Understand
Ratchadaphisek, generally shortened to just Ratchada, breathes entertainment. While Sukhumvit's clubbing scene is probably the most impressive, it is totally overrun by expats. Ratchada's clubs, bars, cinemas, massage parlours and shopping malls almost exclusively cater to a local Thai audience foreigners are welcome though. Saturday nights are busiest, with Thai students in their late teens and early 20s flocking in great numbers to "RCA", a pedestrian-only road that stands for Royal City Avenue. Being a government-designated entertainment zone, clubs here stay open till 02:00, which is one hour longer than elsewhere in Bangkok. The bars and clubs have spilled over beyond RCA onto the many sois Ratchadaphisek is rich.
Meanwhile, Chinese and Japanese mass tourism has discovered Ratchadaphisek, and there are many hotels and seafood restaurants fulfilling this demand. Western tourists, however, still come in surprisingly few numbers. Besides clubbing and fine dining, don't expect to see anything particularly interesting on this long, rather soulless road.
Orientation is quite straightforward. Ratchdaphisek Road is the main road that crosses right through the district from north to south. It is the transportation hub of the district as the MRT metro runs right beneath it. Many of Ratchadaphisek's sois intersect with the main road, with the uneven numbers at the west side and the even numbers at the east side.
