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Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, is a large city known for ornate shrines and vibrant street life. The boat-filled Chao Phraya River feeds its network of canals, flowing past the Rattanakosin royal district, home to opulent Grand Palace and its sacred Wat Phra Kaew Temple. Nearby is Wat Pho Temple with an enormous reclining Buddha and, on the opposite shore, Wat Arun Temple with its steep steps and Khmer-style spire.
Bangkok
Same same, but different. This T-shirt line epitomises Bangkok, where the familiar and exotic come together like the robust flavours on a plate of pàt tai.
Full-on Food
Until you’ve eaten on a Bangkok street, noodles mingling with your sweat amid a cloud of exhaust fumes, you haven’t eaten Thai food. Sampling Thai cuisine is an intense sensory mix of the base flavours – spicy, sour, sweet and salty. The city is a giant cauldron simmering with oddball dishes and ingredients, and with immigration bringing every regional Thai and international cuisine to the capital, it's also a truly cosmopolitan affair. Whether you're wolfing down a snack off a street cart or dining in style at a Michelin-starred restaurant, Bangkok is one of the world’s best-value eating destinations.
Fun Folks
The language barrier here can seem huge, but it's never prevented anybody from getting along with the Thai people. The capital’s cultural underpinnings are evident in virtually all facets of everyday life, and most enjoyably through its residents' sense of fun (known in Thai as sà·nùk). In Bangkok, anything worth doing should have an element of sà·nùk. Ordering food, changing money and haggling at markets will usually involve a sense of playfulness – a dash of flirtation, perhaps – and a smile. Street Thai is as much emoted as it's spoken, and is actually not that difficult to learn.
Urban Exploration
Few cities in the world reward footloose exploration as handsomely as Bangkok. Despite the heat and grime, walking can be an intensely rewarding experience here, taking you deep beneath the city’s metropolitan veneer. A stroll off Banglamphu’s beaten track can lead to a conversation with a monk. A boat trip on the Chao Phraya River can be capped off with a visit to a hidden market. You can get lost in the tiny lanes of Chinatown and stumble upon a Chinese opera performance. After dark, explore the bustling lanes of Sukhumvit, where the nightlife scene reveals a cosmopolitan and energetic megacity.
A City of Contrasts
It’s the contradictions that provide the City of Angels with its complex, multifaceted personality. Here, climate-controlled megamalls sit side by side with 200-year-old village homes; gold-spired temples share space with neon-lit strips of sleaze; slow-moving traffic is bypassed by long-tail boats plying the canals and riverways; Buddhist monks dressed in robes shop for the latest smartphones; and streets lined with food carts are overlooked by restaurants perched on top of skyscrapers. As Bangkok races towards the future, these contrasts are only poised to increase and intensify, even while supplying the city with its unique and ever-evolving notion of Thai cosmopolitanism.
