From a religious shrine dedicated to the male phallus, to a futuristic building shaped as a robot, many of Bangkok’s tourist attractions are as weird as they are interesting. They may not be quite suited for the conservative and faint-hearted, but if you’re looking for a break from traditional tourism, these five offbeat attractions will make Bangkok a lot more appealing.

Bangkok Forensic Museum

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Featuring freaky exhibits like limbs blown off by grenades, stillborn children preserved in formaldehyde, abnormally large body parts and even conserved mass-murderers, the Forensic Museum in Bangkok is one of the creepiest museums on Earth.

The most popular exhibit at the Forensic Museum is the paraffin-preserved corpse of Si Quei, Thailand’s most famous serial killer, who killed and ate the organs of several children, during the mid 1950s. But the elephantiasis-infected scrotum, 75 cm in diameter, is also pretty popular with tourists. Just make sure you visit on an empty stomach, there will be plenty of time to experience Bangkok cuisine.

Royal Dragon Restaurant

Recorded as the world’s biggest restaurant, by the Guinness Book of Records, in 1992, the Royal Dragon Restaurant is one of Bangkok’s must-see tourist attractions. The restaurant complex covers an area of about 8 acres and can seat up to 3,500 people. The Royal Dragon has a staff of 1,000 trained to cater to the customer’s every need.

Apart form being the biggest restaurant in the world, Bangkok’s Royal Dragon also has a very unusual but entertaining service. Some of the waiters rush through the countless tables, wearing roller-skates, to ensure speedy deliveries, while others drop from the sky, setting dishes on the table without spilling a drop. The kitchen can cook 3,000 meals in one night and over 25,000 dishes have to be washed every night.

Robot Building

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Designed by Sumet Jumsai, as the headquarters of Bank of Asia, the Robot building is locate in Sathorn, the business district of Bangkok. Its unusual robot-shape was an architectural reaction against neoclassical and high-tech architecture and was meant to show the computerization of banking.

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Completed in 1986, the Robot Building is still one of Bangkok’s most impressive buildings. The walls gradually decrease at the 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 18th floors and, together with the two antennae at the top and the eye shaped-windows, contribute to its robot-like shape.

Tiptum Shrine

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Besides the many beautiful Buddhist temples and shrines in Bangkok, there are other places of worship that have less to do with religion and more to do with tourism. One such place is the Chao Mae Tuptim shrine dedicated to fertility and good-luck. So far it doesn’t sound out of the ordinary, but that’s because I didn’t mention the phallus sculptures.

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The exact origins of the Chao Mae Tuptim shrine are unknown, but in time, offerings changed from jasmine flowers and incense sticks, to various phallus-shaped objects that now dominate the surroundings. Because of the not-so-politically-correct exhibits, Tuptim shrine isn’t advertised as an attraction and most Bangkok tourists don’t even know of its existence.

Cabbages and Condoms

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A free vasectomy for any male customer with each dinner ordered might seem like a crazy offer, but at cabbages and Condoms, the world’s only restaurant dedicated to birth control, that’s exactly what you get. It sounds strange, perhaps even frightening for some men, but it serves some of the best Thai food in Bangkok.

The restaurant’s strange name comes from Mechai Viravaidya’s desire to make condoms as common and used as cabbages. Cabbages and Condoms is decorated with over 40,000 condoms, gathered from all over the world, and offers a free condom with every coffee. Oh, and if you’re willing to accept the free vasectomy, the clinic is right next door.

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