Bangkok, the place to go for more than just a few days or not?

Bangkok is sometimes seen as a great place to go and sometimes the opposite. If I do not take into consideration the opinions of the people looking for thai girls, then still two opinions are often expressed. Many people, before getting to Bangkok think that Bangkok is not the place you should stay too long (big city, smelly, dirty, nothing to do) and they think it is better to go to another city, Phuket, Chiang mai etc. Then when people get here, some of those that thought that they could never spent more than one or two days in Bangkok regret having booked only so little days in the city. In fact, Bangkok is not really that bad.

The pavements might indeed be very bad and not always very comfortable to walk on, but the different ways of transportation have gotten much better. An underground line is in service, that can take you very quickly from one side of the town to the other, and this subway is oh so much cleaner (it is simply very clean) and not smelly (no smell at all), not like the Paris subway where the air is really bad. Also are there two sky train lines, that are equally very clean, and can also take you to different locations. So no need to always get stuck in traffic.

Then what is there to do in Bangkok. Well, there are so many things that can be done here, that it is really hard to get bored. Depending of course if you come alone, as a couple or with your family (small or bigger children).

There are a lot of places to visit, temples (too many, so better just visit the major ones, Wat Phra Keo (incl. The Grand Palace); Wat Pho (the reclining Buddha); Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn). Then they do have many museums: The Erawan Museum; The national Museum; The National gallery; The wax museum, Doll Museum and many more. There are also many kind of parks including thai traditional houses and traditional crafts being shown like: Ancient City; Bang Sai Royal Arts & craft Village; Bang Pa In summer palace etc.

Many people also like to take at least a boat trip through the small waterways called Klongs. Then many people enjoy to go shopping in Bangkok. Many would like to buy some silk for in their house (refurbish their sofa or make new curtains) or take some other decorative items home from the well known Chatuchak week-end market.

Others do like to go to a cooking school and get some cooking lessons. Some say that this is their best souvenir of their holiday as the others are impressions that fade away, but the cooking lessons will actively be used and are a great souvenir of their holiday.

Again others like to get some hours of Thai traditional body or foot massages and you can get some great facial massages here too (all not very expensive of course).

Some also enjoy to just go to the hairdressers, if it is just to cut an inch or two, as it is much cheaper than at home.

Than there are also the dentists that are cheap and good here and just a general medical check up can be easily done. But of course not everybody plans this when going for a holiday here. There is though a very big group coming here for medical reasons only and taking a holiday besides their medical visits (medical tourism).

Another thing of Bangkok is that you can just enjoy the best restaurants in town for not really that much of money. So you really can enjoy the great food they have here, be it thai food or foreign food. Then for the kids, there are several zoo's to choose from: Dusit Zoo; Snake farm; Crocodile farm; Safari World; Chok Chai Farm (one hour from bangkok); Siam Ocean World.

There are museums that focus on children like: The Children's Discovery Museum and Suan RotFai. There are also many amusement parks that are cheap compared to the rates you would pay back home for an amusement park. But I guess you will never really get to those kind of things while on your holiday.

If your kids are young, they of course might prefer to just be at a swimming pool or at the sea. As often, even if you go to a place at the sea, you will find yourself sitting at the swimming pool of the hotel, instead of at the beach. Therefor it is not always necessary to really go to the beach.

If you come alone or just with your partner than sometimes it might be good to just see what and where you will go to, once you are here. You can plan for certain places and see once you are here where you will go first. The relaxing part should be planned at the end to get back home not too tired. If you do not go in a very busy holiday period, I do not think it is impossible to get a hotel room just anywhere. This remark is made a bit because of the last few weeks, as it has been raining rather much for this time of the year. Normally it would not be raining at all in this period (April - May), but unfortunately, it has been recently, so then being at the beach would be even worse. But if you have paid for your holiday (hotel bookings) already, not many changes can be made than.

I forgot that I have not yet mentioned the other side of people's opinions. Well, some people still do not like the city Bangkok, as they prefer the calm and they tend to feel the pollution. If you are out for a holiday just to rest, you better not stay in Bangkok because you might even get back home more tired than you came here. Some others of course just like to be at the beach, and Bangkok is not offering any. With this article I do not mean to keep you away from the beach or other places in Thailand, but, I just mean to write that one or two days for Bangkok might not really be enough.

Author's Note: Usefull information for your trip to or stay in Bangkok - www.bangkok-info-online.com by I. Sweep

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