Introduction
The capital is Bangkok or Krung Thep (City of Angels), the spiritual, symbolic and physical heart of the nation and home to seven million people.
To
the north is Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city and its oldest,
for it was founded in the late 13th century and is one of the oldest
continually inhabited settlements in the country.
Ban Chiang in the north-east, 50 kilometres from Udon Thani, is where archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Bronze Age civilization that flourished about 5,000 years ago. Nearby is Nakhon Ratchasima, or Khorat for short, which is also enmeshed by history for it was part of the ancient Khmer empire.
Further south, in the Andaman Sea, is Phuket, Thailand's largest and most southern island. The twin Phi Phi islands in Krabi province are some 20 kilometres south-east of Phuket, while Samui, in the Gulf of Thailand, is one of a group of more than 80 tropical islands, only a few of which are inhabited.
