Victory Monument Bangkok: boat noodles, Phaya Thai and Rangnam

Victory Monument Bangkok is a traffic roundabout with an obelisk in the middle, and for decades it was the bus and minivan hub for the whole north and east of the country. The vans moved to the bus terminals in 2016 and the roundabout has been quieter since, but the area around it, including Phaya Thai one BTS stop south, is still one of the best cheap-eating districts in the city, and the place to catch the train to Suvarnabhumi.

Victory Monument Bangkok's boat noodle alley

The monument's best-known attraction is a row of noodle shops along a short stretch of canal on the north-east side of the roundabout. Boat noodles (kuay tiao ruea) come in small bowls of pork or beef in a dark, pepper-heavy broth thickened with blood; the custom is to stack the empty bowls and count up at the end. Most shops are open from late morning until evening. Walk under the Victory Monument BTS exit on that side and follow the smell.

Rangnam Road

Rangnam runs north-west from the monument and is the area's main strip. The King Power complex at the top has a large duty-free mall, a theatre and a hotel. Below it, Rangnam and its sois are lined with Isaan restaurants, grilled-fish places, hotpot shops and small bars that fill with office workers after six. Saxophone Pub on the roundabout itself has been running live jazz, blues and Thai rock nightly for more than thirty years and is still the easiest live music in the city to just walk into; the wider scene is in Bangkok live music venues.

Santiphap Park (Suan Santiphap), off Rangnam, is a small green square with a pond and runners doing laps in the early evening.

Phaya Thai and Ratchathewi

Phaya Thai station is where the Airport Rail Link ends, so a lot of visitors see this corner first, usually from a taxi queue. It deserves a look back. Phaya Thai Palace, inside the grounds of Phramongkutklao Hospital, is a 1920s royal residence that was briefly a hotel and now opens to the public on set days; check before going. The palace has a cafe in its original 1920s setting.

Ratchathewi, the next stop south, is the quiet gap before Siam, with a strip of budget hotels and a long row of shophouse restaurants on Phetchaburi Road. The footbridge across Khlong Saen Saep at Ratchathewi gives a view of the canal boats that is worth a minute on the way past.

Century and the night-time roundabout

Century The Movie Plaza, on the roundabout, is an old cinema-and-shops block that still screens films and holds a cluster of cheap restaurants. After dark, the pavements around the monument fill with clothes stalls and food carts aimed at students from the nearby colleges. It is not a destination market but it is cheap and open late.

Getting there

• BTS Sukhumvit Line: Victory Monument (N3), Phaya Thai (N2), Ratchathewi (N1). All three are within a long walk of each other.
• Airport Rail Link: Phaya Thai is the city terminus, about 25 minutes from Suvarnabhumi.
• Khlong Saen Saep boats: the Pratunam and Sapan Hua Chang piers are a ten-minute walk south of Ratchathewi; see Bangkok by boat.
• The Victory Monument roundabout is a city bus hub, with services to Chatuchak, the old town and Ratchada.