Bangkok (Lonely Planet) - Andrew Burke [85]
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WALK FACTS
Start Tha Sathon (Central Pier) or Skytrain Saphan Taksin
End River City
Distance 4km, extra to post-walk drinking spot
Duration 1½ to two hours
Fuel stops Naaz
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10 Drinkies
From River City you have several options, depending on your evening plans. This is a departure point for Mae Nam Chao Praya dinner cruises leaving at 7pm. More appealing are the free shuttle boats to the riverside hotels. If it’s after 5pm you could take the Mandarin Oriental boat to the famous hotel for a sundowner there, or walk from the hotel up to State Tower for a rooftop cocktail at Sirocco. Take the Hilton boat just across the river and head to the penthouse jazz bar Three Sixty, which is definitely better if it’s raining. For a lesser, but still great, view and much cheaper drinks, take the Hilton boat and walk left from the pier to the riverside Be My Guest and get a table outside the wall.
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THANON SUKHUMVIT
Eating; Shopping; Sleeping
The Sukhumvit neighbourhood starts at the fleshpots of Nana Entertainment Plaza in what could be loosely called central Bangkok and tracks its namesake street for 20km all the way to the Gulf of Thailand. Like Bangkok as a whole, it has no real centre and numerous distinct personalities. Apart from the Skytrain, which looms above much of the street, the thing that brings it all together is money. This is Bangkok’s most exclusive residential area, one packed with the city’s most expensive apartments, villas, restaurants, shops, spas, cars, hospitals and, not surprisingly, its wealthiest residents.
Sukhumvit’s two main personality blocks are either side of Soi Asoke (Soi 21). West of Soi Asoke, the soi branching off the main road are dominated by the sleazy sex tourist scene around Nana and Soi Cowboy, which tends to attract the expat (sexpat) and repeat visitor market. On Th Sukhumvit itself the scantily clad bargirls share space with men using battered laminated cards to tout eye-opening shows and a night market flogging fake DVDs, T-shirts and túk-túks made from beer cans to tourists. But it’s not all sex and souvenirs. Several chic boutique hotels embellish these soi, and the city’s most fashionable nightclubs, including Bed Supperclub and Q Bar, can be found on Soi 11. Meanwhile, down at Soi 3/1 you can feast on cheap Middle Eastern food in what is known as Little Arabia, where we recommend Nasir Al-Masri.
West of Soi Asoke is where the bulk of the international residents and wealthy Thais live. During the postwar period, the green swathes of rice paddy that once filled the area were initially developed into large, contemporary villas occupying even larger blocks; for a prime example dine at Spring. Over the years these huge blocks have proved prime targets for developers looking to cash in on the Thai infatuation with high-rise apartments. And despite years of economic sluggishness and weak local demand, taller and more extravagent condominiums (think apartments with private balcony pools) continue to go up on almost every soi.
Further east the road passes the plush Emporium shopping mall on its way to the Thong Lor (Soi 55) and Ekamai (Soi 63) neighbourhoods. These two areas have their fair share of mansions and a lively, and very trendy, bar and restaurant scene; the Japanese food is exceptional. Ekamai is home to several huge clubs that fill with expensively clad young Thais on weekends.
For all its wealth and foreign faces, Sukhumvit remains resolutely Thai. Walk to the mouth of almost any soi to be reminded you’re in a Thai city: street food vendors, motorcycle taxis waiting to cart you home for 10B, soi dogs loitering around vendors selling grilled pork and the ubiquitous 7-Eleven store, known hereabouts as a ‘se-vern’. For street food, soi 20, 23, 33 and 38 are particularly good.
Like many modern