Bangkok in 7 Days & 2 Kilometres (Nico & Belinda’s Bangrak District Tips)

UNIQUE “Small-Group” Cuisine & Culture Experience

March 2025 – Bangkok, Thailand

Belinda & I had a 7-day window of opportunity for some R&R between our “Discover Vietnam Experiences” and “Discover Northern India’s Rajasthan Experience” in March and decided that a visit to Bangkok enroute to India might be a great experience!

Our only requirement was a reasonably priced hotel with Lounge Privileges, somewhere in Bangkok, and access to some good Thai local street food! As we have visited Bangkok on a number of different occasions, we didn’t need to do much sightseeing so wanted to stay as local to one place as possible.

Belinda booked a reasonably priced Luxury Escapes package at the Pullman G Bangkok, nothing fancy but comfortable, and without knowing too much about its location, it turned out to be an amazing area in the Bangrak District of the city! Everything, and more, was right on our doorstep!

The most amazing part of where we were, was the beautifully imposing King Power Mahankhon Building – Thailand’s tallest skyscraper – which we had never heard about and situated on our doorstep. Built in 2016, the 77 storey building is a sight to behold. Each time we sat poolside our stepped outside of our hotel you couldn’t help but hold your breath at the sheer size of it. The highlight of our visit was doing “Thailand’s Tallest Bar Crawl” from the top to the bottom of the building! Sensational!!

And so our Bangrak “staycation” began! For the next 7 days, everything we wanted (except for a Private Cooking Class I did with the wonderful Chef Wip at Rochas Culinary School) was surprisingly and totally unexpectedly within a 2km radius. We had such a great time, that we are seriously thinking about doing it again with a few friends in the future!

So join us here as we share our tips for exploring Bangkok’s Bangrak District! Here’s a Google Map (Nico & Belinda’s Bangrak Tips) of the various locations that we visited and descriptions of them below.

FOOD & RESTAURANTS

• Local Street Food Street

  – Just up the road from the hotel is Soi Silom 20 which is a market street during the day and also has restaurants scattered up and down it. We ate hear a few days during our stay and loved it – cheap & cheerful! Our recommendations for restaurants are “Mama Mia” and “Cheaper & Better Street Food“. Nothing fancy but great tasting and prepared Thai classics.

• Michelin/Bib Gourmand Recommended – Aunglo by Yangrak

  – This is a restaurant that I had earmarked as a place to try out, but hadn’t mapped it out before we got to Bangkok!

  I was pleasantly surprised when it worked out that it was literally 100m from the hotel! With 34 Michelin-starred restaurants across Bangkok, although not starred, Aunglo has a Bib Gourmand Recommendation in the guide, which suited us just fine, especially as it was so close!

  As the Michelin Guide describes it – “Aunglo presents modern Thai fare inspired by street food culture using an ancient Thai charcoal stove, or aunglo. Presented in a Japanese izakaya style, the counter bar faces an open kitchen with more seating upstairs, suitable for private or group dining. The menu is composed of small dishes, skewers and a few desserts. And the savoury dishes are mostly cooked on the charcoal flame, so a smoky aroma accompanies the intense Thai flavours, herbs and spices.”

• Patisserie/Coffee – Tiengna Viennoiserie Sathorn – Nothing like a morning coffee & cinnamon roll in the shadows of the King Power Mahanakhon Building!

BARS & NIGHTLIFE

• Heaven Rooftop Bar – Our local! A great wallet-friendly rooftop bar with million-dollar views of the King Power Manahakhan building!

• Groovin’ High Jazz Bar – Excellent intimate jazz bar with changing performers every night.

• Patpong Nightmarket – Old school Bangkok street market, seedy bars & cabaret entertainment.

• Om’s Living Room – Very quirky & tiny craft beer “bar” located down a little residential street. Blink & you’ll miss it! There’s no signage out the front, and you are literally in owner Om’s downstairs living room. Serving mostly local Thai brewed craft beers on rotation! If you find the place and it looks closed, just open the door and walk in.

KING POWER MAHANAKHON BUILDING – Thailand’s Tallest Bar Crawl Experience

On previous visits to Bangkok we had visited some of its famous rooftop restaurants and bars such as The Sky Bar (from The Hangover 2 fame) and The Moon Bar at Banyan Tree, but had not heard of this monolith of a skyscraper which officially opened in 2016.

We would be sitting by the pool at our hotel, with the building right in front of us, and trying to work out the best options to get to the top to check out the view. You could simply buy a ticket to head up to the Viewing Platform at the top, but Belinda found one of the world’s most unique bar crawls that is offered by The Standard Hotel which is located in the Mahanakhan Building.

• Bar Crawl at The Standard, Bangkok Mahanakhon – Bangkok’s Tallest Bar Crawl – Sip your way through 4 gorgeous bars at The Standard, Bangkok. Swirl, savor, snack and get your drink passport stamped as you go. Expect snacks, seasonal drinks, & cocktail flights. Here’s where to book this amazing Bangkok experience! Here’s a look at what we experienced!

• Our “Bangkok’s Tallest Bar Crawl” Video – Join us as we scale the King Power Mahanakhon building across 4 amazing bars!!

BEYOND THE 2KM ZONE

• Chao Phraya River Cruise – Although most of our time turned out to be spent in our little neighbourhood of Bangrak, we thought that we better venture out for a bit of sightseeing so one day we took the BTS to the Sathorn Pier (which is about 2km away) to take a ride on the Hop On/Hop Off “Blue Line” boat that travels along Bangkok’s famous Chao Phraya River. It’s a great way of seeing many of Bangkok’s iconic sights such as the Royal Palaces and Temples that dot the river.

  As we had visited many of these main sights on our previous visits, we enjoyed simply taking them in from the boat so didn’t stop along the way, but made one stop for a look around and some refreshments, as a “walk down memory lane”. That stop was Phra Arthit, just before the boat turns back around, and the stopping off point for the famous backpacker district of Khao San Road which I had stayed at on my very first visit to Bangkok as while backpacking through South East Asia back in 1986!

• Private Cooking Class at Rochas Culinary School – The only other activity that took me beyond the “2km Zone” was a fantastic cooking class I did with the wonderful Chef Wipawee (Wip) Thongsumrit.

  I had wanted to do a cooking class while I was in Bangkok and although there were a couple not far from the hotel, many of the Thai Cooking Schools in Bangkok offered lessons on the same dishes – Curry (Red or Green), Tom Yum Soup, Pad Thai and Mango Sticky Rice.

  
  I was particularly interested in learning how to make Thai Crispy Fried Whole Fish – Pla Tod Nam Pla – so I emailed a number of cooking classes to find out if they might offer this. The only school that was able to help me was Rochas Culinary School which was about 4km away, or a 15 minute tuk tuk ride.

  Chef Wip did a private class just for me, as she doesn’t normally offer lessons for this dish, and I had a great time! As well as learning to prepare the fish, we made a great Mango Salad and beautifully presented Mango Sticky Rice!

  Chef Wip even offered to visit Perth one day, so hopefully we’ll be able to host her at class!!

OTHER BANGKOK (Bangrak District) TIPS

• Hotels – Although we stayed at the Pullman G, there are also a number of other hotels nearby to suit any budget. On future visits I’d like to stay at The Standard which is the Mahanakhon Building. For a major, major splurge there’s also the Ritz Carlton Residences there. Nearby there is also the W and a Marriot hotel.

• Airport Transfer – We booked an Airport Transfer via booking.com for both our arrival and departure, to take us to and from our hotel. The cost was $USD20.00 each way and it worked quite well!

• Laundry – Just around the corner (almost behind it) was a self-serve laundry – Go2Wash. We had been looking for a full-service laundry, which are always great value in Asia, but as there wasn’t one around this one suited us as it was so close.

We trust you enjoyed our tips! If you are going to visit, don’t hesitate in contacting us for more tips & suggests!

Khàawp khun khráp & safe travels!!