Bangkok is the capital of Thailand. It is a big city, but it is also a crazy mix of cosmopolitan culture with deep roots, a shopping paradise, a tourist treasure, and a culinary surprise. It’s wild and full of action, and it’s a great place to start your adventures in Thailand.

Here are my 10 favorite things to do in Bangkok.

Any visitor to Bangkok must go to Wat Pho to see the Reclining Buddha. It is fifteen meters tall and forty-six meters long, and the feet alone are over five meters long. When you get close to the statue, you can see that it is covered in gold leaf and looks amazing.

There are 108 bowls inside the temple, and you can buy coins for them on the way in. In the past, this was because Buddha did 108 good things on his way to becoming perfect. You can also stop at the temple for a traditional Thai massage while you are there.

Chinatown is full of people and, more importantly, has a lot of cheap food from the area. There are many hidden gems in this city, such as food stands on the streets. Don’t be fooled, you don’t come here for the Chinese food. You come here for the great Thai food.

The Grand Palace is the most famous place to see in Bangkok. You can’t go to another city until you’ve seen this one.

At one time, the palace was both the king’s home and the place where the Thai government did its work. The palace is over 214,000 square meters big, so getting there can take a long time. When you’re outside the palace, watch out for scams, and don’t pay the entrance fee until you’re ready to go inside.

Sad thing is, I never got to go to the top of the Golden Mount because it closes so early, but I’ve heard the views from here are amazing. The temple is also pretty unique. It is built on top of a hill in the middle of the city, which gives it a great view of the city.

There’s only one way to get around Bangkok quickly and stay cool, and that’s by taking one of the sky trains. There is no better way to get around than on a train with air-conditioned cars.

Most of the time, you are high above the traffic below, which gives you a good view of the city. The train also takes the shortest route. There are train stations in almost every part of Bangkok that you might want to visit. This makes it easy to get around.

Bangkok is also a great place to shop, and the Siam Paragon on Sukhumvit, the main street, is one of the newest. If you like shopping, there are a lot of stores here. If you just want to look around, grab some food in the food court on the basement level like I did. There are a lot of surprises in the food here.

If you like to shop, you should check out this place. If you hate shopping, you should stay away from this place. This is one of the biggest markets in the world, with more than 8000 stalls spread out over 27 acres.

It is open every Saturday and Sunday and gets about 200,000 people each day. You can buy almost anything you can think of here, and most of the prices are local prices rather than tourist prices. You should get a map before you go so you don’t get lost for hours.

The guide books told me about this one, and for something that is supposed to be very popular, it is pretty hard to find. I had no use for the maps I had, and it was hard to tell locals where I wanted to go because they thought I was talking about Wat Pho or some other massage place. We finally found it in one of the small alleys, and it was just like the reviews said: I got a real Thai massage with no extras. The prices are low and the place isn’t the nicest, but it gets the job done!

Some people call Bangkok the “Venice of the East” because the Chai Phraya River flows through the city and connects to many small canals. Even today, 50,000 people still take one of the many ferries that go up and down the river to get to work.

Taking a boat ride down the river is interesting because you can see everything from high-rise condos and fancy hotels to wooden shacks and kids playing in the water. You can get on and off at any of the ferry stops to learn more about the city.

I was really excited to check out one of Bangkok’s many rooftop bars before I went there. There are a lot, like the Sky Bar at Sirocco and the Moon Bar at the Banyan Tree Hotel. We chose the Moon Bar in the end because many reviews said it was less crowded with tourists than the Sky Bar and it was a good place to just sit down, have a drink, and some nuts. We did that, and the view from the top was amazing. Was great!