The Weekend (visa run!) City Guide to Bangkok 2015

$1 US Dollar = 33 Thai Baht


There are exchange booths at the airport, you won’t get the optimal rate. Deal with it.


You have two options to get out of the Bangkok International Suvarnabhumi airport:

Take the Airport Link or take a taxi


Taking the taxi into town is 4 times (400 baht minimum) the cost of the Airport Link (70 baht with BTS roughly) and will cut down on the 10 minutes it will take you to get from your respective BTS station to your hotel. If you want that kind of convenience, by all means, otherwise, the Airport Link is efficiently comfortable.

Regardless of the option, it will take you a total of 5 hours to get into Bangkok and back onto a plane.

Staying at Khao San Road remains a cheap, but bed-bugs dirty option. Ain’t nobody got time for dat. In the big city of Bangkok, there are actually too many places to stay. The best area to stay IMHO is Siam Square because:

  1. It’s at the juncture of the five major shopping malls notably Siam Paragon and CentralWorld (home to UNIQLO, H&M, even Bon Chon Chicken).
  2. It’s on the BTS
  3. The infamous Song Tam Nua chain restaurant (392/14 Siam Square Soi 5, Rama 1 Road) is a walk away.

4. LubD, rated “one of the 17 coolest hangout hostels in the world”
5. (Even if you don’t stay at LubD) A place to sleep is $25 a night average around Siam Square.

http://siamsquare.lubd.com/contactsiamsquarehostel.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Foodcourt_Siam_Paragon.jpg

Back to Siam Paragon, better than the typical Big Asian city mall. This is what Siam Paragon has all in one place:

  1. The Siam Paragon Food Court and the fact that every kind of food and brand imaginable is here
  2. La Monita, best Mexican food in Southeast Asia
  3. Kinokuniya Books, best bookstore in Southeast Asia
  4. IMAX 3D, because Vietnam still doesn’t have IMAX and IMAX (and those Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas in Austin) is the reason to go to the theatre in 2015
  5. The liquor shop on the ground floor that has 10 kinds of tequila (10!)
  6. The technology and design stores
Planes, trains and automobiles, and tuk-tuks, and boats (the canals!), and motorbikes oh my!
Photo credit: http://spoiledtraveler.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/motorbike-taxi-by-Selvedged-on-flickr.jpg

You will scoff at a motorbike charging you more than taxis, but during rush hour, they are faster. From Siam Square to Khao San: 100 baht.


Alright, Khao San is not all that bad because of:


Found gems like the Joy Luck Club (18 Prasumain Rd.), a non-descript restaurant on the way to (a closed) Roti Mataba. It’s a daughter-mother operation outfitted with an eBay stockroom of dusted Troll dolls, $1 vinyls, and yes, the Joy Luck Club DVD.

The Brick Bar

where all the cool Thais go


How long would it take me to learn Thai? Does she have a boyfriend- who cares right? I should have done burpees before I left the room. Would I be cool with her having a kid? Is she vegetarian? I can be vegetarian too right?


Yeah, I was crushin’ on the opening band’s lead singer.


Then, the infamous Teddy Ska band came out.


English SKA. Thai SKA. Thai songs, crowd ROARS. MOVES LIKE JAGGER. PACKED-OUT. Sodas/Johnny Walker everywhere. Everybody HYPHY.

I went on a Monday night. A Monday night! (Shows every night apparently.)


Hungover with street-sweet roti in me the next morning, I decide YOLO because I haven’t rode roller coasters in 15 years (pathetic).

Dream World, Bangkok

For an afternoon, I’m a teenager — a teenager, all alone in this Dream World, this amazing post-development paradise wafting with kettle-corn aromas, nurtured animal farms, human-made ice-houses replete with modest sled-slopes, hosting budding families and friends growing to love each other, growing stronger together, in gravity, and anti-gravity.

It opens at 10am. Get your money’s worth. Solitude is for idiots like me — go with people. 800 Baht for foreigners (do not lose the shirt sticker). Take the BTS to Mo Chit. Find the (30 baht) A1 shuttle to Don Mueang airport outside the station downstairs. At the airport, catch a taxi to Dream World. 140 Baht, 20 minutes.

When you return to Don Mueang airport after you’re done with Dream World, go downstairs to Departures, to catch the A1 bus back.

If you fancy craft beers, The Alchemist in Sukhumvit Soi 11 is worth your time.

For a blast of a time, check out the Bangkok horse races.

Cabbages and Condoms is “a restaurant conceptualized in part to promote better understanding and acceptance of family planning and to generate income to support various development activities of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA)”

Remember, if you are in Bangkok for the weekend, go to Chatuchak Weekend Market (BTS stop: Mo Chit, Mo Chit always got mo-chit). Bring hella baht — you will always find something to buy. At Chatuchak, you can eat this:

For foodies: I bought the book of the famous Bangkok Foodie blog Bangkok Glutton.

If you want to get your dance on, RCA is the strip (again, bring a copy of your passport).

Is it worth it to VAT?

I processed receipts totaling 11,000-baht ($335 USD) total for VAT. I got back 550 baht ($17 USD). Decide if it’s worth it for you.

For events in Bangkok, my Berkeley buddy Ian says to check out the CNN Travel page for Bangkok and the biggest Facebook group page in Bangkok:

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