Bangkok is a fascinating, unique and unusual place, crammed with idiosyncrasies. It’s fast pace and dazzling colours create a feast for the senses – even when you’re just doing something as innocuous as taking a walk through the city streets. It remains a go to destination for seasoned travellers who like something a little different on holiday. If you’re thinking about taking a trip, the DialAFlight website offers up some practical advice, and flight information, on their dedicated Bangkok page (click the link for cheap flights to Bangkok). For some ideas of where to go when you get there, read on, reader…

Corrections Museum

Perverse it may be, but I love to visit torture museums on holiday. Uncovering the darker side of a culture’s history appeals to my sense of the macabre. And Bangkok’s methods of punishment were certainly as imaginative as they were grisly. The Corrections Museum is housed in a former prison, right at the heart of the city. Exhibits include sadistic weapons of torture, once used to mete out what must have felt like a very rough justice. Of course, there’s the usual grim dioramas, depicting horrific scenes of torture and execution. The ‘rattan ball’ particularly sticks out (as anyone unfortunate enough to have been on the receiving end will tell you!), with its inward facing nails, inside of which the poor victim was placed before being thrown like a football to the rampaging feet of elephants. Even the gift shops turns up its own dark surprises, with souvenirs made exclusively by current prisoners of the Thai penal system – which is no walk in the park, even today.

Forensic Museum

The preserved cadavers of infamous murderers are just one of the horrors you’ll find at Bangkok’s Forensic Museum. Nefarious weapons, graphic autopsy photographs of autopsies and glass jars of pickled stillborns are among the freaky things on display. Situated next to the museum of parasitology, medical history and anatomy, the Forensic Museum is not for the weak-of-constitution

First Execution Chamber

Located in Bangkok’s Chinatown, Wat Pathum Khongkha is seemingly like any other temple you’ll see in this part of the world. But on closer inspection, it’s another place with a dark history. For Wat Pathum Khongkha once served as execution chamber for the Siamese royal family, many of whol were culled during the third reign of the Chakri dynasty. Perhaps the grimmest aspect of this story of is the manner of execution – in accordance with ancient custom (which stated that no royal blood should touch the ground), the unfortunate royals were placed in sacks and fatally beaten with a scented sandalwood club. It is precisely this uneasy combination of sheer brutality and peculiar reverence that makes Bangkok such a strange but deeply fascinating place.