Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand

 

After a year of unrest, Bangkok has been restored to the World’s Best list, where it clung to the No. 1 spot from 2010 to 2013. Bustle may be an understatement here, where sweet and spicy street food perfumes the avenues and gilded Buddhist temples stand in dramatic juxtaposition to slick skyscrapers. It’s frenetic, colorful, and a curious amalgamation of past and present: tuk-tuks and monks clad in saffron-hued robes fill the streets at dawn, their reflections cast in the steel and glass high-rises. At night, head to Sukhumvit Soi 38 for an equally vibrant street-side feast, where pedestrians elbow up to tables for fat rice noodles, mango sticky rice, and pathong ko (Thai doughnuts) with pandan leaf custard. Seize a moment of serenity at the Wat Suthat temple, the Himalayan-style art gallery, Serindia, or on a long-tail boat tour along the Chao Phraya River.