Bangkok is a city I’ve been to numerous times, but which I actually disliked on my first visit. Since then, I’ve grown to enjoy this noisy, modern, scruffy, shiny metropolis. Bangkok is full of history and modern consumption with its grand palace and temples and sleek skyscrapers, a thriving river and smelly klong canals (on which canal boats run). Bangkok isn’t that old as a major city, having been the capital since 1782, but it is by far Thailand’s largest and most important city.

I’ve explored and traveled across Bangkok on foot, and by boat, by bus, and by subway and skytrain. I’ve watched Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing) bouts live, walked around Chinatown and gone up the Golden Mount, as well as been to at least one of its infamous nighttime adult areas. But yet, there is a lot more to Bangkok I haven’t seen yet.

Traffic, not temples, is Bangkok’s signature sight with cars, buses, motorcycles and tuktuks

Wat Suthat
The mighty MahaNakhon, Thailand’s tallest building and one of the world’s coolest skyscrapers

Wat Arun seen from across the Chrao Phraya river

Luxury condo and hordes of motorcyclists

Wat Phra Kaew or Temple of the Emerald Buddha, (above) inside the Grand Palace complex, and the actual palace (below)

Lumpini Park, Bangkok’s largest park and a good place for a walk

Two of Lumpini Park’s many monitor lizards

View from the Golden Mount

Pavilion at the national museum

Muay Thai bouts at the now-defunct old Lumpinee Stadium (above and below)

Temple on the Chrao Phraya riverbank

More quirky condos under construction
Chinatown, also known as Yaorawat

Erawan shrine, located at the intersection of an upscale district and also the site of a deadly terrorist bombing

Train arriving at a station in northern Bangkok, probably the most casual train station I’ve ever been to

Canal boat on one of the Bangkok’s inner klongs (these are different from the river boats)