Intrepid Urban Adventures product manager Doru Raduta says a new Bangkok day tour proves it’s possible to find respite from the city’s sensory overload.
With over 32 million international arrivals last year, Bangkok welcomed more international visitors than any city worldwide, according to Euromonitor.
But according to Doru, that doesn’t mean Thailand‘s capital is all bright lights and busy streets. In fact, he claims there are still plenty of lesser-known spots that’ll give you a different perspective on one of the world’s busiest places.
Following the locals’ lead
Doru designs and manages Intrepid Urban Adventures tours. On a typical day, you’ll find him working on itineraries in his office in Bucharest, Romania. But it was a trip to Bangkok that sparked the creation of the latest city tour in the collection.
‘Some colleagues and I were there for a conference and had some time afterwards,’ he says. ‘And one of my favourite things to do in any city is just walk around.’
‘I got some recommendations from a coworker, Jub Yata, who’s lived in Bangkok for more than 16 years. She said that I should check out Hong Sieng Kong, a riverside cafe with an eclectic mix of ancient architecture paired with the energy of a modern coffee shop.’
Doru says he never would have found the cafe, which is hidden down a narrow side street in a residential area, without her advice. As he planned out the route on his phone, he noticed other spots in the area that drew his attention – a warehouse turned contemporary art space and a handful of Catholic churches (a rare sight in a city dotted with temples). Thanks to Jub, he’d stumbled across a place worth exploring – one that relatively few tourists ever find.
‘Working at Intrepid, I feel like one of the luckiest travellers in the world,’ Doru says. ‘Everyone here is so passionate about travel and so eager to share their best recommendations with one another.
‘Over the years, thanks to my colleagues, I’ve eaten in some of the best hole-in-the-wall spots, found the quietest parts of the busiest cities and seen places most travellers wouldn’t even know about.
‘And the way I see it is that we have a responsibility to share these experiences with our travellers on our trips, too.’
See for yourself where real life happens
These valuable recommendations from his colleague sparked the idea to create Urban Adventures’ latest Bangkok tour, which takes travellers to the historic neighbourhood of Talad Noi. Working closely with Jub, also a product manager and an expert at designing Thailand trips, the pair carefully curated an itinerary that unearths some of the area’s coolest hangouts and hidden spaces. Yep, including that original cafe.
‘Bangkok puts on a good show for visitors, but this is the part where real life happens,’ Doru says.
Many of the local community are the descendants of Chinese immigrants who settled here hundreds of years ago. What’s special about this area is how the people of Talad Noi have kept their ancient traditions and culture alive in the middle of a city that feels like it’s living in the future.
Down tightly woven streets, family-run hole-in-the-wall cafes neighbour shops selling secondhand car parts. Above them, clotheslines zigzag between buildings, while street art tells the stories of residents and the history of the area.
With a local leader out front, travellers on the Hidden Talad Noi and Chinatown tour navigate the laneways and learn about the culture in one of Bangkok’s oldest neighbourhoods.
Across two and half hours, you’ll get a taste of traditional Thai and Chinese street food like turnip cake (a Chinese dim sum dish) and chao tha (duck noodle soup), with a stop at the very same cafe that inspired Doru’s initial journey into Talad Noi.
Together you’ll visit one of Thailand’s oldest Catholic churches, initially built by Portuguese settlers in the late 1700s. You’ll also experience one of the oldest Buddhist shrines in the city, the Chow Sue Kong Shrine, before saying goodbyes to your local leader in Chinatown.
Balancing what’s hot with what’s not
This new tour is part of Urban Adventures’ Hidden Neighbourhoods range, which takes travellers beyond the obvious in well-known places. The tours explore famous places like Bangkok, Bucharest and Paris, showing travellers a side of cities that they might otherwise miss while connecting them with locals on a deeper level.
As Doru says, having access to hyper-local advice from all over the world puts Intrepid in a special position to share a more local experience with travellers.
Exploring quieter neighbourhoods in bigger cities helps travellers understand how local people live, eat and go about their days. With fewer crowds in these spots, experiences are richer, making for stories that stick out.
These offbeat experiences pay off for the local economy, too. Spending tourism dollars in lesser-known locations helps spread the benefits of tourism more widely.
So, as it turns out, Doru was right: it’s not only possible to get off the beaten path in Bangkok. It’s actually a better way to see it.
Want to see another side of Bangkok? Check out the Intrepid Urban Adventures Hidden Talad Noi and Chinatown tour. If you’re looking for something longer, explore Intrepid’s multi-day trips that go beyond the usual spots.
