Getting Around in Bangkok — We start out our time in Bangkok with one-day circuit of the city to try almost every form of transportation. Bangkok offers a wealth of public transportation opportunities.

Some are land-based: Bangkok offers a wide variety of vehicles for getting around on the city streets. The choices range from bike share to bicycle rickshaws to tuk-tuks to licensed motorbike taxis to licensed car taxis to public buses.

Sky Train and Subways — Bangkok has made a big investment in elevated and subterranean trains to try to reduce traffic jams and air pollution. The MRT is Bangkok’s subway that is being expanded — with several new stations just opened and a few more due to open later this year. The BTS is Bangkok’s elevated “Sky Train.” The system is clean, modern, and operates smoothly. One Sky Train line runs in from the airport and is a simple and inexpensive way to come into the city from the airport, avoiding what is often horrendous traffic delays.

Boats – You can literally “get around” Bangkok using a variety of water-borne transit. The options include: the Ferry that crosses the river back from Wat Pho to Wat Arun; the Chao Phraya Express Boat River Line with stops at points down the river; Khlong (canal) taxis that serves designated stops along the now-odiferous canals, and the long-tailed boats that speed up and down the river and in and out of the canals transporting commerce and small groups of tourists.

Our first day we took the Sky Train and the MRT in from the airport and walked to our hotel in Chinatown.

Our second day, we sampled a bit of everything: we walked a block to the MRT, transferred to the Sky Train, jumped on a canal boat, took the ferry across the river to Wat Arun and back to Wat Pho, and grabbed a Tuk-Tuk back to the hotel and in the process walked a fair amount of the city.

Our third and fourth day we added a tour of the canal system in a long-tailed boat and, finally, a subway trip to the train station to catch the night train to Chiang Mai.