The World's Best City

I've never read Travel + Leisure magazine, so I have no idea what to make of their tourism ranking. That said, it's always good to be loved. Congratulations Bangkok!

"Each year readers of Travel + Leisure magazine are invited to complete an online survey to determine the best of the world’s cities, hotels, airlines, islands, spas and more.* Consistently among the top global cities in this global survey, Bangkok is the #1 destination and the winner of the World’s Best City 2008.

To give you an idea of the competition, the top 5 world cities in order are Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Sydney and Florence. Scoring is evaluated on 5 characteristics; sights, culture and arts, restaurants and food, people and value. Bangkok boasts an incredible diversity and quality of the first three characteristics, friendly people and exceptional value, all of which combined clinched the top ranking for 2008."

But then i can't help but think about another plausible yet much less glamourous explanation why Bangkok tops the list. you know, the usuals: VERY easy/lax entry; money laundering & illicit economy; differential power purchasing parity that turns the average Westerner a royalty overnight. Of course, the radical in me wants to go so far as to quote the whole exotification/commodification of culture and the nationally concerted willingness on our part to project the image of the smiley welcoming Host ("the Land of Smiles"). I don't know how much these unconsciously factor into the readers' voting decision. Seriously, for a city that doesn't have direct public transportation (train, bus route, subway) from the airport to downtown, or reliable, adequate, tourist-friendly downtown transportation (i.e. subway), it surprises me that these major drawbacks are overwhelmingly outweighed by a combination of factors like "food, art, people, culture, value" - all of which are unique to a locale and highly subjective to personal taste. Not to mention pollution, hygiene, etc. But then again, it's good to be loved! thats how "lightheartedly Thai" i can get :)

The full list can be found here.

Two of my favourite areas in Bangkok: