Walking Bangkok: Siam to Chinatown via Charoen Krung

Start in Siam, but not in the shops

Begin at Siam BTS station, where the interchange of the Sukhumvit and Silom lines puts you under the glass of Siam Paragon, Siam Center and MBK. You are not here to shop yet: walk north past the Erawan Shrine at Ratchaprasong, then west along Rama I Road to the Jim Thompson House on Soi Kasemsan 2, where a guided tour of the teak compound takes about 45 minutes and costs a few hundred baht. Go early, ideally at the 9am opening, because the courtyards are quiet and the heat has not yet built.

From there, drop south through the lanes behind National Stadium BTS to the Saen Saep canal boat pier at Hua Chang. The canal boats run east-west across the old core and cost a flat fare of well under 50 baht, but they are fast, loud and splash water, so keep bags zipped. If you would rather stay on foot, follow Phaya Thai Road south to the intersection with Rama IV, then turn west toward Charoen Krung. Either way you are heading for the river on a route that steadily narrows from eight-lane arterial to two-lane shophouse street.

Charoen Krung: the city's first paved road

Charoen Krung, laid out in the 1860s as Bangkok's first paved street, runs from near Wat Pho east through Bang Rak. The most rewarding stretch for a walker starts around Soi Charoen Krung 36 and its cluster of restored shophouses, then continues to the General Post Office building and the riverside lanes around Soi 43. This is where Bangkok's European quarter once sat, and the mix of Sino-Portuguese facades, printing presses and small galleries is the point. Expect to spend two hours here if you stop for coffee, which I would.

Eat before you push on. Bang Rak has a strong cluster of stalls and shophouse restaurants around Soi Charoen Krung 44, and the Talat Noi pocket to the south, reached via Soi Wanit 1, hides coffee bars inside car-parts workshops. Prices are local: a bowl of noodles or a plate of rice with curry sits in the 60 to 150 baht range at these spots, and coffee is comparable. Carry small notes. If you are travelling with children or in the April heat, this is the natural place to break the walk for an hour in air conditioning.

Crossing into Yaowarat

From Talat Noi, follow the river north along Soi Wanit 1 to the Ratchawong pier area, then turn into Sampeng Lane, the narrow wholesale alley that runs from Ratchawong to Yaowarat and beyond toward Chinatown's western edge. It is intensely busy on weekdays with traders moving goods, so keep to the side and do not photograph people's faces without a word. Sampeng is not a sight in itself; it is a working market, and the pleasure is in the density of it, the herbal smells and the sudden courtyards.

You emerge onto Yaowarat Road, the spine of Chinatown, with its gold shops and vertical Chinese signage. The evening food stalls on Yaowarat's soi 11 and around the intersection with Soi Texas are the best-known reason to be here, starting around 5pm and running late. I would book a hotel within 10 minutes' walk of Wat Mangkon MRT station rather than in Siam: rooms in the Chinatown area are generally cheaper, the MRT gets you back to Siam in about 15 minutes, and you can eat well without a taxi at midnight.

Practicalities and what to skip

Do this walk between November and February, when daytime highs sit near 31 to 33 degrees and the monsoon rain is rare. March to May is punishing on an exposed route like Charoen Krung; if you go then, start at 7am and finish by 11am. The whole route is roughly 6 to 7 kilometres and takes four to six hours at a sightseeing pace, or two and a half hours if you walk it briskly without stops. Carry water, wear shoes you can slip off at temple entrances, and keep a light rain jacket from June to October.

Skip Khao San Road as a detour; it is a 20-minute taxi from Yaowarat in good traffic and considerably more in bad, and it belongs to a different walk. Skip the organised long-tail boat touts near Ratchawong pier, whose offers are vague on price and route. The Chao Phraya Express Boat, by contrast, is a straightforward public service and useful if you want to finish at ICONSIAM or Tha Tien for Wat Pho. For accommodation, I would choose a mid-range hotel in the Talat Noi or Yaowarat fringe, where the walk ends, and use the MRT and Skytrain rather than staying on Sukhumvit and commuting in.