Is Bangkok safe?

The scam most solo visitors meet happens within 200 metres of the Grand Palace gates on Na Phra Lan Road: a friendly man in a pressed shirt says the palace is closed for a ceremony, then waves over a tuk-tuk offering a 20-baht tour that ends at a gem shop on Charoen Krung Road. The palace opens daily from 8.30am, so walk past him and check the ticket window yourself. Royal ceremonies do close it a few days a year, and the palace's own website lists those dates. Wat Pho, a 10-minute walk south along Maha Rat Road, gets the same routine. At Chatuchak Weekend Market, pickpockets work the Saturday and Sunday afternoon crowds, when the aisles smell of grilled pork skewers and coconut ice cream and you can barely turn around. We keep phones in a zipped front pocket there, and at Sathorn Pier too, where the push at the Chao Phraya Express gangplank gives a thief his best chance. Visitors in Bangkok tend to lose phones and wallets, not get into confrontations.

After dark, transit is where we'd focus your caution. The BTS Skytrain and MRT run until roughly midnight, and platforms like Asok and Sukhumvit stay brightly lit with guards on duty until closing. After the last train, book through Grab or Bolt rather than flagging a taxi on Sukhumvit Road or outside Nana: drivers there quote flat fares of 300 to 500 baht for a ride the meter would price at about 100, and at the current rate of 33.4 baht to the dollar, you would overpay by roughly $6 to $12. Motorbike taxis in orange vests are licensed and cheap, but the helmets are often thin plastic shells and the drivers squeeze between buses. Bangkok's roads injure more visitors than its people do. Thai drivers rarely stop at zebra crossings, so use the footbridges over Sukhumvit and Rama IV Road, or cross alongside a group of locals. October drizzle, like the warm mist and 97% humidity over the city this morning, leaves the polished stone outside Siam Paragon slick as soap.

For solo women, the places that feel uncomfortable after 1am are the bar strips, not the backstreets. Soi Cowboy, Nana Plaza on Sukhumvit Soi 4, and the Patpong night market in Silom draw touts and drunk crowds, bass from the go-go bars pounding out onto the pavement. Khao San Road is louder than it is dangerous, though most of the spiking reports trace back to its 200-baht cocktail buckets, so watch your drink being mixed and never leave it unattended. For evenings alone, we'd stay in Ari or Thonglor, where the sois smell of charcoal and lemongrass from the street grills and the crowd is office workers, not stag parties. Lumphini Park fills with runners at 6am but empties once it closes at 9pm, so don't cut through it at night. Hostels on Soi Rambuttri, one street from Khao San, run walking tours and rooftop nights that make it easy to meet people in your first week.

Thailand's general police number is 191, and 1669 reaches an ambulance. Most foreign visitors who need care head to private hospitals such as Bumrungrad on Sukhumvit Soi 3, which ask for a deposit or insurance details before admitting you, so carry a policy that covers medical evacuation. Thai law expects foreigners to carry ID, and a photocopy of your passport photo page usually satisfies a police check in Bangkok.