Check with locals for fare advice to avoid inflated tourist rates, then agree on price with the driver before leaving.Įnglish names for businesses, places or streets have a confusing variety of spellings as there's no standard transliteration for writing Thai words in the Roman alphabet. Tuk-tuks, speedy, three-wheeled motorcycles plying downtown streets, are another way to get around. For public transportation and pass information see BTS. Water taxis plying the Chao Phraya River are one of the best ways to travel, costing a few baht to see the city in all its splendor. Traffic is bad, but the subway system and overhead Sky Trains provide cool, convenient and inexpensive transportation. In some areas you might find yourself in someone's home, thinking you're on a public sidewalk. Train Travel in Thailand ( The Man in Seat 61) is a good website for train times & fares for popular routes into and out of Bangkok.īangkok is hot and crowded, with difficult-to-navigate tangles of streets - even with a map.
There are eight Bangkok stops between Phaya Thai and Suvarnabhumi, taking 15-30 minute trip for the full distance, depending on the line.
The Airport Rail Link began operations in August 2010 with local service every 15 minutes, and express departures every half hour, 6am to midnight. To get to your hotel, look for the "Taxi Meter Hire" stand. The gleaming new facility, about 20 miles southwest of the city has been taking over international flights from the old Don Muang Airport. Gay Pride Bangkok has taken place each November in the Patpong district in years past.īangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport is the country’s main gateway. The age of consent is officially 15, but various legal caveats make it 18 in practice. Prostitution, technically illegal, is an important part of the economy, so widely tolerated if with partners over 18 years old. While sex among men is not particularly remarkable, self-identified gay men may not become monks, and there are no same-sex marriages or partnership rights. Sodomy was decriminalized in 1956, and gay and transgendered people have been able to serve in the armed forces since 2005. Thai men, as appreciative of youth, vitality and bodies beautiful as anyone, can be less obsessed with body types or age than their Europe and American counterparts. Thai culture has traditionally been more accepting of fluid sexuality and gender ambiguity. This attitude sometimes disorients foreigners who binge (so little time, so many opportunities), but Thais think of sex as a kind of appetite - to enjoy, to partake of in any or all it's varieties, but in moderation. In Buddhist traditions, life has far more important concerns, sexual knowledge is not immoral or depraved per se, and such matters are personal or family affairs. And ladyboys, who don't outrage or scandalize anyone, occupy a sort of third-gender social niche, hard to imagine in most countries. To outsiders' eyes, women working construction jobs alongside men in hard hats, while some men dance in bars in tiny thongs or less, doing sex work with men but living otherwise straight lives, might appear odd. Self-assured, fiercely independent, Thais are proud to have stood alone in resisting European colonization of the region.īuddhist culture has uncommonly relaxed perspectives on sexuality and gender roles.
Even taxi drivers at work will stop at small temples to make offerings and pray and at 6pm each day people across Bangkok stand quietly to pay their respect to the king.
The foundations of this society are Buddhism and the monarchy. A place of great beauty, Prathet Thai, "land of the free," this country has stunning landscapes, tropical vegetation, idyllic beaches, shimmering temples of gold, and people who are generous with their smiles.