alexljy said:
Hi,
I will be having a day spare for sightseeing in Bangkok. Dun wish to follow guided tour or go out of the city. Also i visited the grand palace, wat po, and other temples nearby already(exclude temple of dawn). Will be there on a weekday, so rule out the weekend markets
Was having a few place in mind.
1) Temple of Dawn
2)Duskit Zoo, and Suan Pakkard Palace.
3)Golden Mount, Democracy Monument
Could someone advice me on where to go. Thks
( dun have to be the place i mentioned.)
I just came back from bangkok recently... here's an itineary that I found is good (to see bangkok in a day)..I followed it and enjoyed it very much... I did a cut and paste here from
http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/travel.html#tour :
(I hope that Stickman does not mind... )
Stickman's Bangkok Tour
I love having friends come and visit me in Bangkok. Not only is it great to catch up with them and show them around but they can bring me all of the goodies that I miss from home. From time to time, friends are just passing through Bangkok very briefly and I may only have 24 hours, sometimes less, to show them around. If you do not know your way around, Bangkok can appear to be one big giant, dirty, drab and grey city, just as you can see in the picture here. But if you know where to go, you can have a lot of fun. This is the little tour that I take them on.
The beauty about this tour is that you can start it anywhere that the skytrain goes to. So, make your way to the nearest Skytrain station and once you get there, you have to find the easiest way to get to Saparn Taksin station. If you are on the Silom line, this is easy, just get on the train that says that it is going to Saparn Taksin and get off there. If you get on the skytrain on the Sukumvit line, you will have to make your way to Siam station and once there, will have to change on to the train going to Saparn Taksin. All pretty easy really. The skytrain is relatively new in Bangkok and service commenced on the most auspicious occasion of HM The King's 72nd birthday, 5th December 1999. Since it was opened, getting around Bangkok has never been the same.
As you make your way around the sky train you will get a nice elevated view of the city, a city that looks far better from the comfort of the sky train than it does from ground level. In the area around and just after Sala Daeng station, you will be going past the commercial district of the city and will see some of the tallest and flashest buildings in the Thai capital, many of them with the banners denoting that they house the Thai office of international banks and multinationals.
When you arrive at Saparn Taksin station, you need to exit and walk towards the river. You should notice that there are two small piers there and one, just to your left a little, should have a sign saying Chao Phraya Express Boat. That is the boat that you want to take. But, do not go to the pier yet... You should notice that you are underneath a bridge and a little to your right is a flight of stairs. Walk up the few short flights of stairs and walk across the bridge. From the bridge you can get a nice view up the river, looking roughly in a northerly direction. You can get a nice angle from here if you want to photograph all of the big hotels on the edge of the river, as below. You can walk across the bridge to the other side and go down the stairs at the other side. Walk to the bottom of them and you should see a small boat. This boat just goes backwards and forwards across the river at the very reasonable price of 2 baht per person. Take the boat across to the other side, back to where you were. Once you have got off this boat, you want to go to the Chao Phraya Express Boat pier that will be just a little over to your right.
Now, it is important to note that you want to take a boat that is heading from left to right, i.e. towards all those big hotels that you can see over on the right. As an option, you can take a boat heading down river, that is right to left. There are just three stops down to the end of the river. If you decide to take this option, just get on another boat heading back up the river. You can get some nice river photos if you go down this way. The fare to the end of the line is 6 baht.
When you get on the boat, tell the ticket seller that you want to go to Ta Dien and the fare should be 10 baht. As you head up the river, you will get an excellent view of many of Bangkok's, and indeed the world's, finest hotels. On the right, and not looking nearly impressive from the outside as one may expect from it's reputation is the Oriental Hotel. On the same side of the river and in the immediate vicinity are the Sheraton and The Shangri-La. Directly opposite the Oriental Hotel is the recently built Peninsula Hotel. As you go further up the river, you will start to see more of the old city with several Buddhist temples on either side of river. The ever impressive Wat Arun, or in English, The Temple Of Dawn is an impressive site on the western side of the river. This temple is the marker to tell you that you are almost at the port where you should get off, Ta Dien.
When you have got off at Ta Dien, you simply have to walk about ten metres and get on to the cross river ferry that will take you over the river to Wat Arun. This ferry used to cost a very reasonable 1 baht to cross the river but the authorities had the cheek to increase the fare by 100% so it now costs a whopping 2 baht to go over. Note that while on this ferry, it is an ideal place to take some snaps from and you should try and think about the location of the sun when taking your to be cherished holiday snaps. Remember, you want that sun to be behind you for best results!
Once you make it over to the other side, you can have a look around Wat Arun, pictured here. It's only 20 baht to get in but that is still too much given that Thais get in for less than that. In all truth and honesty, this temple looks better from the other side of the river and is largely unremarkable up close but as it is so cheap to get over the river, it's worthwhile looking at it. There are a lot of scam artists in the area around here selling the usual junk at the usual inflated for foreigners prices. You also get the obligatory souvenir sellers, the ice-cream sellers, the Coke at crazy price sellers etc. This can be a nice place to sit and relax and enjoy watching life on the river. Beware of the cut out boards with pictures of traditional Thai costumes painted on them and a hole for you to put your head through so your picture can be taken "wearing a traditional Thai costume". In the bottom corner, most inconspicuously placed, it says 40B meaning the cost for a photo is 40 B (for Thais it is free). This is a scam so don't bother taking pictures here.
The Chao Phraya River is one of the most interesting places in Bangkok and there is always something going on with long tail boats zooming foreign tourists around, barges transporting cargo up and down and the police boats hunting for wayward Khao Sarn Road backpackers who may have found a nice spot on side of the river to have a toke on cheap Thai weed. If you know anything about engines, you will notice that a lot of the long tail boats have old car engines running them, ranging from the ever popular 1600 twin cam Toyota engine to a few American V8s.
After you have finished wandering around and presumably photographing Wat Arun, it is time to head back across the river. Once you get back over there, walk right through the pier building and you should come out into a small side street with a lot of tuktuk drivers who will try to convince you to allow them to take you somewhere - walk past them and about another 50 or so metres and you are at an intersection where you can see a street right in front of you and two large compounds with white walls on either side. Here you have Wat Po on the right and the Grand Palace on the left. These are two of the most impressive and famous temples in Thailand. It's up to you which one you visit (or you can see both) but I personally prefer Wat Po as it is less crowded, costs only 20 baht to get in as opposed to 200 for The Grand Palace and has the impressive reclining Buddha. The style of architecture in the two temples is fairly similar so I will stick my neck out and say that unless you are a big fan of Thai Buddhist temples, seeing one is enough. So, go for a wander around either of the temples.
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