Travel and Leisure, an American based magazine devoted to tourism, recently published their 13th annual travel poll. Voted by their readers as the top city destination in the world was Bangkok. My hometown of San Francisco was voted as 10th best. In the world’s best hotels poll, India and luxury tented camp resorts in East and South Africa dominated the rankings. Keep in mind that their readership is mostly American - as travelers, they are not the budget, backpacker types and their choice in accommodations is geared towards deluxe and luxury class hotels.

Why is Bangkok #1? I can understand why travelers from the west (farangs) would be attracted to the City of Angels. Bangkok has that magical allure – in many respects it is very westernized but at the same time it is so very exotic and foreign. Pluses are fantastic shopping opportunities, a variety of fascinating cultural attractions, a great selection of fine restaurants representing cuisines from around the world - Thai, Indian, Chinese, Italian, French, American, Japanese etc - and a most titillating nightlife. In addition, Bangkok has some of the best luxury hotels in the world – not necessarily where I stay when I go to Bangkok as I like more humble surroundings. By the way, in T & L’s poll, The Oriental Hotel in Bangkok was voted as the 13th best hotel in the world - the highest ranking of any hotel in Thailand. Also as far as big cities go, Bangkok is one of the safest in the world. On the downside, like most big cities, Bangkok has horrendous traffic jams and there are problems with air pollution. Oh well, you can’t have everything. Bottom line, if you’re a foodie and shopping is your thing, then you’ll love Bangkok.

My personal take - I must admit that while I am not particularity fond of big cities, I find the City of Angels to be absolutely fascinating. Despite concessions to modernity and to the West, Bangkok carefully maintains the essence of Siam culture – the old ways and traditions remain as strong as ever. Notwithstanding numerous trips there, Bangkok continues to be a puzzle and mystery to me. Maybe that’s the reason I keep returning – to solve the puzzle.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at 8:23 am and is filed under Commentary, Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.