Kata Beach Resort - Traffic Spotting in Bangkok

During my many visits I've tried to find new and interesting vantage points to get great traffic shots. And Bangkok is certainly a great city for doing that, but I love taking photos of traffic, maybe I'm a bit sad!

As it's at this point where the 2 lines meet at Siam station, facing back the other way you can try and work the skytrain lines into your shot. Standing on this bridge at peak time gives you some impression of the congestion suffered daily around Bangkok. This road (on my last visit anyway) operates a contra flow system with 6 lanes in one direction and one extra lane available to go in the other direction. The bridge deposits you just outside Central World Plaza. And probably one of the more famous spots is from the pedestrian bridge that leads out of Gaysorn Plaza across Ratchadamri Road at the crossroads with Rama I, my favourite for day time shots.

Mixed in with the red and white blurred lights on the cars gives you some great photo opportunities. This area is commonly referred to as the business district and as such has some well lit skyscrapers and tall office blocks. A great location for night time traffic shots I have found is the square shaped pedestrian bridge across Sathorn and Naradhiwas (close to Chong Nonsi skytrain station).

The walkway there gives you a good view back towards Siam Square and the huge crossroads of Rama I and Phaya Thai, i once stayed at the Asia Hotel and it has a connection directly into Ratchadamri station. But it can sometimes be a bit tricky trying to get a clear shot, skytrain stations of course give you a natural vantage point.

A true concrete jungle, above the flyover is an expressway! It is where Phahon Yothin meets the equally huge Wiphawadi Rangsit Road (which also has an elevated fly over to bypass the junction). But a traffic photo lover's dream, truly horrific if you're not a fan, a bit further up from here you run into the Lat Phrao junction! At Mo Chit Station, this road receives a massive amount of bus traffic and the northern terminus of the Skytrain's Sukhumwit line is here. This is a main thoroughfare for traffic to north of the city and upcountry, phahon Yothin runs directly alongside the market's eastern edge. There are plenty of busy roads in the vicinity, if you are going to visit Chatuchak Market during your stay.

Keep an eye out for the train lines, once you are pointing in a vaguely north-easterly direction you get a great view down to a tangle of expressways as they meet near to Makkasan train station, the viewing deck rotates. For some people this may take you a bit too far away from the action but it does give you a sense of the scale of the city and its roads. Thailand's tallest building, of course no such list would be complete without mentioning the Baiyoke Tower.

There are many bridges along the Chao Phraya that are within reach of the river express boats, if this is too far to travel. On the other side of the river you can see the tall Thai Farmers Bank building. It is the Rama IX bridge which is part of the Chalerm Maha Nakorn expressway out of Bangkok to the south of the country. But is my favourite in terms of its sheer size and traffic capacity, that is maybe a bit far out of the way for many travellers, one final entry on this list is a bridge.