Flights Bangkok City
Sukhumvit Patpong

The city touches the Gulf of Thailand around four meters above sea level, which brings flooding to several parts of the city every years. The Chao Phraya River brings the floods from upper Thailand into the delta and is about 400m meters wide in this area, dividing the metropolitan area. At Ayutthaya e.g. around 130km upstream this river is about 100m wide. There is busy traffic on the river since the ocean and river ships are just anchoring in the middle of the stream. City size is around 1567 square kilometers and the total metropolitan region is around 7762 square kilometers, flights to Bangkok show more.

Since the end of 2010 the Bangkok airport link takes the traveler on a ride from the city center at Phayathai to the airport in 20 minutes.

Since a few years now the BTS Bangkok 'Skytrain' is reaching far into the Westside, just short to the southern Bangkok Bus Terminal, where the buses to Phuket, Krabi, Hay Yai and Padang Besar are starting. Padang Besar is the southernmost point in Thailand where buses from the capital terminate, this place is also the border crossing for the railway to Malaysia and

After the Burmese sacked Ayutthaya the question was how to avoid the continuous raids of the Burmese into Thailand and particular into the capital. The idea was to get the capital further away from the border region and more into the Chao Phraya delta to make it more difficult for the enemy.

After the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 General Taksin made Bangkok the new capital in 1772. Ten years later King Rama I, founder of the present Chakri Dynasty moved the government headquarters to the area known as Rattanakosin which was then the village of Bangkok where mainly Chinese traders had their warehouses, Bangkok actually means village of wild plum.

The king took residence in Thonburi on the west side of the Chao Phraya River. Rama I, moved the administration to the Bangkok side. After fortifications and building a Wat a Palace was built serving as residence, administration offices were also within the boundaries of the Grand Palace. This palace became the Grand Palace of today. The grand palace plus add on's covers an area of about 219.000sqm and is protected by walls, the complex was built in 1782. The length of the four walls is almost 2km. Within these walls are state offices the Emerald Buddha and the royal residences.

The official name of the city was declared Krung Thep, means "city of angels".

Western traders used instead the name of the Bangkok village, that's the name we know now, but Thai people still use the name Krung Thep.

Also the emerging trade with Europe and the countries to the west such as India, Persia and Arabia was to be made more easy, so the move towards the sea was logical, on top of it at that time Bangkok was much closer to the sea as today, closer because of the sediments the river carried down from the north which was a natural body of reclaimed land since then.

The National Museum has a large collection of artifacts and art works from the Thai 'Stone Age' up to current times. There is a National Gallery located opposite the National Museum old and contemporary paintings of Thai artists are on display. If someone is interested in Thai art paintings have a walk through the Bangkok Airport, domestic section and international section, along the walkways are huge and very beautiful paintings of contemporary Thai artists. This artwork is a excellent contrast to the modern design of the Bangkok airport.

Real Asia antiques can be seen at the old residence of the late Prince Chumphot in the so called "paint pavilion", a wooden house from King Narai of Ayutthaya -1656-1688-, it is decorated with scenes created in lacquer technique.

In the garden of the Siam Society in Soi 21 Sukhumvit Road is a 200-year old Thai house in the Lanna style (Lanna style is northern Thai style) with a collection of utensils of Thai farmers and fishermen can be seen. Some other wooden houses in the old Thai style can be seen at Jim Thompson place. Jim Thompson was an American who brought the Thai silk into the world, he disappeared in 1967. This old Thai style houses are very rare since over the centuries several huge fires burned all wooden houses from time to time, in the old days only Monasteries, Pagodas and Palaces were built with bricks.

Interested in Thai art? have a look around the Oriental Hotel, there are dozens of galleries selling all kind of Thai art, they also have wide selections of contemporary art paintings, very decorative in an home. Don't buy 'real old' antiques they are all fake, including the certificate.