Tourist Entertainment Options In Bangkok

Bangkok lives up to Thailand’s reputation for great food- it’s got lots of places, both big and small, luxurious and modest, expensive and economy. Most of the large hotels have speciality restaurants, where you can get not just authentic Thai food, but also nearly all the other popular cuisines of the world. Lower down in the pecking order (price wise not in quality of food) are a range of food parks/courts, stand-alone restaurants with almost every variation of Asian cuisine represented, river side restaurants, and open-air garden restaurants, which are very popular indeed. As in almost every other South Asian country, some of the best food can be sampled at the roadside stalls set up by vendors- but if you don’t like your food extremely hot, make it a point to request- very politely, of course- that the chillies be kept to the minimum.

Bangkok has plenty of avenues of entertainment, and that too of a very varied kind. For sports enthusiasts, there are golf courses and badminton, squash and tennis courts, besides horse racing (races are held on weekends at the Royal Turf Club and the Royal Bangkok Sports Club). If you’d like to see Thai sports, Lumphini Stadium and Ratchdamnoen Stadium have Thai boxing, and other sports like takro, kite flying and boat races can also be seen in and around Bangkok.

If you’re not of an athletic bent of mind, there’s other stuff to keep yourself occupied- Bangkok has a pretty vibrant nightlife, and there are lots of discotheques, nightclubs, and bars. The capital also has cinemas, some of which feature English movies, others offering a more Asian choice of films. They can be great fun to watch especially on a rainy afternoon. Theatres present drama as well as musical concerts featuring Thai and international artistes. The National Theatre often has dance dramas, as does the Thailand Cultural Centre. For those fond of the outdoors, there are some lovely gardens around Bangkok- such as Suan Luang Gardens and the Khao Din Zoological Garden. Besides these, there are quite a few amusement parks with rides etc, including a mini-safari park with Asia’s largest aviary of over 4,000 birds.

The flip side of an ancient culture offers wild and weird options to travellers. Known by various nomenclatures like the sex capital of Asia, AIDS incorporated,  sleaze dives, opium dens, massage parlours, prostitution, transvestite shows and cabarets – Thailand offers the lot for the visitor looking for more than sights to see and bazaars to shop in. And not all of a trip to Thailand need be restricted to a temple tour or a sun seekers holiday. Bangkok has massage parlours offering the real McCoy- a body toning, nerve tingling, truly relaxing massage by pro masseurs. The transvestite shows are truly magnificent with stylised oriental dances and western style cabarets. The sleaze though is never far from the surface in districts like Patpong in Bangkok and the Central Market Square in Pattaya.