Located in Southeast Asia, Thailand is 100-percent situated in the tropics. It’s hot and humid and, sometimes, there’s torrential rain. The capital city of Bangkok is a cacophony of color and humanity: traffic jams, food markets, flocks of monks in saffron-colored robes, temple spires, and gaudy neon. And all of that only enhances its appeal.
Thailand is blessed with otherworldly beauty. From the hills and forests in the north to the terraced rice fields in the central plains, it seems to embody every imaginable shade of green. But hit the coasts, and the colors explode into other rainbow colors: fuchsia flowers, aquamarine waters, red-brown rock formations, and blindingly-white sand beaches.
That vibrancy is reflected in the food (colorful, spicy), the people (friendly, Buddhist), the wildlife (diverse, majestic), and all the activities they invite you to try: hiking, cooking, snorkeling, splashing, eating, drinking, living.
In this episode, we discuss how a trip to Thailand will engage all your senses, learn about a jewelry heist for the ages, talk about a giant Buddha, and daydream about Bangkok. We also recommend five great books that transported us there on the page, including a tragi-comic coming-of-age story, a dreamy family saga, a gritty crime novel set in Bangkok, a fresh look at Buddhism, and a cookbook that’s really a travelogue. (show notes / transcript)
Top image courtesy of SantiPhotoSS/Shutterstock.
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