I did a little exploring of old Bangkok recently, starting from the Oriental pier on Bangkok’s riverside. Our first stop was the stunning East Asiatic building. This Venetian style building is one of the many buildings with European heritage scattered around Thailand. We actually got to enter the building as there were a bunch of people from Tourism Authority of Thailand with us, which made the experience quite unique.
Later on we walked over to Assumption Cathedral, another beautiful building with European influence. It’s quite a sight, you wouldn’t expect to see a church like this in Bangkok.
You can imagine we were all drenched from walking around in the heat, so we were all excited to go to hang out at Bangkok’s first air-conditioned mall, O.P. Place. I rarely explore in this area and have never heard about this mall, but it was fun to see a mall with so much history. Curved wooden stairs leading you to a green elevator and a large chandelier in the center of the entrance, this Neo-classical style building was perfect for pictures.
We also made a small visit to the Thai-Muslim community and tried some amazing roti before walking over to Mango Tree restaurant for some talks and traditional Thai food. The main speaker, Luc Citrinot made quite a good presentation about the Bangkok’s culture and heritage and has also made a map where you can locate all the European heritage sites along Thailand. There’s also an app called EUNIC for those of you who can’t get your hands on a map. We are already planning a little tour to go check out the sites. There are so many buildings we have yet to seen!