Dusit Bangkok: the palace district, Wat Benchamabophit and the parks

Dusit Bangkok is the district King Chulalongkorn laid out at the start of the twentieth century as a European-style garden suburb for the royal family, with wide avenues, a throne hall in Italian marble and a palace in golden teak. It is still the royal and government quarter, which means wide pavements, few shops and a lot of closed gates. Come for one great temple, a sense of the capital as it was planned, and the parks that are replacing the old zoo and racecourse.

Wat Benchamabophit, the Marble Temple

Wat Benchamabophit is the reason to come. Built at the turn of the twentieth century from Italian Carrara marble, with a courtyard gallery of Buddha images in every regional style, it is the most orderly of Bangkok's great temples and the one on the back of the five-baht coin. Early morning is best, before the coaches, when the monks receive alms at the gate on Nakhon Pathom Road. The temple is open daily; dress with shoulders and knees covered.

Dusit Bangkok's royal avenue: Ratchadamnoen Nok and the plaza

Ratchadamnoen Nok, the northern leg of the ceremonial avenue, runs from the old town up to the Royal Plaza and the equestrian statue of King Chulalongkorn. Behind it stands the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, a domed Renaissance building that has been closed to the public for several years; it is worth seeing from the plaza even so. The old Parliament building next door and the Dusit Palace grounds, including the former site of the teak Vimanmek Mansion, are also closed. Treat this part of Dusit as architecture to look at from the road rather than visit.

The zoo site and the new parks

Dusit Zoo, beside the throne hall, closed in 2018 after eighty years, and its animals moved out of the city. The land has gone back to the Crown and is being redeveloped. Across Ratchadamnoen Nok, the former Nang Loeng racecourse has been turned into the King Rama IX Memorial Park, a very large landscaped park with lakes; check that it is open before you go, as it has been opening in stages. Between the two, Suan Amporn is the smaller public garden used for fairs and the annual Red Cross fair.

Nang Loeng market and the edge of the old town

South of the avenue, the district blurs into the old town. Nang Loeng market is one of Bangkok's oldest, a century-old covered market with a short lunchtime rush of excellent food: Thai sweets, curries, grilled things and the old Sala Chalerm Thani wooden cinema shell at the back. Go late morning. Rattanakosin itself, with Wat Saket and the Golden Mount a short walk south, is covered in the Rattanakosin old town guide.

Along the river

The western edge of Dusit meets the Chao Phraya at Thewet, where there is a Chao Phraya Express pier, an old flower-and-plant market and a stretch of guesthouses that are quieter than Khao San a kilometre south.

Getting there

• There is no BTS or MRT station in Dusit. The nearest are MRT Sam Yot and the old town, then a taxi, or BTS Victory Monument then a taxi along Ratchawithi Road.
• Chao Phraya Express boats stop at Thewet pier; walk fifteen minutes east along Si Ayutthaya or Krung Kasem roads.
• City buses along Ratchadamnoen Nok and Si Ayutthaya Road are frequent and the district is flat and walkable, with shade on the avenues.
• The Thewet pier and Wat Benchamabophit make a good pair with a boat day on the river.