One night in Bangkok
 

Reminds me of a song.....for those of us old enough to remember it - but anyway....

We have one afternoon and evening from midday to the following morning (departing flight at 8.30am) and wondered if some of you had some particularly good ideas of what we could comfortably see/do for an afternoon and evening. We are in our mid 40's but pretty young at heart.

We are having a pretty relaxing week on Krabi beforehand so don't mind a bit of hustle and bustle of the city and nightlife (and a bit of culture)!

One note - we will be staying near the airport due to our earlyish flight and understand it's about a 25km trip into Bangkok. Does anyone have an idea of the taxi fare?

Thanks!

If you are going into the city without luggage, you might consider the train. It is fast and very cheap.

Hey Icuy that's true the train is the very good option to reach any place in Bangkok..even when i visited to Bangkok i travel in the city by train only.

taxi to most places in the city would only be about 300-400 B or less...

i would consider staying in the city instead of the airport locations...

a nice visit would be to the jim thompson house where you could also have a nice meal...

maybe a wat visit too, like wat arun...

a nice dinner at one of the hotels along the river... lord jim at the oriental comes to mind...

a ride along the river in daylight...

I'd also recommend that you stay in the city rather than out by the airport. I'd choose a hotel on the river so you get the view of the river traffic. Perhaps take a water taxi to Wat Po. Bob's suggestion of the Jim Thompson House is a good one. Have a dinner a a wonderful restaurant. You don't have to leave your hotel that early to get to the airport. From the hotels on the "right" side of the river to the airport is usually 35 minutes or less, you might allow 45 minutes.

You can take the train into Bangkok, but note that the train from the airport and the Skytrain that we all use to get around Bangkok are different. The systems do not connect directly.

I recently stayed by the airport and took the train into the city for an afternoon/evening. It was actually a very good way to get around if you are not hauling bags. I took the CITY LINK and not the Airport Express train. The city link takes slightly longer as it makes some 6 stops along the way. It is about 45 baht as opposed to express train at 90 baht(?). Take it to its end and then walk along a very short overhead covered walkway/ramp (good signage) to get to the BTS station at Ratchathewi, where you would take the skytrain in the direction of BEARING, but you would get off at SIAM, which would be the very next stop from Ratchathewi. Very easy!

From Siam you can go to the river on the 'other' skytrain route, if that is what you want to do (towards Wan Wian Yai). If you want to see the Jim Thompson house, you could walk there from SIAM station (use the skytrain walkways) or take the 'other route' to National Stadium station and walk to JT House from there.

If you like interesting shopping, the huge MBK Mall is also at the National Stadium skytrain station (opposite the way you would go to JT House). MBK is a unique Thai mall.

There are oodles of eating options for your dinner before heading back to the airport. I might suggest you go to Red Sky at the top of the Central World mall hotel (very close to SIAM, you can walk there via skytrain walkway). Red Sky is an outdoor top floor restaurant with a nice menu and a view that is awesome, provided you have nice weather. You might notice the huge (neon) arched lighting way up at the top of that hotel if you look up at the evening sky.

If a food court will do, it is pretty hard to beat the food selections in the basement level at Paragon Mall (at SIAM station). Lots of exceptionally good restaurants there also.

The train service back to the airport stops at maybe midnight, so if you are in the city center later than that, you would need to grab a taxi back out to your hotel.

Hi Carol! question for u, pls...Is the a different line than the airport express train? Or is the difference just that the CITYLINK makes more stops? Thanks

They are two different trains. Both will go from the airport to Makassan station. I believe they follow the same sets of tracks. The City Link makes something like 6 stops and takes a slight bit longer. It only stops for a minute (or less) at each stop, so the time difference is very small. The express is non stop from the airport to Makassan.

The city link goes BEYOND Makassan, which is the nicest part. I believe it makes 2 more stops after Makassan. It ends just steps from Ratchathewi skytrain, which takes you to the city center, to the river, to many locations in BKK. And the well signed walkway to the BTS is very easy to maneuver (if you are not lugging heavy baggage around). There are few escalators... that means up and down some stairs, which could be problematic if you had heavy luggage.

The reports that I hear about Makassan make it sound like a deserted place with poor signage and few taxis around. This station is in a rather remote location, even though it is in the heart of the city. Taxi drivers do not like the express train competition!

Thanks so much! We decided to just sleep at the novotel at the airport, but will go in town for the afternoon and dinner. Your info is very helpful as always.
So snowing out your way? Got some rain here in Luang Prabang...kind of nice actually.

I also did the Novotel. It's over priced IMO but the city link is soooo close. Makes it very easy.

The snow is here for a few days. By Tuesday, we'll be back above freezing. Just in time to drive to Chicago and catch a flight to Vegas for a week!