Phahurat

Phahurat sits immediately west of Chinatown and was settled from the late nineteenth century by Punjabi Sikhs and by Indian traders more widely, who built the district around cloth: the streets and the covered India Emporium are wall-to-wall fabric - sari silk, cotton, tailoring supplies, trimmings and bolts stacked to the ceiling - and it remains the wholesale textile district for the city. At the centre is Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha, founded in 1932 and rebuilt as a six-storey building, the largest Sikh temple in Thailand; visitors are welcome, heads must be covered and shoes removed, and the langar, the free communal meal served in every gurdwara, operates here as elsewhere. Around it are Indian restaurants, sweet shops, spice sellers and a Hindu temple. It is compact, hot, crowded and entirely commercial, and it is the closest thing Bangkok has to an Indian city block.

What you actually see

• The fabric trade - sari silk, cotton and trimmings filling the streets and the emporium.
• The gurdwara - Thailand's largest Sikh temple, open to visitors.
• The langar - the free communal meal served to anyone who comes.
• The food streets - Indian restaurants, sweets and spice sellers.

When to go

November to February. Weekday mornings when the fabric trade is working. The gurdwara has visiting hours; heads covered and shoes off. Two hours covers it.

Honest expectations

A working wholesale district - crowded, hot and geared to trade rather than visitors. The gurdwara requires head covering and shoe removal, and is a place of worship rather than a sight. Narrow streets with heavy foot traffic.

Nearby

Yaowarat and Chinatown are east; Pak Khlong Talat flower market is south.