Things to Do in Bangkok

If you're keen on museums and/or want to escape the heat, have a look at Museums and Art Centres in Bangkok .

Go to the Wat Pho for a traditional Thai massage . A special treat is the herbal massage, a soothing experience for hurting muscles. A true massage - which can be quite painful - should take 2 hours, but you can try out a short, 30-minute treatment first. Don't forget to have a look at the huge reclining Buddha as well.  location  *  video

See traditional Thai dance at the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok, and for you for free as well. Buddhists hire the dancers to ask or thank Buddha for good luck.  location  * video

Take a cooling boat trip on the Chao Praya river or canals and enjoy the beautiful sights of Bangkok. Regular boat services run on the Chao Praya river. Just take the normal express boat and enjoy the beautiful sights of Bangkok, including many temples. The river also has quite a few ferry services to take you across the river. The most famous one is from the Tha Tien pier to the Wat Arun , Bangkok's most photographed temple. The khlongs (canals) show the backside of Bangkok life. Some khlongs have a regular boat service. A nice trip is from on the khlong north of Sukhumvit Road to the Golden Mount . One of the bridges is so low that they'll lower the frame of the boat to pass it. It is of course also possible to charter a boat for yourself. The Tha Tien pier is a good place to do so.

At the Bangkok Snake Farm (Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute) there are of course a lot of snakes, especially poisonous ones. The farm was founded to produce an antidote for the most common Asian snakes. The snakes are milked regularly (the poison is pushed out of their glands), with the poison they vaccinate horses on the accompanying horse farm (not on show) and later they retrieve the antidote from the horses' blood. For funding they show various types of snakes in a small zoo, and in a daily show they milk a few snakes in front of the public, present some extremely poisonous and hissing cobras at 2 meters distance from the public and people can have their picture taken with a big python (not poisonous). The men that take care of the snakes get bitten regularly, even though they are careful, so they are big consumers of their own products. A little commercial, but an interesting farm. location  *  website

Big city getting on your nerves? Then go to the park. Even though located in the city, you'll hardly notice anything of the hectic life outside the gates. Green grass (yes, you are allowed to sit on it!!), palm trees, exotic plants, a pond with rowboats for hire… The best place for a break.  location

Not so much for the fighting itself, but for the opening rituals, the traditional musical instruments used, the excitement of Thai people gambling (illegal) and shouting (allowed). In the tourist area boxing games are sometimes organised especially for tourists, but I recommend going for the real one.  website

Never mind the bad fumes and the noise, a tuk-tuk ride is fun. Smaller than a regular taxi, this 3-wheel vehicle swerves rapidly around other traffic and can make a quick turn if required. Feel the city. For foreigners the price is about the same as for a regular (car) taxi. Scam warning: Be wary of tuk-tuk drivers offering you a low rate. They get commission for delivering customers to for example jewellery shops. Once there, you will be pressured into buying something you don't want.

Have a look at the really pretty ladies in one of the famous transvestite cabarets. The shows are not very sophisticated and all songs (varying from classical western musical to Asian songs) are playback. But the purpose of this show is not to be original, it is to show off the great beauty and femininity of the participants. In-between the pretty parts usually a comedian dressed as a woman makes low level jokes involving kissing (un)willing guys in the audience and farting out loud. After the show you can line up with your favourites and take pictures with them for a nice tip. website

Pata Zoo is located on the 6th and 7th floor of Pata Department Store , across the Pin Klao bridge in Thonburi. Nice but smelly and some cages are really too small. The top (7th) floor houses mammals and birds. It has a nice view over Bangkok, but of course that's no use for the animals. They have quite a collection of apes, including gorillas. Feeding is not allowed, but everyone does it anyway. You can have your picture taken with a dressed-up monkey, which it doesn't seem to like much, or against a backdrop of parrots. The 6th floor is filled with reptiles, fish, insects etc. The cages are nicely decorated in old style. Everywhere aquariums with turtles, loaded with coins for good luck. Small but exciting is the exhibition about pythons, including pictures of people eaten by them (imagine!).  location

photos-bangkok.com Patpong is famous as a tourist market selling both real and fake designer goods, DVD's and lots of souvenirs. However, it's more famous as Bangkok's first red light district. Inside the clubs downstairs the bikini- or even naked ladies dance on stage, upstairs feature famous and oh so original shows like the banana show (guess what goes where), women smoking cigarettes from all openings etc. If you have never seen something like this, this is the place go. Most bars have touts outside trying to get you into their bars or see their sex shows. It gets a mixed tourist audience, so it's not too seedy, although everyone complains about rip-offs.  location In the same area you can find gay bars and discos in Soi 4, male go-go dancers at Boys Town, Surawong Road, and Japanese hostess bars in Thanya Road.