Overview
Bangkok is the capital and most important city in Thailand, with a population of over 10 million people. Thanks to its growing economic development and massive popularity as an international tourist destination, it has become one of Southeast Asia’s most influential and modern cities. Located on the banks of the country’s main river, Chao Phraya, the city relied on a wide system of canals – khlong in Thai – for transport between the 16th and 19th centuries, leading to its nickname as the Venice of the East. On the subject of names, Bangkok’s full Thai name has the Guinness World Record for “longest place name”! But at 168 letters of archaic language, most locals call it the much simpler Krung Thep, which translates roughly as “City of Angels”.
