Bangkok's Chinatown stretches along Yaowarat Road and Charoen Krung Road, a dense tangle of narrow lanes packed with gold shops, Chinese temples, and market stalls selling everything from dried seafood to medicinal herbs. The area has been the commercial heart of the city's Chinese community for over two centuries.
After dark, Yaowarat transforms into one of Bangkok's great street food corridors. Vendors set up along the sidewalks serving roast duck over rice, fish maw soup, oyster omelettes, and fresh fruit smoothies. T&K Seafood and Lek & Rut are perennial favorites for grilled river prawns and crab fried rice, with prices far below what you'd pay in tourist areas.
Nearby Phahurat Market, sometimes called Little India, is one of the city's best fabric centres. Wat Traimit, at the edge of the neighbourhood, houses the world's largest solid gold Buddha statue -- discovered by accident in the 1950s when a plaster exterior cracked during relocation.