Dec 10 2021 31 mins
Bangkok - The City of Angels Celebrated American author Agnes Reppelier says: “The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life.” How True!! Hope is all I have. In this episode, we explore the beautiful city of Bangkok, Capital of Thailand and truly the ultimate playground of the world. So, Sawadee khap! That is a common Greeting in the Thai language. Bangkok was made famous by American soldiers engaged in a long, no-win war in neighboring Vietnam in the nineteen sixties and seventies. This was their coveted destination for periodic rest-and-relaxation breaks. But today Bangkok has taken over Paris, London, and New York as the most popular tourist destination in the world. And that is for good reason. Europe is all history and culture. Places like Hawaii and Bali are all play and rest. But Bangkok provides a healthy mix of history and culture, rest and relaxation like no other place in the world. Americans and Europeans come to Bangkok, for its year-round warm weather, relatively low cost of living, and great hospitality. Now the Chinese and Indians, with their newfound wealth, are flocking in droves to this city. In comparison, squeaky-clean Singapore is too boring and Hong Kong, too expensive. I see several reasons that make Bangkok immensely popular—food, shopping, nightlife, sightseeing, and business. There is one more reason and the most important one. The infectious smile of the Thai people. But that does not surprise me at all. With the kind of divinely delicious food they have and those gorgeous girls around, everybody here should be smiling. CBS newsman Bernard Kalb spent a lot of time in Asia. He says: “Bangkok is a rejuvenating tonic; the people here seem to have found the magic elixir. Life has not been wasted on the Thais”.