For all the cultural and culinary treats the city offers, a few days in Bangkok is liable to leave you feeling frazzled. So it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with some of the more peaceful destinations that lie nearby, says Lee Cobaj in National Geographic Traveller.
Stay if you can at Roukh Kiri Khao Yai, where the 12 villas have “pared-back” cream-and-teak interiors and private pools. Visit the excellent 129 Art Museum, and the GranMonte Vineyard, one of a handful of wineries defying the area’s intense tropical climate; and venture into the rainforest of Khao Yai itself, where rangers will help you spot a host of rare creatures, including wild Asian elephants, flying lorises, and oriental pied hornbills, with their enormous banana-like beaks.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
On the way back to Bangkok, make a detour to Ayutthaya, one of Asia’s most spectacular archaeological sites. The capital of Siam between the 14th and 18th centuries, it was home to a million people at its height, and its “resplendent” ruins – including palaces, temples (above) and gargantuan statues – stretch across a square mile around the Chao Phraya River.
Nearby is the 19th century palace of King Rama V, a “fairytale” sight. Stay at Sala Bang Pa-In, a pleasant riverside hotel, and eat out in the town around the ruins; its restaurants were showered with more Bib Gourmand awards than Bangkok in the 2022 Michelin Guide.
InsideAsia (insideasiatours.com) has a seven-night trip from £1,272pp, incl. flights.
-
5 cinematic cartoons about Bezos betting big on 'Melania'Cartoons Artists take on a girlboss, a fetching newspaper, and more
-
The fall of the generals: China’s military purgeIn the Spotlight Xi Jinping’s extraordinary removal of senior general proves that no-one is safe from anti-corruption drive that has investigated millions
-
Why the Gorton and Denton by-election is a ‘Frankenstein’s monster’Talking Point Reform and the Greens have the Labour seat in their sights, but the constituency’s complex demographics make messaging tricky
-
Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
-
American Psycho: a ‘hypnotic’ adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classicThe Week Recommends Rupert Goold’s musical has ‘demonic razzle dazzle’ in spades
-
Properties of the week: houses near spectacular coastal walksThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, Devon and Northumberland
-
Melania: an ‘ice-cold’ documentaryTalking Point The film has played to largely empty cinemas, but it does have one fan
-
Nouvelle Vague: ‘a film of great passion’The Week Recommends Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave
-
Wonder Man: a ‘rare morsel of actual substance’ in the Marvel UniverseThe Week Recommends A Marvel series that hasn’t much to do with superheroes
-
Is This Thing On? – Bradley Cooper’s ‘likeable and spirited’ romcomThe Week Recommends ‘Refreshingly informal’ film based on the life of British comedian John Bishop
-
A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between the Wars – history at its most ‘human’The Week Recommends Alwyn Turner’s ‘witty and wide-ranging’ account of the interwar years
