Yaowarat Road

Yaowarat Road is the mile and a half of Chinatown that records the commercial history of Bangkok, as against the royal history a few streets north. When Rama I took Rattanakosin Island for the Grand Palace in 1782, the Chinese traders already settled there were moved downriver to this stretch of ground, and the junk-trade network they ran from it built the district. Daily, 24 hours. Yaowarat Road is a functioning public road without attraction gates or a weekly closure day. Shops, food stalls and nearby attractions keep independent hours; official events can temporarily alter traffic access.

Two things run along Yaowarat and a third runs off it. The first is gold: a line of shops with red and gold frontage trading bullion chains by weight, which is why the road is lit the way it is and why it looks prosperous at ten in the morning when nothing else is happening. The third is the alleys. Yaowarat Road is a functioning public road without attraction gates or a weekly closure day. Shops, food stalls and nearby attractions keep independent hours; official events can temporarily alter traffic access.

Allow two hours. That is the length of the road at a walking pace with stops, plus one of the side alleys and a couple of things eaten standing up. It is judgement, not a published figure — a public street has no operator to publish one. Anyone treating the evening as dinner rather than as a walk should plan three hours and eat at four or five places rather than one. Free access; there is no admission ticket for the public road. Food, shopping and separately operated attractions cost extra.

Yaowarat has two good hours and they are not the same hour. From 18:00 the food stalls take the pavements and the street becomes what most people come for — crowded, loud, brilliantly lit, and best after dark rather than at dusk. Daily, 24 hours. Wat Mangkon MRT station provides elevators and ramps at exits 1, 2 and 3; Exit 1 serves Yaowarat Road. Yaowarat is an outdoor street environment rather than a managed, uniformly accessible attraction. Bangkok Metropolitan Administration identifies Yaowarat among routes undergoing sidewalk improvements and describes problems addressed by the programme, including uneven or overly narrow pavements.

There is nothing to pay and nothing recorded. Yaowarat is a public road: it has no operator, no gate and no admission, so this page records no figure rather than a zero, because the absence of a fee is not the same thing as a sourced free entry. The same applies to hours. Free access; there is no admission ticket for the public road. Food, shopping and separately operated attractions cost extra. Wat Mangkon MRT station provides elevators and ramps at exits 1, 2 and 3; Exit 1 serves Yaowarat Road.

MRT Wat Mangkon opens directly onto the Yaowarat area and is the only sensible way to arrive, particularly in the evening when the road is effectively impassable to traffic. Take the MRT Blue Line to Wat Mangkon station (BL29). Exit 1 is signed for Yaowarat Road, Plaengnam Road, Phadung Dao Road and the Old Market; BEM lists elevators and ramps at all three exits. The Tourism Authority of Thailand describes Yaowarat as about a five-minute walk from the station. Bangkok Metropolitan Administration also lists Ratchawong Pier and bus routes 1, 4, 7, 25, 35, 37, 40, 49, 53, 73, 204, 501, 507, 529 and 3-53 for the Yaowarat area.

The traffic is the hazard people underestimate. Yaowarat is a live road with a narrow pavement that the stalls occupy, so walkers end up in the carriageway among motorbikes that do not slow down and do not always come from the direction expected. Pickpocketing works well in the evening crush — bag in front, nothing loose. Wat Mangkon MRT station provides elevators and ramps at exits 1, 2 and 3; Exit 1 serves Yaowarat Road. Bangkok Metropolitan Administration identifies Yaowarat among routes undergoing sidewalk improvements and describes problems addressed by the programme, including uneven or overly narrow pavements.

This is Bangkok's best night street and it wants a fast lens rather than a tripod. After dark the light comes from neon signs, stall bulbs and the gold shops, all of it different in colour temperature and none of it strong, so raise the ISO, open the aperture, fix the white balance somewhere and stop chasing it. In daylight the shophouse facades and the shutters of Talat Noi reward an unhurried walk more than the main road does. Food stalls and other activity occupy parts of the sidewalks, so a continuous unobstructed step-free route cannot be assumed throughout the district.