Editor's Note

Reflections: On Superlatives

Thailand is a superlative of all things exotic and otherworldly. When I first saw the temple roofs along the Wats of the Chao Phraya River, I couldn't take my eyes off of the colorful mosaics, the reflections, the liberal use of jewel tones and gold leaf, the geometries of skylines that resembled the drippy sandcastle creations of childhood. We had entered a royal kingdom, for the 'King and I' was set here. I was living in a fiction that was somehow real. For all its traditions and formalities--the acceptance and juxtaposition of extreme nightlife, good-time bars, the ubiquitous lady-boys out front--it is a nation of contrasts.

For Bangkok and Thailand in general have long been easy prey for dramatic (and sultry) Hollywood backdrops, from French soft-core porn, to Bond spy flicks. There's a dash of everything, for everyone, in Thailand. Markets bustle with shopping wears, from cheap neon-glowy things to Burmese antiquities hushed across the volatile border. Superlatives extend to hospitality in very literal ways: the nation practically gave birth to the notion of "world's best" lists, with its luxury hotels dominating the top of such charts for years, and its bars and restaurants carry on such a legacy today. [Our visits deem the accolades warranted.]

Travel south for superlative resorts, beaches, and islands. Dramatic escarpments pepper translucent azure waters across a surreal landscape as though it were painted by Lisa Frank herself. (Unicorns not, but almost, included).

'The Beach', the 1997 Leo flick about the perfect beach was filmed here. And it was based on an actual beach that was so beautiful that travelers of this century ruined it like locusts swarming a famine. In the same movie, Leonardo DiCaprio arrives in Bangkok and ponders to himself in a western movie theater:

"The only downer is, everyone's got the same idea. We all travel thousands of miles just to watch TV and check in to somewhere with all the comforts of home, and you gotta ask yourself, what is the point of that?"

He later shows us The Beach, the eclectic charms of the nation, reminds us of worlds different than our own longing to be explored, and succeeded in tantalizing millions of us to follow suit.

Now, we aren't blind to the news: we know that there have been skirmishes on the Thai-Cambodian border earlier this month (and yes, there have been similar incidents earlier this century). Even still, we think Thailand is very safe for travellers (so long as you follow all the, sometimes obscure, laws). For this very reason, we beckon you: go be seduced, be tantalized, be mesmerized by all the everything that Thailand embodies.