Bangkok's business district by day and its most layered night, laid out along two parallel spines: Silom Road, where the banks and the Hindu temple and the go-go bars share a pavement, and Charoen Krung, the city's first paved road, now rebranded as the Creative District and holding most of the good coffee, most of the good cocktails and a run of century-old riverside hotels. Nothing here matches anything else, and that is the point.
Who it's for: Eaters and drinkers above all — this is where Bangkok's cocktail scene and its specialty-coffee scene actually live, alongside Bib Gourmand noodle counters that cost a tenth as much. Anyone who wants the river without a boat trip out to the old city. Architecture and heritage walkers, for the shophouse stretch between Charoen Krung 30 and 50. LGBTQ+ travellers, for whom lower Silom is the city's centre of gravity.