Bangkok is loud, hot and gloriously overwhelming on the first day, and then, somewhere around the third, it starts to make sense. The trick is to think of it as many small towns stitched together by a river and its canals: the royal old town on the island of Rattanakosin, the wooden lanes of Thonburi across the water, the noisy gold shops of Chinatown, the glass towers of Sukhumvit and Silom.
These twenty routes are the walks, boat rides and day trips I keep returning to. Most can be done in half a day, many combine well, and none of them need a tour group. Go early, rest in the afternoon heat, and come back out when the city lights up.
