Bangkok will serve you dinner via dancing robot, let you watch a five-foot monitor lizard amble past your picnic, and hand you a museum tour built entirely around death, all in the same 48 hours if you let it. Most guidebooks stop at temples and rooftop bars. The unusual things to do in Bangkok are where the city actually shows its personality, and a few of the old classics on this list have quietly changed status since they went viral. I’ll tell you which ones, and where to go instead.
Here’s the rundown before the details:
- Kra Thon, the original Flying Chicken restaurant — legendary, but its current status is shaky
- Lumphini Park’s monitor lizards — free, wild, and very much still around
- Little Zoo Café and Little Zoo Garden Capybara Café — Bangkok’s animal café scene
- Siriraj Medical Museum, the “Death Museum”
- Hajime Robot Restaurant — dinner served by a dancing samurai
- ChangChui Creative Park — a night market built around an airplane
- Papaya Studio — a vintage warehouse with no discernible end
- Sathorn Unique Tower — the Ghost Tower (look, don’t climb)
Kra Thon, the Original Flying Chicken Restaurant
If you’ve seen the clips of fried chicken launched from a small catapult and caught, mid-air, by a waiter on a unicycle wearing a spiked helmet, that’s Kra Thon (also written Ka-Tron or Krua Saap Flying Chicken), out past Bang Na on the eastern edge of the city. It’s been one of Bangkok’s most-shared restaurant videos for years, and the food itself is solid, straightforward Thai cooking that happens to come with dinner theater.
Its 2026 status is genuinely mixed. Some recent traveler accounts describe it as running as usual; other reports from late 2025 suggest it had gone quiet. Call ahead before making the trip out to Bang Na, since it sits well outside the tourist center and isn’t worth an hour-long taxi ride on a guess. If it’s dark when you arrive, our guide to Bangkok’s best upscale bars makes a solid backup for the evening.
Lumphini Park’s Monitor Lizards
Lumphini Park is Bangkok’s answer to Central Park, and it’s a genuinely pleasant place for a morning walk. Most visitors, though, come for the other residents: Asian water monitors, some over six feet long, that sunbathe by the lake, slide into the water like scaly submarines, and cross the jogging paths like they own the place. They kind of do. Recent counts put the park’s population around 400, according to reporting from The Guardian.
They’re harmless if you leave them alone. Keep a respectful distance, never feed them, and check the shaded edges near the water in early morning or late afternoon for the best sightings. It’s also one of the cheapest things to do in Thailand, since the park itself is free.
Bangkok’s Animal Café Scene: Little Zoo Café and Little Zoo Garden
Little Zoo Café is less a coffee shop than a small, supervised menagerie: meerkats, fennec foxes, silver foxes, corgis, parrots, cats, hamsters, chinchillas, and hairless guinea pigs rotate through timed interaction sessions. A newer sibling option, Little Zoo Garden Capybara Café over in Suan Luang, leans into Bangkok’s capybara obsession and is open daily from 11am to 7pm, walk-ins welcome.
Animal cafés vary widely in quality of care. Look for limited handling time, visible rest breaks for the animals, active staff supervision, and clean, uncrowded enclosures. If anything feels off once you’re inside, leave — your money is the only vote that matters here. Pair either café with a night at one of Thailand’s more unique places to stay for a full weird-Bangkok itinerary.
Siriraj Medical Museum, the “Death Museum”
This isn’t a casual post-brunch stop unless your brunch conversation already covers forensics and parasitology. Tucked inside Siriraj Hospital, the museum most people call the Death Museum houses anatomical specimens, forensic displays, and medical history exhibits that range from fascinating to genuinely unsettling. It’s open 10am to 5pm daily except Tuesdays, foreign visitors pay roughly 200 baht for the main exhibits (closer to 300 baht for the combined ticket with the Bimuksthan museum next door), and photography inside isn’t allowed. Budget about two hours.
True-crime fans, medical history buffs, and anyone who’s templed-out will get a lot from this one. Young kids, squeamish travelers, and anyone who doesn’t want graphic content on vacation should skip it, and that’s a perfectly reasonable call. If you need to decompress afterward, several yoga and meditation retreats near Bangkok are a short ride away.
Hajime Robot Restaurant: Dinner Served by a Dancing Samurai
Hajime is equal parts Japanese BBQ buffet and floor show. You grill at the table while a dancing, Thai-engineered samurai robot handles food delivery and the occasional light show. It’s open daily, roughly 11:30am to 11pm, with buffet tiers running from around 330 baht for a simpler shabu spread up to nearly 800 baht for the full premium buffet. It’s a favorite with families and with adults who still enjoy a little sci-fi nonsense with their short ribs. Go hungry — “we’ll just order a little” rarely survives contact with the menu.
ChangChui Creative Park: A Night Market Built Around an Airplane
ChangChui is Bangkok’s best “how did someone dream this up” destination: an art-market space built around bars, food stalls, design shops, and a decommissioned airplane as the literal centerpiece. Officially, the Green Zone runs 11am to 9pm and the Night Zone runs 4pm to 11pm, and the whole park closes on Wednesdays. Most vendors don’t really wake up until evening, so arriving mid-afternoon can mean wandering a half-empty market. Plan to show up around 5pm for the full experience: wander the installations, snack-hop instead of committing to one big meal, and take the airplane photo you’ll pretend was spontaneous.
Two More Offbeat Detours: Papaya Studio and Sathorn Unique Tower
Papaya Studio is a sprawling vintage-and-collectibles warehouse where every aisle looks like a movie set decorator’s storage unit: retro signage, old furniture, eerie mannequins, and props you didn’t know you wanted until you saw them. Reported hours vary by source, generally somewhere between 9:30am and 7pm daily, so it’s worth a quick call before you make the trip. Wear comfortable shoes and bring your camera, though it’s polite to ask before shooting close-ups of staff or active work areas.
Sathorn Unique Tower, Bangkok’s famous “Ghost Tower,” is a half-finished 1990s high-rise abandoned after the Asian financial crisis. It’s become an urban-legend magnet, but access has been shut down since 2018, when the owner locked down the site and fired the security guards who’d been letting explorers in. Trespassers have faced arrest in the past, so admire the eerie skyline silhouette from outside and skip any temptation to sneak in.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most unusual things to do in Bangkok?
Top picks include watching wild monitor lizards at Lumphini Park, touring the Siriraj Medical Museum, eating at the robot-staffed Hajime restaurant, and wandering ChangChui Creative Park’s airplane-centered night market. Animal cafés like Little Zoo Café and Little Zoo Garden Capybara Café round out the list.
Is the Flying Chicken restaurant in Bangkok still open?
Its status is unclear as of 2026. Some reports say Kra Thon is still running out near Bang Na, while others suggest it’s gone quiet. Call ahead before the trip, since it’s a longer ride from central Bangkok.
Can you go inside the Sathorn Unique Tower (Ghost Tower)?
No. The building has been off-limits to the public since 2018, and trespassers have faced arrest in the past. Photos from the street are the safe, legal way to enjoy it.
Are the monitor lizards in Lumphini Park dangerous?
They’re generally harmless if left alone. Keep your distance, never feed them, and treat them the way you’d treat any large wild animal sharing a public park.
How much does it cost to visit Siriraj Medical Museum?
Foreign visitors pay around 200 baht for the main exhibits, or roughly 300 baht for a combined ticket that includes the neighboring Bimuksthan museum. It’s open 10am to 5pm daily except Tuesdays.
Bangkok’s weird side doesn’t stay still for long. Restaurants close, viral spots get locked down, and new animal cafés open every few months, so treat any single visit as a snapshot rather than the whole picture. Go in with a sense of humor and a backup plan, and the city’s oddities end up being more memorable than its temples.