Bangkok is the capital and most populous city of Thailand.
- Bangkok has the longest city name in the World. Locals refer to their city as Krungthep or ‘City of Angels’. The full, 169-characters long name has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest name of a place. Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahinthara Yutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udom Ratchaniwet Mahasathan Amonphiman Awatansathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukamprasit.
Roughly, this translates to :
City of angels, great city of immortals, the magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra’s behest.
- Bangkok is Home to Red Bull. The world-famous energy drink Red Bull was made in Bangkok by Chaleo Yoovidhya in 1976. He had moved from central Thailand to Bangkok with very little formal education, but managed to build a multimillion empire with the help of his Australian business partner Dietrich Mateschitz. At the time of his death in 2012, Yoovidhya was the third richest man in Thailand with an estimated wealth of USD 5 billion.
- Bangkok still has some strange old laws. Every country has a few outdated laws which didn’t quite catch up with the times, but some of the laws in Bangkok will really leave you scratching your head as to the reason they were formulated in the first place. You might inadvertently commit a crime if you:
-Leave the house without wearing underwear
-Drive a motorised vehicle bare-chested
-Use a durian fruit as a weapon; the fine levied will be determined according to the number of thorns that strike the victim
-Step on the currency, as it contains the image of the King and must not be disrespected
- Third-gender washrooms are common in Bangkok. Apart from the normal male and female washrooms, you might come across a third gender washrooms in this liberal country. Thailand is one of the first countries to introduce these for transgender men and is known to be very accepting of sexual identity and expression of its people.
