Half Day Cycling Tour through Chinatown
Chinatown from
a Bicycle Saddle
Touring through Bangkok’s Chinatown is an experience on its own, yet doing this on a bicycle
adds even more flavor to this amazing myriad of street and alleys. Explore forgotten
temples, exotic markets and a true look into the Bangkok of old.
WHY THIS TOUR?
An overload of colours and smells; a culturally thriving community that has treated this part of Bangkok as their home soil; a kaleidoscope of activity from early morning until after midnight before the same beehive of commerce starts the following day. Bangkok’s Chinatown never seizes to amaze.
Right off Yaowarat Road, Chinatown’s main access, a myriad of narrow alleys with almost everything available under the Thai/ Chinese sun is on display. It is these areas of red highlights, commercially driven family enterprises and little-known temples where we bike through on this morning-only excursion.
TRAIL ITINERARY
08:00 - 12:30
Your driver will wait for you at your hotel lobby in the morning in the early morning and transfer you to the starting point where your bicycles will be checked and measured in accordance to your height. From here, we head into Chinatown on our bikes. Here, alleys disappear into forgotten temples, exotic markets spill onto the streets, and striking architecture spirals skyward. This tour exhibits Bangkok’s authentic dichotomy where, within mere street blocks, the lively bustle of Chinatown melts into the soothing embrace of country back roads. This two-wheeled adventure allows guests to cover a lot of ground and gain a fascinating insight into the ‘Bangkok of Old’.
After Chinatown, the Princess Mother Memorial Park and Museum is our next stop of the morning. The park contains gardens and a reproduction of the royal mother’s childhood home, as well as two exhibition halls showing memorabilia of the princess and the royal family.
The route ventures off the beaten path to see some lesser known sites that are not on the recognized tourist trail making this an interesting insight few visitors experience. A journey across the Chao Phraya River to the old capital of Thonburi includes visits to less known temples on the quiet back roads of this area, with stops at the occasional market as the group heads to the Santa Cruz Catholic Church, a remembrance of the times, the Portuguese called Thailand their base for trading and the nearby Temple of Good Friends.
Before crossing back to the Bangkok side, we cannot skip one of city’s landmarks that have stood the test of time, The Temple of Dawn. This magnificent shrine is decorated with ceramic pieces from top to bottom and has a pagoda, which soars 79 meters into the sky.
Our guide will leisurely cycle back to the starting point, where your driver awaits you already to bring you back to your hotel in downtown Bangkok.
