There was a problem processing your request. Please alter the parameters of your request. Just click any blue “Edit” link and start writing! Southeast Asia with coasts on the Andaman Sea and mee krob Gulf of Thailand.

With astonishingly great food, a tropical climate, fascinating culture, majestic mountains and great beaches, Thailand is a magnet for travellers around the world, and quite rightly so. Thailand is a country of breathtaking natural beauty, incredible weather and delightfully friendly people, but also is a country plagued by internal political struggles and widespread corruption. Thailand is the country in Southeast Asia most visited by tourists, and for good reason. You can find almost anything here: thick jungle as green as can be, crystal blue waters that feel more like a warm bath than a swim in the ocean, and food that can curl your nose hairs while dancing across your taste buds.

This is not to say that Thailand doesn’t have its downsides, including the considerable growing pains of an economy where an agricultural labourer is lucky to earn 300 baht per day while the nouveaux riches cruise past in their BMWs. Chiang Mai, hill tribes, and the Golden Triangle. Get off the beaten track and discover back country Thailand, mouthwatering food, and some magnificent Khmer ruins. Beaches and islands within easy reach of Bangkok, like Pattaya, Ko Samet and Ko Chang.

Lush rainforest, hundreds of km of coastline and countless islands on both the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, plus Phuket, Chumphon, Krabi, Ko Samui, Ko Tao and more of Thailand’s famous beach spots. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been colonised by a foreign power, and is fiercely proud of that fact. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy. During World War II, while Japan conquered the rest of Southeast Asia, only Thailand was not conquered by the Japanese due to smart political moves. In alliance with Japan during World War II, Thailand became a US ally following the conflict. In September 2006, a swift and bloodless military coup overthrew populist tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra’s democratically elected but widely criticized government, exposing a fault line between the urban elite that has ruled Thailand and the rural masses that supported Thaksin.