Bangkok Brief: Neighborhoods, Nightlife and an Overdue City-Orientation

I've realized that I've left out a lot about Bangkok in this blog, which seems to just cover my travels. To remedy that, I thought I'd give you a brief overview of Bangkok's neighborhoods and places I frequent, and a general overview of the city layout.

In Bangkok, there are main street which are arteries of the city--some of these are "Sukhumvit" (the biggest street in Bangkok, where the skytrain runs along), "Phahonyothin" (where I live), "Phetchaburi" (where Bumrungrad, the main hospital is), etc. Off of these streets are smaller streets, usually labeled with numbers: Sukhumvit Soi 1, 2, 3, etc. The even sois are on one side of the street and the odds are on another. Off of the main roads, i.e., Sukhumvit Soi 4, are smaller, but still big roads with names--every few sois is a big street. For example, Sukhumvit Soi 63 is called Soi Ekkamai, and Sukhumvit Soi 55 is also called Soi Thong Lor, but the sois in between aren't main roads. However, the nearby sois are considered part of the Thong Lor neighborhood. So, Sukhumvit 55, 53, 51, 57 are all considered part of the "Thong Lor" neighborhood. Off of these roids (soi Thong Lo, etc) are smaller sub-sois: Thong Lor Soi 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. This is the city planning of Bangkok, definitely not a grid, but a more "organic" way to plan a city, or so one of my friends here says.

Of the neighborhoods I know and am familiar with, most are along the Skytrain, so I'm going to give my overview as if you were looking at a skytrain map:



The main Skytrain line is the Sukhumvit line, which connects the famous Chatuchak market in the northern part of Bangkok to the Eastern neighborhoods like Thong Lor and Ekkamai.

So, starting from the eastern most: Thong Lor and Ekkamai are cool, more upmarket areas that are mixed with Thais (wealthy) and expats--there are a lot of bars in this area and the majority of the "cool" and trendy Thai clubs are in this area. Soi 38 is in Thong Lor, which is famous for having delicous street food into the wee hours of the night/morning, it's fantastic. Almost like a 24-hour diner in NY, but not exactly.

Farther west is Nana is one of the "red light" areas (crazy that it's not THE red light district?!) but it's also where many Indian restaurants, the big clubs (soi 11), and Little Arabia (Soi 3, where my favorite middle Eastern restaurant with Dave the waiter, is) all are. A tad more west is Phloen Chit is where I work, 1 stop away from Nana; I work right across the street from the US embassy and about a 10 minute walk from the Nigh Baazar (2nd best but still damn-good market in Bangkok) and Lumpini park, one of Bangkok's main parks where runners and aerobic enthusiasts (yes, they have park aerobics classes, it's hilarious) gather like clock-work at 5 AM and PM.

2 stops west of Phloen Chit is Siam, the center of Bangkok. As a center of Bangkok, it is obviously where all of Bangkok's enormous malls are (Thais LOVE to shop, it's like a sport here): Central World (the biggest), Siam Paragon (the most luxuious), Siam Discovery, Siam Tower, MBK (electronics galore), and Central Chidlom (department store where FoodLoft is, one of my favorite eating destinations; technically not a mall, and also technically a 5-minute walk away form Siam). Siam is a major stop in the Skytrain as and is where you can change trains to go south towards the Chao Praya river at Saphan Taksin, where all the nice hotels are, the Oriental, Shangri-La, etc, and where you can catch a boat up the river to Bangkok's main tourist sits like the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun and the famous backpacker paradise, Khao San Road. You can also take this Skytrain line, the "Silom Line," to Patpong, Bangkok's other famous red-light district where you can find ladyboy shows, alternative "entertainment," a night market, my favorite Mexican restaurant, and yes, more shopping (the Silom Shopping Complex and some other shopping complex).

If you were to stay on the Sukhumvit line and continue north from Siam, you would reach Victory Monument (I still don't know what the victory was). Victory Monument is a teenybopper's paradise and it's where many of the school kids gather after school. It also has, yet again, great shopping, food, and bars (my favorite jazz bar, Saxophone, and another rooftop hipster/jazz bar/restaurant). Also, one of the better night clubs, Club Culture, isn't too far from Victory Monument.

Farther north from Victory Monument is Ari, my neighborhood. Ari is a quiet, Thai-farang area (again, wealthy Thais). It's filled with cute restaurants, and a few low-key, cute bars that I enjoy frequenting. Then, just a bit farther north from Ari is JJ (Chatuchak Market), the largest open-air market in the world where you can find anything from clothing to home decor to art (I've bought many paintings and photographs) to leather goods to pets (dogs, cats, bunnies to rare pets like squirrels and other rodents, usually dressed in weird outfits which are meant to be cute).

I have ventured off of the Sukhumvit skytrain line, though many of the restaurants, bars and clubs I go to regularly are in these areas. Some other areas to mention though are RCA, a closed-off street, lined with big nightclubs which are Thai-farang mixed; Phra Athit in Banglampu, the bohemian area of Bangkok, not far from Khao San Road, filled with amazingly delicious and inexpensive restaurants, including my favorite Thai restaurant, Hemlock; and Sarasin/Ratchadamri, near Lumpini Park, where there are some cute bars and great restaurants, though to be fair, this area is BTS-accessible.

Hope this helps all of you who were starting to wonder more about where I live (and the heart of the current Thai political turmoil)!