Bangkok Buddha District

Highlights

• Breakfast at Sikh Temple
• Crocodile Temple
• Weapon stores
• Prison Park
• Hell murals
• Buddha Factories

Itinerary

1. 07:30 AM

   Starbucks Yodpiman River Walk

   Before your Bangkok sightseeing tour departs, there is the possibility to have some refreshments at Starbucks at Yodpiman River Walk (also the meeting point). Prices start from THB 30 for food and THB 55 for drinks. Whether you choose to eat something here already or that you wait with this until the (free) breakfast at the Sikh Temple, make sure you arrive in time to check out the river views from the second floor of the venue.

   
2. 07:45 AM

   Check-In & Briefing

   Your guide checks you in and informs you about the tour itinerary.

   
3. 08:00 AM

   Flower Market

   Taste some drinks made from flowers while experiencing the hustle and bustle of one of Bangkok’s most beautiful markets. Learn why Thais traditionally grow their plants in pots and what beliefs govern the position of plants in Thai gardens.

   
4. 08:30 AM

   Bangkok's Strangest Mall

   Visit a department store that was once Bangkok’s finest, but that is now its creepiest and most mystifying shopping experience. What has not been sold decades ago, is still on display, and for sale. Most people have never seen a place like this before.

5. 08:45 AM

   Breakfast at Sikh Temple

   Enjoy a delicious communal Indian breakfast together with the local Sikh community. The blessed food is eaten cross-legged on the floor. Around the temple there is Indian music, the smells of Indian spices and cooking and a variety of textiles and garments for sale.

6. 09:15 AM

   Betel Nut Maker

   Learn how to make the popular betel nut, which – after tobacco, alcohol and caffeinated drinks – is the fourth most commonly used psychoactive substance. Try the sweet betel nut yourself, with or without tobacco.

7. 09:45 AM

   Crocodile Temple

   See the temple’s huge crocodiles, descendants from the ones that once terrorized swimmers in the river. Find out what other wildlife still lives in Bangkok’s canals and the rivers around the city, from piranhas to huge stingrays of up to 4m long. In a nearby canal there can also water monitor lizards be spotted, dinosaur-like creatures measuring up to 2m long.

   
8. 10:15 AM

   Weapon Stores

   See the eighty or so weapon stores where both Thais and foreigners, but no tourists, can buy weapons such as AK47’s. Learn how the law prevents poor people from buying guns and why many foreigners – although technically possible – do not buy guns in Thailand.

   
9. 10:30 AM

   Old School Thai Tea

   Try Thai tea in a shop that remains completely unchanged since the day it opened more than a century ago. The shop was one of the coolest hangouts in town for young people shopping in the main shopping district of Bangkok right up until the 1930s, the Siam Square of its day.

10. 10:45 AM

    Prison Park

    Learn about Thai prison life while walking through a park that was once a high security prison. At ‘Cell Block 9’, your guide shows you – through photos – the various bloody ways prisoners were punished. The usual favorite is the giant rattan “football” with inward pointing nails, which was kicked around by elephants while the prisoner was locked inside.

11. 11:00 AM

    Hell Murals

    See hell murals and discover what punishments sinners await in the afterlife in one of the biggest, holiest, most beautiful and undertouristed temples in Thailand. Inside Thailand’s biggest chapel, there is not only the largest surviving seated Buddha image of its time, but inside the country’s largest ordination hall there is also a Buddha image cast from the tin and lead of opium baskets seized from drug lords.

    
12. 11:15 AM

    Giant Swing

    Learn about the bizarre and dangerous game for which this archway was originally built, but which was discontinued after too many of its participants had died.

    
13. 11:30 AM

    Buddha Factories

    See how Thailand’s Buddha images are being made while walking past backstreet Buddha factories. Learn how Thais offer with Karma in mind and what is being done with the surplus of monk baskets donated to monks on their morning rounds.

14. 12:00 PM

    Monk's Bowl Village

    Observe the process of hammering monk’s bowls together in the only remaining village that handcrafts such bowls and learn why each bowl is made from eight sections of metal.

15. 12:30 PM

    View From Golden Mount

    Enjoy panoramic views across the city from the top of Golden Mount, the only hill in the city. From here you can also see the world’s only surviving metal castle and the Angels’ Temple, the only temple in Thailand honouring female monks.

    
16. 01:00 PM

    Evaluation & Goodbye

    Evaluate your Bangkok sightseeing tour and say goodbye to your guide and the other travellers in the group. Your guide helps you to get back to your accommodation or any other place you would like to go from Phanfa Bridge Pier.

    

Useful facts

Local transport we may use: Bus, Van, Songthaew, Metro, Skytrain, Train, River Express Boat, Cross River Ferry, Longtail Boat, Taxi, Tuk Tuk, Motorbike, Rickshaw, Bicycle, Walking.