🇹🇭 Thailand
Bangkok
Bangkok (Krung Thep Maha Nakhon — "City of Angels, Great City" in Thai, the capital's official name being the longest place name in the world at 169 characters) is one of the most overwhelming, exhilarating and contradictory cities on earth: a metropolis of 10 million people where golden Buddhist temples overlook floating markets and glass skyscrapers rise above wooden canal houses on the Chao Phraya River. Thailand's capital is the world's most visited city (22 million tourists annually), the global capital of street food (the UN's FAO called Bangkok street food "the best in the world"), the spiritual home of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, and simultaneously the neon-lit playground of Sukhumvit and the Khao San Road backpacker scene. Three days gives you the temples, the floating market, the food, the canal network and the rooftop bars — but Bangkok rewards much longer.