A Solo Wheelchair Traveller’s Bangkok: What to do and See on Two Wheels

Lessons from solo travelling Bangkok in a wheelchair

1. Take public transit

I am pleasantly surprised by the vast and beautiful Suvarnabhumi Airport and face no issues in leaving the aircraft, collecting luggage and passing through immigration. At the airport, wheelchair-accessible metered taxis are available, but I chose to travel by the BTS Skytrain. It’s affordable, accessible and is much quicker than using a taxi, especially during peak hours.

The BTS Skytrain and MRT aren’t perfect, but big stations like Asok, Mo Chit, Siam, and Phaya Thai have elevators, wide gates, and staff who inform you about accessible stations if you can show them your destination.

2. Find a hotel in a good location

Bangkok showers you with its hospitality, and you can feel that across a wide range of hotels. Rooms aren’t always accessible, but the staff are friendly and helpful, and I take help by asking for a shower chair for bathing. I am staying at De Prime at Rangnam, and it’s a fairly accessible hotel with no particular accessible room, but a good location.

3. Enjoy the street food

Once I check in, leave my bag and use the loo, it’s time to explore the city and see how far we both have come. I head out and find roadside pad thai with shrimp. It also reminds me of a cooking class I took once at the House of Taste Thai Cooking School, where I learned how to make pad thai, spring rolls and mango sticky rice along with strangers. The place was on the ground floor, and the in-house team helped me move my wheelchair every time we had to use the cooking induction in the next room. The experience made me appreciate Thai food even more as I remember each step being carefully scripted to get the flavour and aroma to reach the palette and then to the memory bank.

A part of the cooking class experience includes a visit to the local market to see where all the fruits, vegetables and spices are sourced. I see snails, snakes and other insects being sold in bulk and find the courage to casually ask, ‘Are these part of the Thai diet?’ The shop owner laughs and tells my host that they are for charity, as if we can free any of these small living creatures back to their habitat for God’s pleasure. I laugh and say, ‘You mean pay their ransom?’ They all think I am funny