Bangkok

Bangkok began as a customs post and village on the lower Chao Phraya, on a bend that was later cut through to shorten the river. After the fall of Ayutthaya to Burmese forces in 1767, King Taksin established a new capital at Thonburi on the west bank. In 1782 Rama I, the first king of the Chakri dynasty, moved the capital to the east bank, dug canals to make an island of the royal quarter and built the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew as a deliberate recreation of what had been lost. Chinese traders already living on the site were resettled downriver, founding Yaowarat.

Through the 19th century the city grew as a port and a royal capital trading with China and, after the Bowring Treaty of 1855, with Europe. Kings Mongkut and Chulalongkorn cut the first paved roads, brought in trams, railways and electricity, abolished slavery and built the Dusit district as a European-styled quarter of boulevards and palaces. In 1932 a bloodless revolution ended absolute monarchy, and the new parliament met at the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall.

The city expanded enormously after the Second World War, driven by American spending during the Vietnam War, industrial growth and migration from the countryside; canals were filled in for roads and the population multiplied. The 1997 Asian financial crisis began with the collapse of the baht here and left half-finished towers across the skyline. The Skytrain opened in 1999 and the underground in 2004. Political conflict has repeatedly centred on Bangkok's streets, with large protests and military coups in 2006 and 2014, and in 2011 most of the northern, eastern and western districts were flooded, some of them for more than two months.

Bangkok sets the national tone. Its dialect became standard Thai, and the court traditions of Rattanakosin shaped classical dance, music and manners for the whole country. Khon, the masked drama of the Ramakien, is performed here, and the traditional massage taught at Wat Pho was added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2019. Temples remain neighbourhood institutions: monks collect alms at dawn, families mark births, ordinations and funerals at their local wat, and spirit houses stand in the forecourt of almost every building, from shophouse to skyscraper.

The city is also a Chinese city in many respects. Most Bangkokians have some Chinese ancestry, largely Teochew, and Chinese shrines, festivals and business networks are woven into daily life alongside long-established Muslim communities descended from Malay, Cham and Persian settlers, and Indian traders around Phahurat. Contemporary culture is strong and export-minded: Thai film, pop music, drag and fashion have followings across Asia, the art scene runs from the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre to converted warehouses on Charoen Krung, and a Pride parade fills Silom Road each June.

Manners matter more than the informality of the streets suggests. Calm is valued and losing one's temper in public is a loss of face; the wai, with the hands pressed together, replaces a handshake; the monarchy is treated with deference and is protected in law. Muay Thai is the national sport, fought at Bangkok's stadiums to the sound of a reed oboe and drums, and football fills the bars.

About nine million people live in the city proper and more than seventeen million in the metropolitan region that spreads into Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Samut Prakan — many times the size of any other Thai city. Bangkok holds the government, the royal court, the headquarters of most large companies, the leading universities and hospitals, and it produces a very large share of national economic output. Work ranges from finance and tourism to garment workshops, port operations and the factories of the surrounding provinces.

The day starts early to beat the traffic. Breakfast is bought from a cart, commutes of an hour or more each way are normal, and offices and malls stay open late. Housing runs from condominium towers along the rail lines to shophouses, the dense low-rise lanes called soi, and the crowded settlement behind Khlong Toei port. Many residents were born elsewhere in Thailand and travel home for Songkran and New Year, emptying the city for a few days.

Current concerns are congestion, the cost and distance of housing, air quality during the dry season, and flooding — the city sits barely above sea level on soft ground that is slowly subsiding, and the floods of 2011 inundated much of the north, east and west of the city. Bangkok is also the stage on which national politics is contested, and protests periodically fill Ratchadamnoen Avenue and the central intersections.

Bangkok is one of the world's great eating cities, and much of it happens on the pavement. Carts and small shops sell khao man gai, poached chicken over rice cooked in its stock; kuay tiao, noodle soups ordered by noodle width and broth; khao kha mu, braised pork leg over rice; som tam, the pounded green papaya salad that came from the north-east and is now everywhere; and pad thai, fried noodles with tamarind, egg and dried shrimp. Kuay tiao reua, boat noodles in a dark spiced broth, are served in small bowls near Victory Monument and along the canals.

Chinese-Thai cooking runs deep. Yaowarat's night stalls sell charcoal-grilled seafood, oyster omelettes, roast duck and goose, kuay jap in peppery pork broth and bowls of bird's-nest soup, while old coffee shops serve kafae boran, filter coffee sweetened with condensed milk. Royal-style central Thai dishes — green and massaman curries, tom yam goong, yam salads — are found in restaurants across the city, and Isan food from the north-east, with grilled meats and sticky rice, is the staple of workers' canteens.

Fruit is sold by the bag from carts, cut and chilled: mango, pineapple, guava, rose apple, and durian in the hot months. Sweets include khao niao mamuang, mango with sticky rice and coconut cream, and the egg-yolk confections such as foi thong that descend from Ayutthaya's Portuguese community. Cha yen, orange iced tea with condensed milk, and fresh coconut water are the everyday drinks.