Bangkok

The currency is the baht (THB, ฿), trading at around 32 to 35 to the dollar and 37 to 40 to the euro in 2026. Cash still rules the street; PromptPay QR payment is universal among Thais but requires a local account, so don't count on it. Cards work at malls, hotels and sit-down restaurants, rarely at stalls. The ATM fee is a flat 220 baht per withdrawal with a foreign card, not proportional to the amount, so withdraw a lot at once, or change money at independent exchange offices like Superrich and Vasu, which give better rates than banks and the airport. For reference: a bottle of water 7–14 baht, street coffee 25–40, specialty coffee 90–140, a street dish 50–80, a mall food court 60–120, a sit-down restaurant 250–500 per person, a large beer at a market 60–80 and at a bar 150–250, a one-hour Thai massage 300–500, a hostel bed 300–600, a three-star hotel 1,200–2,500 and a five-star 3,500–9,000. Formal restaurants add 10% service and 7% VAT; tipping isn't required, and leaving the small change is enough. For purchases over 2,000 baht at a participating store, ask for the VAT refund form at checkout, because it gets stamped right there; without it, the airport refunds nothing when you leave.

Bangkok has 2 airports; the wrong one costs an hour

Bangkok has two airports, and arriving at the wrong one expecting the other's train costs an hour. Suvarnabhumi (BKK), opened September 28, 2006, and expanded with the SAT-1 satellite terminal in 2023, sits 30 km east and connects to downtown via the Airport Rail Link: 15 to 45 baht, about 26 minutes to Phaya Thai, where you transfer to the BTS, with trains from 5:30am to midnight. Don Mueang (DMK), 25 km to the north, handles the budget carriers and is served by the SRT Red Line to Krung Thep Aphiwat station (about 33 baht, 17 minutes) and by buses A1 and A2. By taxi, join the official line on the ground floor and walk past anyone offering a ride before it: in line you get the meter plus a 50-baht airport surcharge and 25 to 75 in tolls, which comes to 350 to 550 baht to Sukhumvit or Silom, in 40 to 90 minutes depending on the time of day. Grab and Bolt both work and have a marked pickup point. Since May 1, 2025, every foreigner must fill out the Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) online, free, up to 72 hours before arrival, and there are self-service kiosks at the airport for anyone who forgets; Brazilians enter visa-free for up to 90 days, under a bilateral agreement.

Bangkok runs 8 rail lines, with no single ticket

The rail network has eight lines and no single ticketing system: BTS Skytrain (1999), MRT Blue (2004) and Purple (2016), Airport Rail Link, Red Line (2021), Gold Line (2020), and the Yellow and Pink monorails (2023–24). Fares run from 17 to 62 baht per trip; the 20-baht cap, in force since September 30, 2025, applies only to Thais registered on the Tang Rat app: foreigners pay the full fare. The cards don't talk to each other: Rabbit covers the BTS, Gold, Yellow, and Pink lines; the MRT uses its own card; for a few days, single tickets or QR through the app are the better deal. On the canals and the river, the boat usually beats the car in the late afternoon, when traffic jams the streets it bypasses by water. BMTA buses cost 8 to 25 baht, motorcycle taxis charge 20 to 60 for short trips with a mandatory helmet, and walking only works over short stretches: narrow sidewalks, few crossings, and heat that makes anything over 1.5 km hard going.

In Bangkok, violent crime against visitors is low, and what really gets in the way is traffic and scams. Motorbikes climb onto the sidewalk and ride against traffic, and crossing outside a crosswalk or a footbridge is the most common cause of accidents involving foreigners. Look both ways even on a one-way street. The scams have repeated for decades, which makes them easy to spot: the false claim that a temple is closed, the cheap tuk-tuk that ends up at a gem shop, the “broken” taxi meter, being charged for a scratch on a rented motorbike or jet ski with no prior photo, and the game stall with a guaranteed prize. Theft is opportunistic, in Chatuchak, on Khao San, on crowded boats and buses; hold your phone close when walking near the roadside, because motorcycle phone snatching happens. Don't leave a glass unattended at a bar and be wary of cheap drinks served from a bucket. Dengue circulates year-round, peaking in the rainy season, and the local mosquito bites during the day: apply repellent in the morning, not just at night. Between December and March, check the PM2.5 index before scheduling outdoor exercise. Political protests concentrate around Ratchaprasong and Ratchadamnoen: go around them and don't photograph up close. Write down the phone numbers before heading out: emergency 191, ambulance 1669 and Tourist Police 1155, which answers in English.

Body etiquette: head and feet in a Thai temple

The head is the most respected part of the body, and the feet the least. Don’t touch anyone’s head, not even a child’s, and never point your feet at a person or a Buddha image; when seated in a temple, tuck your legs back.

Shoes off

Take off your shoes when entering temples, homes, many small shops, and low-floor restaurants. The sign is a step at the entrance or a pile of footwear; socks can stay on.

Nothing about royalty

Don't comment on, joke about, or criticize the king or the royal family, not even in private conversation or on social media. Article 112 carries 3 to 15 years, applies to foreigners, and anyone can file the complaint. Stand still when the national anthem plays in a station or park, at 8am and 6pm, and stand up when the royal anthem plays in the cinema, before the film.

The right amount of wai

The palms-together greeting follows a hierarchy, bottom to top: you don’t wai a waiter, a driver, or a child. If someone in a service role wais you, a nod with a smile is answer enough.

Jai yen: keep calm to avoid losing face

Raising your voice, haggling angrily or complaining in public makes you lose face in front of onlookers, even when you're in the right, because jai yen calls for calm above all. To complain, speak quietly, smile and pick a moment without an audience.

Monks and distance

Monks don’t accept objects directly from a woman’s hand or touch her: pass the item through a man or set it down on a cloth. On trains, the marked rows of seats are reserved for them.

“The palace is closed today”

Believing someone at the Grand Palace gate who says the complex is “closed for a ceremony today” and offers a tuk-tuk for 20 baht: the story is always false, and the ride ends at a gem shop or a tailor, never at the palace. The official ticket office is inside the main gate itself, and it's open every day, ceremony or not.

A parked taxi with a verbally agreed price

Getting into a taxi parked outside a mall or hotel with a price agreed verbally. That car is parked there precisely because the driver doesn't want to turn on the meter: hail one on the street, confirm “meter” before you close the door, or use Grab or Bolt, where the fare shows up before the ride.

Measuring the trip by map distance

Calculating travel time by map distance. Between 4pm and 8pm the avenues jam up, and the car loses to the rail: from Suvarnabhumi, the Airport Rail Link reaches Phaya Thai in about 26 minutes, while a taxi to Sukhumvit or Silom takes 40 to 90 minutes, depending on traffic. At that time, take the BTS, which runs on an elevated track above the cars, or catch the Saen Saep canal boat, which runs on the water for 10 to 20 baht.

Walking outside between noon and 3pm

Walking outdoors between noon and 3pm in March, April, or May. It's easy to think the street has emptied for some holiday you don't know about; in fact it emptied because of the sun. Schedule temples right after sunrise, air-conditioned interiors at midday, and the street again after 4pm. It's the routine most residents follow.

The Rabbit doesn't work on the MRT Blue Line

Assuming one card works for everything because the turnstiles look alike. The Rabbit doesn't work on the MRT Blue Line, the MRT card doesn't work on the BTS, and the 20-baht cap per trip doesn't apply to foreigners: budget 17 to 62 baht per trip.

สวัสดีครับ / สวัสดีค่ะ (sa-uát-di krap / kâ)

Hello: men end the sentence with “krap”, women with “kâ”; the particle applies to almost every polite sentence

ขอบคุณครับ / ค่ะ (kóop-kun krap / kâ)

Thank you

เท่าไหร่ (tâo-rai)

How much does it cost?

ไม่เผ็ด (mâi pét)

No chili: repeat it and smile; it's a request, not a guarantee

อร่อย (a-ròi)

It's delicious: the phrase that sparks the most conversation at a street stall

ไม่เป็นไร (mâi pen rai)

No problem, you're welcome, never mind: it covers all three

The delta plain and the river

Bangkok sits on the alluvial plain of the lower Chao Phraya, about 25 km from the Gulf of Thailand, at an average elevation of 1 to 2 meters above sea level: it's a city built on delta mud. The river, which runs 372 km from the confluence at Nakhon Sawan, cuts through the municipality's 1,569 km² in tight bends and separates Phra Nakhon, the east bank where the historic center sits, from Thonburi, to the west.

The khlongs and a city without a street grid

Until the 20th century transport ran on the khlongs, the web of canals that earned the city the nickname “Venice of the East”; most were filled in between 1950 and 1980 to become avenues, and those that remain (Saen Saep, Bang Luang, Bangkok Noi) still work as boat routes. There's no urban grid: the city grew in huge superblocks served by a few main roads and by soi, numbered side streets, usually dead ends, that branch off them. That's why all the traffic piles onto the same arteries, and addresses are given by soi and by station.

The sinking ground and the climate

The soft subsoil and groundwater extraction make the ground sink 1 to 2 cm a year, which, combined with rising sea levels, puts the eastern part of the city at risk of chronic flooding. The climate is tropical savanna, with 1,500 to 1,800 mm of rain a year concentrated between May and October.

Four hundred temples in use

About 90% of Thais are Theravada Buddhists, and Bangkok has around 400 active temples. The practice is visible on the street: monks in orange robes collecting alms before 7am, spirit houses (san phra phum) with jasmine garlands and red soda beside every office tower, amulets sold by weight near Wat Mahathat. The monarchy occupies another register, just as present: official portraits along the avenues, the royal anthem before every movie screening, and article 112 of the penal code, which punishes offending the royal family with 3 to 15 years in prison and applies to foreigners too. At 8am and 6pm, the national anthem plays over loudspeakers at stations and parks, and whoever is nearby stops wherever they are until the music ends.

Thai cinema: from Apichatpong Weerasethakul to GDH studio

The city produces and exports culture. Thai art-house cinema came out of here with Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Palme d'Or winner in 2010, while horror and comedy from studio GDH dominate Southeast Asian box offices. In music, luk thung of rural origin, mor lam from Isan played at street festivals, and T-pop from Bangkok agencies coexist. The Bangkok Art Biennale has run since 2018, the BACC has operated across from MBK since 2008, and independent galleries cluster along Charoen Krung, around Warehouse 30.

Muay thai's two historic arenas

Muay thai has two historic arenas: Rajadamnern, from 1945, and Lumpinee, which moved to Ram Intra in 2014; fights go five rounds to a live soundtrack of flute and drums. Nightlife is sorted by neighborhood: Khao San for backpackers, RCA for university students, Thonglor and Ekkamai for cocktail bars, Silom for the LGBT scene, and the law closes most venues between 1am and 2am, with exceptions in designated zones until 4am. Since January 23, 2025, same-sex marriage has been legal in Thailand, the first country in Southeast Asia to allow it, and Bangkok hosts most of the ceremonies.

“Four Reigns” (Si Phaendin, 1953), by Kukrit Pramoj

A novel following a woman of the court from the reign of Rama V to that of Rama VIII. It’s the gateway to understanding how the palace became a city, and why the monarchy still organizes the calendar.

“Last Life in the Universe” (2003), by Pen-ek Ratanaruang

A film shot in Bangkok with cinematography by Christopher Doyle. It shows the city that doesn’t make the postcards: an empty apartment, an overpass, silence, and the dead time between two people.

“Very Thai” (2005), by Philip Cornwel-Smith

A visual-reportage book about urban popular culture: spirit houses, uniforms, amulets, taxi decor, street food. It explains, one by one, the objects you’ll see on the street and not understand.