How To Travel in Bangkok without Tour Guide

Travel to Bangkok is an amazing experience. This article is my experience about 4 days in Bangkok city. You can save your budget and get more time if you travel without tour guide. There is many place that you must visit in Bangkok such as : Grand Palace, Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew), Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho), Wat Arun.

Preparation Travel to Bangkok

Bangkok is capitol city of Thailand. The city is very busy and the traffic jam can be make you frustated. But the mass rapid transportation can help you to the place within a minute. Okay before travel to Bangkok, first you can prepare something:

• Pasport and Visa


• Airplane Ticket


• Hotel Voucher


• Event Voucher


• US Dollar for money exchange in Bangkok


• Research how to get Airport Link, MRT, BTS, and Express Boat


• A pen, hat, notes, camera, suitcase

Survey using Google Street

Google Street is very helpfull for survey the area of Bangkok. Just open your browser and go to the maps.google.com, type in the search box about the street name in Bangkok. For example, I type "sukhumvit soi 38, bangkok" and then the maps open to me. There is a man icon in top left corner that you can drag it to the street. Then you can see an image about the area in 360 degree. You can walk around the street with your cursor.

For booking a hotel you can search via Hotels2Thailand. Booking a hotel via Hotel2Thailand is very easy and you can get more discount and reward. Hotel2Thailand accepts PayPal and many major credit cards.

You can also booking many tickets event via Hotel2Thailand. For example you can book a Siam Niramit ticket, Madame Tussauds, Siam Ocean Worlds, a day trips ticket for grand palace, wat phra kaew, wat pho, and wat arun. And many tickets you can get in hotel2thailand.

Now after you get the information about the trips. You can plan the transportation to Bangkok. Suvarnabhumi Airport is the biggest airport. After you arrive and check point in imigration, you can go to claim bagage and then take exit. You can take a taxi, a bus, or airport link. I choose airport link, because it is cheap and fast. You can get information about airport link in here. Other train that connecting with airport link is the BTS and MRT. The BTS is the sky train and the MRT is the subway train. For more information about BTS you can get here and for MRT you can click here.

Also for travel around river there is a boat for tourist, you can get the information about Chao Phraya Tourist Boat in here.

Bangkok Day 1 : Dinner Cruise with Loy Nava

In March 12-16, I've been travelling to Bangkok. My plane landing in Bangkok
around 11 am. After fill my immigration arrival card, I go to the immigration
check point. I've got stamp to stay in Bangkok about 30 days. But I've just
stay about 4 days. After take the exit door, I go to the airport link train.
This is the fast transportation to go to the central city of Bangkok. I
purchase the ticket City Line (not Express) to Phaya Thai for 45 Bath. This
train will be stop in every station and will be arrive at Phaya Thai about 30
minutes.

Bangkok weather is so hot. So after get off from the train, I bought a
mineral water. There is a McDonald kiosk in the cornet of the connection
station between Phaya Thai Airport Link and BTS.

Then I purchased the BTS Ticket to Thong Lo via vending machine. You must
know where the station you want to go, then it is convert to the zone. This
zone is the way that you can choose in the vending machine. Okay, after know
the zone, go to the vending machine. You can choose the English language then
press the zone, after that please insert the money to the machine. You will
receive the card ticket and don't forget some coin.

Before the gate will open, you must insert the ticket to the machine gate,
and take it again for the destination station. My destination station is
Thong Lo. On the afternoon, the train is so full passenger, but this is
acceptable for me to take the train. It was about 15 minutes to go to Thong
Lo station. Then I go down with the stairs and then go to my guest house in
Padi Madi, Sukhumvit Soi 53 and it's check in time at 1 pm.

After check in procedure, I walking around the area and get the lunch in the
small restaurant. I tried for Tom Yang soup and my wife tried for Crabs Fried
Rice. The food was so good taste.

In the print voucher of dinner at Loy Nava, I will pick up about 4.30 pm. So I prepare take a bath and waiting for the Loy Nava staf. The driver was on time when I just a while waiting. We are get in to the minivan and in the evening we go to the Si Phraya Pier and get the traffic jam. Took more than an hour to arrive the Si Phraya Pier and we arrive at 6 pm.

The Loy Nava staff check my voucher and my name was exist in his iPad for
confirmation. Then I board to the Rice Barge Loy Nava for a memorable dinner
in Chao Phraya.



In the Loy Nava, you will get all of the Thai food, and also a traditional dancer will entertaint you for 90 minutes. The boat cruise from Si Phraya Pier to the Phra Arthiet Pier and back again to Si Phraya Pier. A long the river, the staff at Loy Nava guide the tourist about the landmark around the river. We seen the Temple of the Dawn (Wat Arun) in the evening and it is so nice. We arrive again at Si Phraya Pier about 8pm. We wait for the driver for pick up us but the staff said that they don't found us then the manager of Loy Nava took a taxi for us for free
and we go to our guest house. The service of Loy Nava staff was verry excelent. They are very responsive and responsible for tourist like us. 

Bangkok Day 2 : Visit Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, and Madame Tussauds

Days two, we plan to the "must see" in Bangkok : Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew,
Wat Pho and Wat Arun. We take the BTS from Thong Lor about 8.30 am, then get
off at Siam station, change to another BTS line to Saphan Thaksin. We down to
the Central Pier and take a Chao Phraya Express Boat with Blue Flag. The
ticket for the boat is 45 Bath.

Many tourist usually down at Tha Thien Pier, but I took off at the Maharaj
Pier. Then after out from the pier, we took a walk straight ahead and then
turn right to go to Grand Palace. Within a junction we turn left and cross
the street and 100 m we got the gate of the palace.

The palace were so busy. Many tourist from other country were meet here. We
bought a ticket to enter the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew at 500 Bath. We got
the booklet about the Grand Palace complex.

About an hour we sight seeing in Grand Palace, take a picture then take a rest in the corridor. Then we walk again to the Wat Pho. After take a picture at Wat Pho, we go to Tha Thien pier. We cross the river via ferry and arrive at Wat Arun.

There is an ice cream kiosk in the park of Wat Arun. We take a rest and have lunch that we've prepare from the Thong Lor : a crab fried rice box!

In the evening we go to the Siam Discovery and up to 6th floor to Madame Tussauds. We take a picture for many figure of people. Tired to walking we take a dinner at Sukhumvit Soi 38 at Thong Lo. We eat sticky rice, nice food. You must try it.

Bangkok Day 3 : Chatuchak Market and Siam Niramit

In day 3, we moved from Padi Madi guest house to Unico Premiere MetroLink Hotel. The hotel was so close with MRT Petchaburi station. We can't check in at 12 pm because the room was not ready yet. So we leave my suitcase and go to Chatucak Market. This market only open in the weekend (Saturday and Sunday). We take the MRT from Petchaburi to Kamphang Phet.

You can buy many souvenies and t-shirt in Chatucak Market. The market is so big, enough about 2 hours exploring the market. In the evening we prepare to the Siam Niramit show. This show was place on Thailand Culture Centre. We take MRT to Thailand Culture Centre, and then after out from station, take the minivan Siam Niramit. It is free.


We arrived at Siam Niramit village and there was pre show attraction. O ya, there were also two elephant in the village. These elephants will join the show in the main event. Buy ticket Siam Niramit at the spot was so expensive it is 1500 Bath. If you want get a cheap ticket about Siam Niramit, I prefer to book at www.hotels2thailand.com. Then you exchange your booking code with the real Siam Niramit ticket at ticket box.

Before take a seat, you must leave your camera in deposit box. It's free. The show is about 90 minutes. And it is must see event that you must take it in Bangkok! Amazing Siam Niramit show!

Bangkok Day 4 : Around Hotel

On day 4, we just walking around hotel and prepare for ready to leaving Bangkok memorable travel. Thank you for reading this article.