Thailand: One of world"s finest destinations

My initial impression of Bangkok was disappointing. Just outside the airport there ran a river of incredible muddiness all the way through the city to the Hyatt Regency hotel, which was lovely. The second impression was the staggering traffic jam indicating perhaps the rising status of Thailand as a fast developing or fast industrializing state. It is now one of the best in Asia and is well on the way to becoming an Asian Tiger just like its neighbors Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. China, the mainland, is something else altogether as it is the second economic superpower in the world and the biggest in Asia. India is expected to be the second unless it can control its current turmoil and settle down before the general elections.
Once I reached the Hyatt I began to find out where I should go with the help of the hotel concierge. Since I had my family I had to choose carefully and I let the concierge know that. He was an excellent adviser throughout my stay.We explored the hotel and garden the first day and had a special Thai dinner at night choosing to stay indoors until after breakfast the second day.
The city was crowded but not so forbidding as at first sight so after a late lunch I called by friend, the editor in chief of the main English language daily Bangkok Post, who gave me a solid briefing of the political and economic situation in the country, which I translated into Arabic and filed for our daily Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.
The country was full of tourists just as it is at present and the hotel had the usual hustle and bustle of great hotels. We hired a hotel taxi and told him to take us to the best places. I was surprised that there was still a hotel called Siam Intercontinental although the name of the country had changed from Siam to Thailand in 1939, even though the world kept referring to Siam until recently, which had a much more romantic resonance than just the land of Thais.
Thailand is a constitutional monarchy ruled by popular king Rama who has been ruling the country since 1946. He is extremely revered and also feared although he does not intervene in Thai politics except to mediate and calm down turbulent politics. And I still remember vividly a photograph sent by the agencies showing his prime minister crawling on his back and dragging himself toward the king who was berating him angrily while the man shivered without daring to raise his eyes toward the monarch. To most people it must have been shocking but to the Thais it was their way of showing respect. The queen who is equally admired used to be one of the most beautiful in the world, according to Life magazine at the time of her marriage. Now age has taken its toll on both of them.
Even while it is developing fast, Thailand is essentially a tourist paradise with over fifteen million visitors every year spending over fourteen billion dollars and Bangkok was called the world’s best city by world travel magazines as it ranked only fourth after New York, London and Paris in terms of the number of visitors.
But these numbers seem to vary from one magazine to the other, although I would rank it certainly one of the finest destinations and even more exciting than most Western cities despite the poor reputation that it had earned during the Vietnam war in the sixties. The reason is that the US armed forces chose Thailand as a holiday destination for its hundreds of thousands of soldiers who were serving in the ill-fated war when the North invaded the south and the US tried to stem the tide by expelling the northern armies together with their Chinese allies but failed to do so.
Huge losses cost the Americans thousands of men and piles of equipment including thousands of aircraft of all sorts. Finally, the US had to withdraw from the battlefield marking one of its rare military losses in its history. But the army’s rest and recuperation scheme branded Thailand with an indelibly nasty reputation throughout the world. Still it is a remarkable country to visit for a family. I opted for its wonderful seaside resort of Pattaya which is reachable by bus from Bangkok in about two and a half hours. It has lovely beaches, great hotels and pleasant walking by the sea. We chose not to stay overnight unlike what we did in Penang in Malaysia which is cleaner, fresher and certainly more prosperous on account of the influx of rich Chinese who left Hong Kong to settle there and found a warm welcome.
City tours are rewarding because they take us to some of the most magnificent ancient buildings. Vimamek in Dusti Thani is famous as the world largest teak building while the Jim Thompson house provides an example of traditional Thai architecture as it is described in the country’s profile. Taken with other national landmarks, they make the city a virtual museum. Add to it the open air shops and the nightlife business clamor of Khao San road and you have a day and night sensation of everything you desire without the seedy side of other areas, which are avoided.
It is also advisable to avoid some so called jewelry shops showing polished jewels that is mainly fake glass, which you will only discover upon returning home.

Thailand: One of world"s finest destinations