Bangkok Airplane Graveyard - It's gone, but here's what it was like

Update: The planes were cleared away in late 2022 and early 2023, and the lot is empty now, so there’s nothing left to see. We’ve left our original post up as a memory of one of Bangkok’s strangest places.

Urban exploring in Bangkok hasn’t been the same since they stopped letting people in the Ghost Tower, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still some amazing places to see.

One of the best was the “Airplane Graveyard” in Bangkok. While it was far from Central Bangkok, it was still smack dab in the middle of the city. It was a crazy place to have the hulking carcasses of airplanes wasting away, but that’s Bangkok for you.

Here’s what it was like when we went, and where we got the best photos. Be sure to check out our photos at the bottom of the post.

airplane graveyard - great Bangkok Ghost Tower alternative

About the airplane graveyard

It was really just a scrapyard. The land owner bought old planes to strip and sell any parts that were worth anything.

A few families had moved in to take advantage of the shelter the planes provided. It seems that before that they lived in the whole planes, but by the time we went they occupied a few sections of fuselage that had been cut in half to serve as buildings. These were on the left as you entered.

Unfortunately the graveyard might not be around much longer. The huge construction project you see right in front of it is for the new MRT Orange Line. Once there is a subway line passing by, the land will be worth too much to remain a scrapyard. You should go before the inevitable happens. We wrote that in 2018. The planes were gone by early 2023.

Getting in

It was along Ramkhamhaeng Road (ถนนรามคำแหง) between soi 103 and 105, and the easiest way there was the Khlong Saen Saep canal boat to the last pier at Wat Sriboonruang. At the front gate someone would come out and ask for an entrance fee. We were a Thai and a Thai-speaking foreigner and they asked for 200 each. Other people were asked anything from 100 to 800 baht, and some days they didn’t let anyone in at all.

The planes were easy to see from the street, and you couldn’t miss the gate.

Where we got the best photos

The airplane graveyard was such a cool place it was hard to take a bad photo. With that said, these were a few great locations and angles for that epic IG photo. See our gallery at the end of the post for examples.

On top of the 747: Once you made it up to the top level of the biggest plane, you could enter the cockpit. In the ceiling there was a small hatch that led out to the roof. The selfie stick 360 view up there was pretty epic. The 747 was huge, but there was a very narrow area to actually sit, with sheer drops on either side.
Over the canal: Outside of the lot there was a small canal that ran into the main canal. From the road you could get onto a raised walkway back there, and shooting from there showed just how smack in the middle of Bangkok the planes were.
The reflection: After rain, if you walked back a ways and crossed to the other side of the lot, you got a great reflection of the planes in a large puddle.
Inside the planes: A lot of the coolest shots were small details inside the planes. Things like toilets, oxygen masks, fading paint, rivets, and the pilot’s controls made great photos.
Pilot role play: In the smaller plane lying next to the jumbo jet, you could sit in the pilot’s seat and put your head out the window, for a shot of you randomly sitting in a junkyard airplane leaning out the window.