I was stuck in the traf­fic for two and half hours last Fri­day after I left the office. Pre­vi­ously, the worst case was took me an hour to get home! >

The traf­fic in the Sukhumvit area, where I am liv­ing is get­ting worse and worse espe­cially dur­ing rush hours. While sit­ting in the car, I thought I should write some­thing about Bangkok since I have been liv­ing in the city for a long time. After I finally got back home, I put my thoughts together and fin­ished this Amaz­ing Bangkok Thai­land ram­bling.

Bangkok is a city of over 10 mil­lion peo­ple. It is the cap­i­tal of Thai­land, a coun­try of over 60 mil­lion peo­ple. Thai­land is know as The Land of Smiles for its happy peo­ple, partly because of this, it attracts many peo­ple from around world to come here to visit, work, invest, vaca­tion and have fun.

I love this city for its diverse cul­ture, the food, antiques and ancient ruins. It is the noise dirty city. With a rep­u­ta­tion seedy nightlife, but that’s not part of my life.

Bangkok is the eco­nomic cen­ter of Thai­land, dom­i­nat­ing the country’s econ­omy and dwarf­ing other urban cen­ters. It is the place where all trends orig­i­nate, where all roads meet, an exag­ger­a­tion of every aspect of life in the kingdom.

It is home to the head­quar­ters of all Thailand’s large com­mer­cial banks and finan­cial insti­tu­tions. It is also the finan­cial cap­i­tal of one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Bangkok is Thailand’s prin­ci­pal inter­na­tional gate­way, the major domes­tic hub, and a des­ti­na­tion in its own right.

For peo­ple who are liv­ing in Bangkok, we know it is an amaz­ing city. With over abun­dance of high end shop­ping malls. It has highly devel­oped pub­lic trans­porta­tion sys­tem, pro­vid­ing con­ve­nient access to lux­ury con­do­mini­ums and hotels. In con­trast, to the mod­ern shop­ping in empo­ri­ums, there is the fab­u­lous week­end mar­ket and night mar­ket. It is a shopper’s heaven with any­thing from name-brand lux­ury items, which of course knock offs, to fine local hand­i­crafts, antiques, and jewelery.

Beside that, Bangkok’s peo­ple are polite, easy­go­ing and friendly. It is easy to find deli­cious food with vari­ety choices. Bangkok has a rep­u­ta­tion of hav­ing the widest selec­tion of restau­rants in the world.

Bangkok never sleeps. There some­thing to do 24 hours a day. If you are a back­packer, sit down at a café on Khao San Road at mid­night and have a beer or a meal.Or if you want to clear your mind or stay awake, then you shop at a 24 hours super market.

The city has its unique life-style with inter­est­ing muse­ums and stun­ning tem­ples. With rov­ing monks share space with cell phone-wielding socialites. It has beau­ti­ful beaches, golf courses and spas. Plus dif­fer­ent kinds of pubs and bars to keep you going all night.

For out­siders, it is a trop­i­cal metrop­o­lis, which is also one of the most traveler-friendly cities in Asia. The first thing that strikes new vis­i­tors is the oppres­sive heat. Even though the traf­fic is heavy, because the unique of Bangkok, from your car, you can see exotic orchids and ven­dors offer­ing deli­cious fruit.

Thai­land has its own unique for­mal box­ing, know as Muay Thai or Thai kick box­ing. The sport has spread to many other coun­tries around the world. Other coun­tires has its own unique fight­ing style, such as Karate in Japan, and Kung Fu in China. Muay Thai takes five rounds per match and three min­utes dura­tion. A match is decided by a knock­out or by points.

Well, there are just so many things to write about this amaz­ing place. Bangkok, for many, rep­re­sents the quin­tes­sen­tial Asian cap­i­tal. Saffron-robed monks, gar­ish neon signs, grace­ful Thai archi­tec­ture, spicy dishes, col­or­ful mar­kets, traf­fic jams, and the trop­i­cal cli­mate come together in a happy coincidence.

No one leaves Bangkok with a mediocre and impres­sion — you either love or hate this place.

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