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laconic

Here you go:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/07/10/national/national_30077784.php

parrothead · Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 342 Location: Japan

It's fun enough to think about, but how can a U.S. based magazine comprised mostly of U.S. based readers bestow "World's Best" on anywhere. What these magazines reveal to us is which destinations are most "in" for American travelers and the places where the American dollar goes the furthest.

renzobenzo1 · Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 85

Whether the magazine states something or not, I found Bangkok to be vastly overrated. I am here now and had very high expectations of the city and its people.
I have seen a number of parts of Bangkok in 3 weeks and have found it to be repetitive, dirty and boring.
Sure there are some nice temples and attractions here and there but they are few and far between. Even some people dwelling here say to go out of Bangkok if possible.
As for the land of smiles and kind people, sure some people are friendly, but I have found Thai people to be quite forceful and abrupt, very assertive also.The Buddhist aspect is very nice and people respect that practice to a high degree.
However it was silly for me to believe that an entire race of people could be happy and smiling all the time-there is too much poverty and hardship here for that to be possible. Even the monks look pretty sombre at times.
I have heard people say some people will bow to you on the street randonly-well the only time I have seen that is if they are begging for money.

Well all in all Bangkok was worth a visit but I have been dissappointed and maybe it was good for me to come here first and see what it was like as I was thinking about teaching here but won't anymore.

Sure I'll be back to Thailand but only to go to the Southern Beaches and islands.

P.S. avoid Pattaya as much as possible-the beach is dirty, it's an old man's haven, but go there if you like a ratio of 5 women to every 1 man!

P.P.S. I was with my Indonesian gf so no play for me!

Master Shake · Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1202 Location: Colorado, USA

Bangkok's hell to get around in. It often takes longer to get from one side of BKK to the other than it does to go BKK-Pattaya (2+ hours).

As for Pattaya: When I was in Pattaya with my Polish gf a few weeks ago, we spent the better part of two days looking for a clean beach for swimming (avoid Pattaya and especially Jomtien beach - they're dirty).

When we finally dove in, the jellyfish were so thick it was like swimming in chicken soup. My gf was stung in seconds.

kidefl · Joined: 22 Jun 2007 Posts: 40

NO WAY! How could a nation at war be a best place to visit? Damn, they change the constitution every year. You never know when they'll be a coup. Soldiers and checkpoints are very much more common.

Bangkok is filthy. Too many people are sleazy, Thai and foreign. Traffic deaths have to be among the highest in the world, so are shooting deaths. Tourism is down down down. Many Thai people have gotten greedier than ever.

If I had the money I'd be outa here.

Forget Kho Phangan full moon parties, too many cops - and that's good because they need too many cops. The islands ain't what they used to be, neither is Thailand.