Bangkok for The Curious Wanderers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend
Gold leaf, river light, and the long hot dusk.
No theme, just the city at its best. The sights that earn their reputation, a workshop or a market, one strange place nobody told you about, and dinner where the food is the point.
Friday: Monks' bowls and flowers
- Baan Bat, the monks' bowl village
The last of the craftsmen who hammer alms bowls from eight pieces of steel, in a lane of workshops; watch them work and buy one.
- Pak Khlong Talat after dark
The city's flower market comes alive at night, with strings of marigolds and mounds of roses; the old women who thread the garlands are fast.
- Nai Ek Roll Noodle
Rolled rice noodles in a light pork broth with a crisp pork-lard topping; a cheap and good supper in Chinatown.
Saturday: A market, a loom and a shophouse bar
- Chatuchak at opening
Go at nine to the northern lanes of sections 7 and 24 when the shops open; dealers in ceramics and used books are friendlier before the crowds.
- Baan Krua silk weavers
A tiny canal-side community of Cham weavers who made Jim Thompson's silk; look for the working looms behind the houses and buy at the source.
- Ba Hao
A Chinese-Thai restaurant in an old shophouse with a rooftop and a short menu of Teochew dishes; reserve a table upstairs in the evening.
Sunday: Workshops, bodies and duck
- Talat Noi workshops
A riverside quarter of car-part shops, welders and shrines, with the old Chinese shophouses on Soi Wanit 2; ask before you take a photograph.
- Siriraj Medical Museums
The Congdon Anatomical Museum with preserved specimens, a famous murderer's body and a forensic museum; strange, serious and open every day but Tuesday.
- Prachak Pet Yang
A roast duck shop of 1909: crisp duck over rice, noodles with roast duck and a bowl of soup; it is cheap and very Bangkok.
Monday: A market and a cooking class
- Khlong Toei market
Bangkok's biggest wet market, in full swing before dawn, with fish, pork, herbs and flowers; it is raw and crowded but friendly.
- Sompong Thai Cooking School
A three-hour class in a family home, with a market visit; cook four dishes and eat them for lunch, then take home the recipes.
- Jok Prince
A bowl of rice porridge with pork balls and a soft egg, for a last light lunch before the flight.