Three days in Bangkok: an itinerary that survives the heat

Bangkok punishes improvisation. The distances look short, the traffic is not, and by 1pm the heat has removed your enthusiasm. This three-day plan is built around water transport, early starts and long lunches.

Day 1 — the old city and the river

Be at the Grand Palace when it opens at 8.30am. It is the most crowded site in the country by 10am, and the dress code is enforced at the gate: covered shoulders, covered knees, no see-through fabric.

Walk ten minutes to Wat Pho for the reclining Buddha and the country's oldest massage school — a one-hour Thai massage there is the most sensible thing you can do to your legs on day one. Cross to Wat Arun on the 5-baht ferry in the late afternoon and stay for sunset from a riverside terrace.

Day 2 — markets, canals and rooftops

Start at a fresh market before 9am, when the produce and the cooks are both there. Chatuchak on a weekend is enormous — over ten thousand stalls — and the only way to enjoy it is to accept that you will not see all of it.

Take a longtail boat through the Thonburi canals in the early afternoon: it is the coolest hour of the day on the water and shows a version of the city that never appears from the road. End on a rooftop bar; the drinks are overpriced and the skyline pays you back.

Day 3 — a day trip, or a food day

Option one: Ayutthaya. Trains from Krung Thep Aphiwat take about ninety minutes and drop you among brick stupas and the famous Buddha head held in the roots of a fig tree. Rent a bicycle at the station.

Option two: stay and eat. A morning cooking class, boat noodles at lunch, Chinatown after dark for oyster omelettes and grilled seafood on Yaowarat Road. Bangkok is one of the few cities where a food-only day is not a compromise.

Rules that make the city easier

Never accept an unmetered taxi. Ignore anyone outside a temple who tells you it is closed today — it is not, and the story ends at a gem shop. Carry small notes. Drink more water than feels reasonable, and plan an indoor gap between 1pm and 3pm.

Everything above is expanded, mapped and priced in Christopher's Bangkok travel guide, a downloadable ebook with the routes, the food stops and the timings already worked out.