October 2022 Best for Bangkok tour places and klong tours
The nearness of Bangkok’s must sees and waterways make Prince Palace an ideal hotel for activities in Bangkok. Taking a longtail boat trip along the Saen Saeb Canal from Bobae Market Pier, just a 3 min-walk from in front of the hotel, makes Bangkok’s famous places a pleasure to reach.
Beginning in the Bangkok’s Old Town, near Mahakan Fort, the ‘klong’ or canal trips take you past temples, markets, traditional wooden houses and bridges of interest, and you can hop off in many places for closer encounters. While busy during rush hour, holding on tight for a klong tour is convenient for shopping and sightseeing while skipping the traffic. Simply wave a boat down and wait for helmeted deckhands to jump ashore and assist you aboard.
So, from Prince Palace you can easily explore: Wat Saket (Golden Mount Temple) and the Old City at Phanfa Leelard (1 stop or 5 mins from Bobae Market Pier); Democracy Monument; Khao San Road; and the Grand Palace.
In the opposite direction the 18-km-long canal cuts through central areas including: Phayathai on the way to Chatuchak Weekend Market; Siam, trendy shopping haven; Pratunam Market (3 stops or 15 mins), Platinum Fashion Mall, CentralWorld, Gaysorn, Ratchaprasong, Erawan Shrine, Ganesha and Trimurti in Ratchadamri Road; Chidlom, Central Chidlom, Central Embassy; Nana entertainment; Asok entertainment; Thonglor and Ekkamai’s pub, club and dining scene.
Chinese New Year: Celebrate Chinese New Year in Chinatown Bangkok
Spending Chinese New Year in Bangkok? Make Prince Palace Hotel Bangkok your springboard to the heart of the celebrations: Bangkok’s world-famous Chinatown. While Chinese New Year is celebrated all across Thailand, beyond doubt, Yaowaraj, or Chinatown Bangkok, is the best place to experience the country’s biggest Chinese New Year celebrations.
A 15-minute taxi hop from the hotel lands you in the thick of Chinese New Year in Thailand celebrations. It’s the time of year when families of Chinese descent gather to enjoy banquets and partake in street fanfare, and Chinatown in Bangkok comes to life with crowds of worshippers and cultural festivities, including dragon parades, acrobatic dances, and firecrackers.
On Chinese New Year 2023 Day, Wat Mangkon Kamalawat, Wat Traimit and other places all around Chinatown market Bangkok will be packed with locals praying to deities. Try your hand at siem see (Chinese fortune sticks), a way to ask the gods for guidance on how to solve a personal problem or get advice on anything pressing.
To accommodate all the festivities and revelers the major roads in the area are cordoned off from traffic so everyone can wander freely and safely. The streets and side roads are simply flooded with people in red wishing each other ‘Xin Nian Hao’ or ‘Happy New Year’. Visitors are also drawn to the Chinatown Market and Chinatown Night Market.
Among the top places to eat is Prince Palace Hotel Bangkok’s very own China Palace Restaurant where “Yu Sheng” and other Special Chinese New Year Set Menus are served. Yu Sheng is a Chinese New Year delicacy symbolizing good fortune. Thanks to the customary rowdy tossing motion required before tucking in, it starts the new year with a bang.
It’s the Year of the Rabbit this time, and according to the Chinese lunar calendar the new year commences on Sunday, 22nd January 2023. The rabbit, representing elegance, beauty and mercy, is considered the luckiest of all of the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac. So, the year should be a lucky one bringing a sense of calm and shaping up as a good year for negotiations.
Chinese New Year is a festival for all and you can get into the spirit simply by dressing in red.
Bangkok’s Chinatown, known to locals by the name of its wide and long main street – Yaowarat – is always enthralling, all the colorful day and night time action is just a 15-minute taxi ride from Prince Palace Hotel.
Besides being the biggest Chinese community, Chinese herbal medicine center, and largest gold market in Thailand, Yaowarat street food stalls, food shops and restaurants serving up generally excellent Chinese and Thai-Chinese specialty dishes, are magnets for locals and tourists alike.
One of the most authentic and least changed spots in Bangkok, its many tiny lanes and narrow alleyways are ripe for exploration.
Chinatown Gate, Bangkok
A deep dive starts at the informative Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Centre, followed up by checking out the majestic golden sitting Buddha statue at Wat Traimit, Chinatown’s number one attraction. After all, you haven’t done Chinatown Yaowarat if you haven’t seen the world’s largest gold statue – some 5.5 tons worth around $250m!
From here, make your way along Yaowarat Road grazing on fresh fruits and roasted chestnuts. Other must-sees here include the exuberantly colorful shrine of Guan Yin, the pilgrim filled Wat Mangkon Kamalawat, Bangkok’s most important Chinese temple, the hidden villa of Sou Heng Tai, and colorful street art murals inside the atmospheric alleys.
Another of Chinatowns most colorful attractions is the shrine to Guan Yin Goddess of Mercy which includes a 900-year-old statue of the deity. But with its mix of Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian deities, Wat Mangkon Kamalawat is the most revered temple in Chinatown Yaowarat.
More intriguing sights await at Sampeng Lane (Soi Wanit 1) market, a narrow alleyway running parallel to Yaowarat Road divided into sections for jewelry, shoes, and watches at one end, ceramic toys, lanterns, and a mish-mash of Chinese goods in the middle, and silks and other fabrics at the opposite end.
Bright neon lights, red Chinese lanterns, and huge crowds give Yaowarat an electric night time atmosphere. Many of the hundreds of food stalls and restaurants specialize in freshly prepared seafood but the menu options here are extensive and eclectic.
Some prime picks to whet your appetite: skewers of grilled entrails, squids and sausages; sour, sweet and chewy fish maw & shark fin soup; sweet pork leg khao kha moo; clay pot rice with abalone, chicken, razor clams and pork spare ribs; pork and shrimp Japanese gyoza; lots of noodles including kuay jab for something Thai, Sichuan noodles with wonton for something Chinese, and noodles with crab and red pork for something out of this world; Thai favorite pad Thai (say no more!); grilled chicken satay with brown peanut sauce; patongo doughnuts with soy milk; hot and yummy roasted chestnuts; the king of roasted duck – Peking Duck; siu mai steamed bun dim sum; grilled giant prawns and squids alongside salt grilled fish and crab in black pepper; fresh chives dumpling; soft and super savory turnip cake; Chinese kao lao pork soup, and; sweet treats, from toasted buns to bird’s nest, to name but a few!
There’s so much to see and experience in Bangkok’s world class Chinatown all around Yaowarat, it’s definitely handy to be able to go and come back to the Prince Palace Hotel and go again later. You may well find you can’t get enough of it all.
Wat Benchamabophit Dusitvanaram (Thai: วัดเบญจมบพิตรดุสิตวนาราม) is a Buddhist temple (wat) in the Dusit District of Bangkok, Thailand. Also known as the marble temple, it is one of Bangkok’s best-known temples and a major tourist attraction. It typifies Bangkok’s ornate style of high gables, stepped-out roofs and elaborate finials.
Varadis Palace is the former residence of Prince Tisavarakumarn, the Prince Damrong Rajanubhab on Lan Luang Road in Bangkok, Thailand. The palace was built in 1911 by German architect Karl Döhring during the reign of King Rama V to the reign of King Rama VI. After Prince Tisavarakumarn died at this palace on 1 December 1943, the palace was preserved by his heir Mom Rajawongse Sangkadis Diskul, former Ambassador to Malaysia, Switzerland and the Vatican and presently by his great grandson, Mom Luang Panadda Diskul, former Provincial Governor of Nakhon Pathom and Chiang Mai and a member of the House of Senate.
In 1977 the palace building was renovated and converted into a museum and library. Princess Galyani Vadhana, the elder sister of Thailand’s King Bhumibol, presided over the opening ceremony on 12 September 1977. The palace was awarded outstanding conservation building by The Association of Siamese Architects in 1984
