พระราชวังพญาไท

Phyathai Palace was originally the recreational home of King Chulalongkorn Rama V, who enjoyed the breezy atmosphere of its premises. It later became the summer palace of his wife, Queen Saowabha, and later his son, King Vajiravudh Rama VI, who transformed the vacation home into a fancy Italian Renaissance-inspired villa. After Rama VI’s reign, the palace was turned into a luxury hotel, and later an army hospital in his honor.

When King Vajiravudh moved to the palace in 1919, he installed a “miniature city” called Dusit Thani on the massive space behind the main building. Said to be an experiment in constitutional democracy, Dusit Thani was a playground where the monarch and his entourage role-played as members of a civic state in which there wasn’t a king, and all decisions were made through votes. Historians agree that Dusit Thani was similar to a school where the British-educated Vajiravudh instructed his staff about democracy, a concept that was then unfamiliar to Thais. Dusit Thani is long gone, but visiting the place it used to occupy will allow you to take in the setting that witnessed the earliest manifestations of democracy in the country. Only one part of the miniature city—a model pavilion—remains. It is exhibited inside the main palace building.

Bonus: The front chamber of the palace is now a coffee shop called Cafe Norasingha, which, with its neoclassical interiors, may possibly be one of the most beautiful cafes in all of Bangkok.