that plays until midnight.
3. Cruise on the Chao Phraya River
The river will lead your ideal day in Bangkok. The Chao Phraya is the color of mud, and the sky above the city sometimes takes on its reflections.. It is still the main artery today, congested by boats of all kinds, traditional, wooden, broken down, taxis, rafts, cargo boats.
Take the Chao Phraya Express which has a stop right in front of the Mandarin Oriental (obviously) and will take you to the classic and magnificent places of the city. But enjoy the journey: one of the components of our One Day in Bangkok is the river itself, to look around under the hot sun while sailing, among the wooden stilt houses that overlook the banks, the crumbling buildings, the streets, the docks, the markets where an industrious life like that of an anthill takes place. To fill yourself with colors that tell of the heat, the sultriness, the history, the place. Get off at Tha Chang and continue to point 4.
4. The Grand Palace, the Emerald Buddha and Wat Pho
These are the monumental places of Bangkok. They are not particularly ancient: the complex of the Royal Palace and of Wat Phra Kaew (the Temple of the Emerald Buddha) was consecrated in 1782 to celebrate the new capital, Bangkok, and became its symbolIt is an expanse of 95 hectares covered by golden domes, pagodas, statues, gardens. A dazzling sight, with over 100 buildings. You don’t have to know everything and see everything, it’s nice to wander around the pagodas decorated with enamel and gold, to get an eye on the local aesthetics.
The unmissable places to visit? The small Emerald Buddha dressed in gold as if he were a little baby Jesus in a baroque church and the large reclining Buddhain the adjacent temple, Wat Pho: 46 meters long and a smile that reminds us that Nirvana exists. They are not places where you can perceive devotion and mysticism, but they are doors to get in touch with the city, the people who pray, the guides, the vendors at the stalls just outside who ceaselessly cook dripping meat skewers (just don’t ask where they were kept before appearing on the grill).
5. Wat Arun
You saw it from across the river and its dome already caught your attention, but it is only when seen from up close that this temple gives its best. For two reasons above all. But first: to get there, get off at the Tha Chang pier and cross the river, boarding what is not a boat but a motorized raft that goes back and forth for a few baht.
Wat Arun is a dome decorated with mosaics that seem to be made of small enamel shapes. If you look at them more carefully you will understand that they are none other than pieces of porcelain, broken plates, pieces of chipped cups and vases. In practice the chinoiserie of the past, the old porcelains that ships coming from China used as ballast, reused in the form of art. Art with “recycled material”. The Prang, the Khmer style tower is 82 meters high and you can climb almost to the top. But only the brave reach the top because to climb to the first and then the second level you will have to face two flights of stairs that are probably the steepest in the world. They seem to rise vertically, more daring even than those of Chichen Itza and those of the Dutch houses. But it is the minimum effort required to reach bliss. Because the temple is a symbol, and the top floor is the “paradise”, you must therefore endure some effort to reach it. In the end I decide not to climb to the top. I fear that in the end I would no longer be able to go down (which in these cases is always more difficult than going up) and perhaps I would be blessed but dead beforehand and also from an excess of presumption.
6. Enjoy the sunset in Wat Arun park
To close the perfect day, the one from a spotless painting, there is the glorious sunset over temples and rivers. From here on, the discovery of your very own Bangkok begins. I would have continued to dinnertrusting my colleagues and the skill of the chefs in the city (According to the 50 Best these are)but Bangkokit is a real hub, the place of passage of all, of all cuisines, the door to the East. Too little time is always dedicated to it, a plane is always leaving, but even one day is enough to remember as that of a small love at first sight.
Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
