Countryside and Villages in Bangkok
A visual guide from the Bangkok travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
Cross the river at Klong Toei and the traffic noise drops away within a hundred metres. Bang Krachao, the teardrop of land the Chao Phraya loops around, is mostly nipa palm, banana groves and narrow concrete paths raised on stilts above the mud, and it sits four kilometres from the Sukhumvit skyline. Bangkok's rural edge is closer than the map suggests: coconut plantations in Samut Songkhram, Mon pottery villages on a river island in Nonthaburi, and orchard canals in Thonburi that still move produce by boat rather than road.
Where to go
Bang Krachao is the easy one. A longtail ferry from Klong Toei pier crosses in about five minutes and bicycles rent cheaply at the landing. Sri Nakhon Khuean Khan Park sits at the centre of the peninsula, and Bang Nam Pheung market fills the surrounding lanes at weekends. Ko Kret, an island in the river off Pak Kret, is reached by a two-minute ferry near Wat Sanam Nuea and circled on foot in roughly ninety minutes past open pottery kilns. Further out, Amphawa in Samut Songkhram is coconut-sugar country, about ninety minutes by road.
How to do it well
Start early. The raised paths through Bang Krachao are shaded but humidity builds fast after ten, and the elevated concrete is barely wider than a handlebar in places, so a slow pace beats a fast one. Weekends bring the markets at Bang Nam Pheung and Khlong Lat Mayom to life, and also bring Bangkok's own weekend cyclists. Ko Kret is quiet midweek and busy on Sundays. For Amphawa, arrive mid-afternoon for the canal market and stay for the firefly boats, which typically run after dark outside the wettest weeks of the year.