47 Fun Facts About Bangkok

Thai band Asanee–Wasan had a hit whose lyrics are entirely what?

Bangkok's full name, the ceremonial one, runs to 168 letters, the longest place name in Guinness World Records, and the song's tune is how many Thais remember it.

The short Thai name Krung Thep is usually translated into English as what?

City of Angels is the usual rendering of Krung Thep, the name Thais themselves use for their capital; 'Bangkok' is heard mostly from foreigners.

Bangkok stands in the delta of which river?

The Chao Phraya is Thailand's principal river: every Thai capital, past and present, has stood on its banks or branches, and it still carries rice south to Bangkok's port.

By which nickname was Bangkok known in the 19th century?

Venice of the East suited a city whose canals were its streets: most people lived on or beside the water until roads arrived in the 1860s, and many canals have since been filled in or paved over.

Which king moved Siam's capital across the river to Bangkok's east bank in 1782?

Rama I chose the east bank because a wide bend of the river wrapped it like a moat against Burmese attack; his predecessor Taksin had ruled from the opposite shore.

After Ayutthaya fell in 1767, King Taksin set up his capital at which west-bank town?

Thonburi was the capital for only 15 years: Taksin was overthrown in 1782 and his successor moved the court across the river, leaving the old town as the west bank of today's Bangkok.

Which European power was expelled from Siam after a 1688 siege of Bangkok?

France had garrisoned a fort at Bangkok under the pro-Western King Narai; after a coup in 1688 the new ruler Phetracha besieged the garrison until it agreed to sail away.

A bloodless 1932 coup in Bangkok ended what in Siam?

Absolute monarchy ended when a small group of army officers and civilian officials, some of them educated in Europe, seized power and gave Siam its first constitution.

Which two kings, the ruler portrayed in The King and I and his son, modernised 19th-century Bangkok?

Mongkut and Chulalongkorn opened Siam to Western ideas while its neighbours were being colonised; under them Bangkok gained steam engines, printing presses and railways.

Bangkok's seal shows the god Indra riding which animal?

A white elephant carries Indra on the seal; the rare animals were so prized in Siam as a sign of good fortune that one stood on the national flag until the 1910s.

Which Bangkok landmark hosted a Brahmin rite until 1935?

The Giant Swing stands in front of Wat Suthat; in the yearly rite men swung high from its towering frame, and it was stopped after a series of fatal accidents.

Sappaya-Sapasathan, completed beside Bangkok's river in 2021, is described as the world's largest what?

Parliament building: at 424,000 square metres it overtook Romania's Palace of the Parliament, and Thai lawmakers were already meeting there in 2019, two years before it was finished.

The Emerald Buddha in the Grand Palace's temple is actually carved from which material?

Jasper or jade, not emerald: the name describes only the deep green colour of the stone, and experts disagree on which it is. The figure came to light in the 15th century in Chiang Rai.

Before it came to Bangkok, the Emerald Buddha spent more than two centuries in which city in Laos?

Vientiane kept the statue for over 200 years, in a temple built specially for it, until a Siamese army captured the city and carried the image off to Siam.

The Emerald Buddha's costume changes three times a year to mark what?

The seasons: Thailand counts three, so the statue has three costumes, for summer, the rains and the cool season, each put on in a royal ceremony.

Wat Arun, on the west bank, takes its name from a Hindu deity associated with what?

The dawn: King Taksin renamed the temple for the dawn, after the Hindu god Aruna, when he set up his new capital beside it following the fall of Ayutthaya.

Wat Arun's towering central spire is covered in mosaics made from broken pieces of what?

Chinese porcelain covers the spire in floral mosaics: ships arriving from China carried old crockery as ballast and dumped tonnes of it at Bangkok, where temple builders put it to use.

Wat Pho is famous for a 46-metre gilded Buddha shown in which pose?

Reclining: the figure, added by Rama III in 1832, shows the Buddha entering nirvana, and the soles of its feet carry 108 auspicious signs in mother-of-pearl.

Wat Pho is regarded as the birthplace of which practice, still taught there today?

Traditional Thai massage is still taught at Wat Pho because Rama III made the temple the guardian of Thai medicine when the craft was dying out; its 1,431 teaching inscriptions are on a UNESCO register.

Which Bangkok weekend market is nicknamed JJ?

Chatuchak is also spelled Jatujak, which is where 'JJ' comes from; its thousands of stalls sell everything from pets to antiques, and it is billed as the largest weekend market in the world.

Which Bangkok street, whose name means 'milled rice', became a world-famous hub for backpackers?

Khaosan Road takes its name from the rice once traded there; guesthouses for foreign travellers appeared in the 1980s and turned the short street into a magnet for backpackers from all over the world.

Which airport replaced Don Mueang as Bangkok's main international gateway when it opened in 2006?

Suvarnabhumi took over every flight on 28 September 2006, but Don Mueang did not stay shut: it reopened and has grown into one of the world's largest low-cost airline hubs.

What is Bangkok's BTS rail system, opened in December 1999, popularly called?

The Skytrain runs on viaducts above the main roads; after decades of shelved plans it opened as the city's first rail escape from its notorious traffic jams.

What is Bangkok's motorised auto-rickshaw taxi popularly called?

Tuk-tuk imitates the putter of the three-wheeler's small engine; fares are haggled over before setting off, whereas the city's car taxis run on meters.

Bangkok's registered motorcycle-taxi drivers are recognisable by what?

Numbered vests, usually orange, show the district where each driver is registered and allowed to pick up passengers; the drivers wait in ranks at the mouths of side streets.

Which neighbourhood, famed for its street food, is Bangkok's Chinatown?

Yaowarat took shape after 1782, when Chinese merchants living on the site chosen for the new royal citadel were moved a short way downriver; it has been the city's Chinese quarter ever since.

Vimanmek Mansion, a royal residence in Bangkok's Dusit Palace, was built of which wood?

Teak: billed as the world's largest golden-teak mansion, it was closed in 2016 and taken apart so its foundations could be repaired; in 2019 palace officials said it would be rebuilt exactly as it looked.

Bangkok's man-made hill, Phu Khao Thong, began as a giant chedi at which temple?

Wat Saket holds the hill, known as the Golden Mount: Rama III's huge chedi collapsed because the soft soil could not bear its weight, and the rubble was later crowned with a smaller one.

Which festival, the traditional Thai New Year, turns Bangkok's streets into a giant water fight each April?

Songkran's soakings grew out of a gentler custom: sprinkling water on Buddha images and pouring it over the hands of elders as a New Year blessing.

Bangkok's Rajadamnern Stadium, opened in 1945, is a famous home of which sport?

Muay Thai had no central arena until Rajadamnern: ordered in 1941, it was stalled by the Second World War, opened in December 1945 as an open-air ring and gained a roof only in 1951.

Which two areas of Pathum Wan district hold some of Southeast Asia's largest shopping malls?

Siam and Ratchaprasong hold giants such as CentralWorld, which was gutted by arson in May 2010 as troops cleared anti-government protesters from the area, then rebuilt and reopened.

Bangkok's average elevation above sea level is roughly what?

1.5 metres is all the height Bangkok has, and the city, built on soft, once-marshy ground, has been sinking by a centimetre or two a year, so parts of it already lie below sea level.

Which Bangkok shrine to the Hindu god Brahma was built in 1956 after mishaps plagued the building of a hotel?

The Erawan Shrine went up after injuries, delays and a lost shipload of Italian marble dogged the hotel site; the accidents are said to have stopped once it was finished, and worshippers have crowded it since.

Which large park lies in central Bangkok beside the Silom–Sathon business district?

Lumphini Park was Bangkok's first public park, created in the 1920s when King Vajiravudh gave land of his own to the nation.

Murray Head's 1984 hit One Night in Bangkok comes from which stage musical?

Chess, by Tim Rice with ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, turns a Cold War chess match into a musical; in the song the singer claims the board excites him more than Bangkok's nightlife.

Which English-language daily outlasted its Bangkok rival The Nation, which ended its print edition in 2019?

The Bangkok Post kept its presses running when The Nation, its rival for almost 48 years, printed a farewell edition on 28 June 2019 and moved wholly online.

Which 2011 comedy sequel swaps Las Vegas for a lost night in Bangkok?

The Hangover Part II wakes its heroes in a rundown Bangkok hotel room with a monkey, a face tattoo and no memory of the night before; they must retrace it to find the bride's missing brother.

Bangkok's Yellow and Pink lines are railways of which kind?

Monorail trains run driverless on both lines, riding a slim beam raised above the road so that the traffic below is left undisturbed.

US troops on leave from which war boosted Bangkok's tourist trade?

The Vietnam War made Bangkok a rest-and-recreation stop for US servicemen, and the hotels and nightclubs that multiplied to serve them gave its tourist trade a lasting lift.

The origin of the name Bangkok is unclear; one theory derives it from 'Bang Makok', makok being what?

A fruit tree: makok bears small olive-like fruit, so the old village name is often rendered 'village of wild plums'. The riverside temple now called Wat Arun was once Wat Makok.

Bangkok street-food cook Jay Fai, famous for her ski goggles and crab omelette, received which honour in December 2017?

A Michelin star went to the 72-year-old, who at first turned down the invitation because she did not want to miss a day at her charcoal woks; the goggles keep hot oil out of her eyes.

American Jim Thompson, whose house is now a Bangkok museum, is credited with reviving which Thai industry?

Silk weaving was close to dying out when Thompson, a former architect who arrived in 1945 as an American intelligence officer, began selling Thai silk abroad; he became known as the Thai Silk King.

A Buddha statue at Bangkok's Wat Traimit was thought to be plaster until a 1950s accident showed it was made of what?

Solid gold, about 5.5 tonnes of it: the statue was dropped while being moved and the plaster chipped away; the coating had probably been added to hide it from invaders.

Which dynasty has ruled from Bangkok since making it the capital in 1782?

Chakri kings descend from King Taksin's leading general, who took the throne in 1782 and built the Grand Palace; the tenth king of his line came to the throne in 2016.

Bangkok is run as a province, so which leader did its voters elect in 2022?

A governor: Chadchart Sittipunt won with a record 1.38 million votes in the first such election for nine years, the polls having been suspended after the 2014 coup.

Which jungle-clad loop of the river, just across the water from the city, is known as Bangkok's 'green lung'?

Bang Kachao has stayed green because the government protects it from development; palms, papaya groves and raised bike paths fill the bend in the river, in sight of the city's towers.

Bangkok hosted the inaugural edition of which multi-sport event in 1959?

The city later staged the 2007 Summer Universiade and the 2012 FIFA Futsal World Cup; Hua Mak was built for the 1998 Asian Games.