Baan Dokmai is located on the bank of the Ong Ang Canal at the back of Wat Saket and opposite Baan Bat in Bangkok. People in this community were engaged mainly in producing fireworks and firework pinwheels. Anyone who needed fireworks and firework pinwheels from major events usually ordered them from Baan Dokmai.

Formerly, Baan Dokmai residents were Cambodian immigrants coming to settle down in Thailand during the reign of King Rama I (1782-1809). They built their homes on the banks of canals, east of the capital, and made a living by producing fireworks and fireworks pinwheels. Baan Dokmai was famous for craftsmen in this filed and it has been listed among the 18 old handicraft communities in Bangkok.

The largest Chinese community in Thailand, Yaowarat, or Bangkok's Chinatown, came into existence in 1862 when King Mongkut (Rama IV instructed the construction of a new road near the Chinese community in the Sampheng area, which became rather small. The new road made it more convenient for traveling around this area.

Yaowarat Road starts at Khlong Ong Ang in the outer City Wall, near Saphan Han, and ends at Wat Traimit, or Wat Sam Chin. King Mongkut named this new road Yaowarat.

The Hilton Millennium, one of Bangkok's newest upmarket hotels, takes advantage of its riverside location with a penthouse bar that has stupendous views across the city. Despite the name, and although you can walk the whole circumference of the bar, the vista isn't strictly on that totals 360 degrees.

Nevertheless, seating does cover a full three quarters of the circumference, and the whole sweep of Bangkok's river is visible, from the docks to the Grand Palace and Nonthaburi, together with the downtown bright lights and some of the southern suburbs.

The windows angle away at 30 degrees, so the adventurous can look straight down to the ground below, and there's an all-glass lift clinging to the outer wall for a breathtaking ride on the way up and down.