Bangkok's Best

Bangkok, Thailand, January 2009 -- This most recent excursion into Thailand over the long Chinese New Year weekend offered a fresh insight to the Kingdom, one that I willingly relegated many times in the past in favor of the more carnal vestiges of its major attractions. Indeed, there is more to Thailand than beaches, bar strips, bootlegged products, and the kind of brazenly shallow sub-culture that thrives within their confines -- something that permeates such tourist destinations as Phuket, Patthaya, even Bangkok.

This time around, I tackled Bangkok in a different light, as a matter of fact covering much of this altogether modern and ancient city in broad daylight. I visited the temples Wat Pho and Wat Phra Kaew at the Grand Palace, more passionately this time, and finally climbed one of the tall phrangs at Wat Arun by the Chao Praya River, even catching the sunset by the riverbank, the silhouette of riverside phrangs in the distance. All these are the Thai spectacles I should have enjoyed right from the beginning!