Siam Square – not really a square, but a grid of shops and restaurants between Thanon Phrayathai and Thanon Henri Dunant – and nearby Thanon Ploenchit are as central as Bangkok gets, at the heart of the Skytrain system and with all kinds of shopping on hand. There’s no ultra-cheap accommodation here, but a few scaled-up guest houses have sprung up alongside the expensive hotels. Concentrated in their own small “ghetto” on Soi Kasemsan , which runs north off Thanon Rama I just west of Thanon Phrayathai and is the next soi along the Jim Thompson’s House, these offer an informal guest-house atmosphere with hotel comforts – air-conditioning and en-suite hot-water bathrooms – at moderate prices. Several luxury hotels have set up on Thanon Witthayu, aka Wireless Road, home of the American and British embassies (along others).