Bangkok Silom Area
Description and Climate
Description | Climate | Attractions | Recommendations
Silom Road area is a modern business and tourist district with a high density of banks as well as hotels and shopping ares. For the business traveller, Silom is convenient because the distance to banks and offices of international active companies are short. Silom has also the oldest nightlife for foreigners.A visitor's reaction to the Thai capital is often as confusing as the city's geography. It's worth putting up with the coronary-inducing traffic jams, pollution, annual floods and sticky weather to experience one of Asia's most exciting cities. This city is full of palaces and shrines and maintains a sense of history and timelessness. You can visit one of over 400 Wats or take a leisurely cruise along the Chao Phraya River. Bangkok has dominated Thailand's urban hierarchy, as well as its political, commercial and cultural life, since the late 18th century.
There is no downtown. Bangkok proper seethes on the east side of the Chao Phraya River and can be divided into two by the main north-south train line. Old Bangkok glitters in the portion between the river and the railway and it is here that most of the older temples and the original palace are located. The new Bangkok is east of the railway, covering many times more area than the old city. It incorporates the main commercial and tourist districts, which give way to a vast residential sprawl.
In the last 30 years, Bangkok's population has mushroomed from 1.5 million to 8 million, and space in which to live and breathe is minimal. Like sparkling temple walls comprised of myriad tiles, Bangkok is the sum of its parts--pungent smells, frenetic energy, exotic architecture, and a culture shaped by centuries of Buddhism and political independence. You may not come to love Bangkok, but neither will you forget it.