Friday Funny: the longest city name in the world (clue: not Bangkok Thailand))

When I was growing up the Guinness Book of World Records always featured the longest place name in the world as some endless unpronounceable town in Wales, where the name ran so long they had to extend the railway station platform just so they could fit the full name on it.

Ok, so I made that last bit up.

But ... BUT ...

The longest city name in the world is actually the full name for Bangkok (aka known as Bangers, BKK,  even Bankok in social media circles), the bustling, mad-cap, edgy, fun, crazy, stylish capital city of Amazing Thailand.

Are you ready for this? Take a deep breath and repeat after me:

"KRUNGTHEP MAHANAKHON BOVORN RATANAKOSIN MAHINTHARAYUTTHAYA MAHADILOKPOP NOPARATRATCHATHANI BURIROM UDOMRATCHANIVETMAHASATHAN AMORNPIMAN AVATARNS ATHIT SAKKATHATTIYAVISNUKARMPRASIT."

Thais actually learn this almost like a sing-a-long nursery rhyme at school to help them remember it, jing jing.

So what does it all mean? Well, roughly “The land of angels, the great city of immortality, various of devine gems, the great angelic land unconquerable, land of nine noble gems, the royal city, the pleasant capital, place of the grand royal palace, forever land of angels and reincarnated spirits, predestined and created by the highest Deva(s).”

This name has been in place since 1782, so shame on Guinness World Records for not knowing this and attributing it earlier.

But before you rish down to your travel agent to book your flight to KRUNGTHEP MAHANAKHON BOVORN RATANAKOSIN MAHINTHARAYUTTHAYA MAHADILOKPOP NOPARATRATCHATHANI BURIROM UDOMRATCHANIVETMAHASATHAN AMORNPIMAN AVATARNS ATHIT SAKKATHATTIYAVISNUKARMPRASIT, you'll be relieved to know, Thais just call their capital by one word, Krungthep, which means City of Angels.

Of course, you can also simply request a flight to Bangkok. That works too.

Update on Sukhumhvit Soi 11, Sukhumvit Bangkok Thailand

Faithful readers of this Amazing Thailand travel blog – I know there’s one out there somewhere! – will know that one of my favourite sois (side street) in Bangkok is Sukhumvit Soi 11 which I blogged about a little while ago.

I just revisited the area, while staying at Le Fenix boutique hotel, and there’s a few places you really should know about …

The first is Bawarchi Restaurant, which is an Indian place about 100m on the right into the soi from the Sukhumvit Road Asok BTS station end. Neither the service nor surroundings are particularly flash but it’s all about the food. You know I always bang on about the Indian food in Bangkok in places such as Himali Cha Cha and Rang Mahal, well this is almost up there … but without the character, charm and ambience the others offer as part of the experience.

But if you want a damn good paneer, or chicken ticcas in gravy served to the accompaniment of lively and sultry Bollywood videos, this is the place, jing jing. Dinner for 2, with no alcohol, was 888 baht. (I know what you’re thinking – no alchohol, why not???) That's not even $30 to you for a great restaurant meal out.

If you’ve overdone the Thai curries and the Indian curries, your innards are threatening mutiny, and you just want something your poorly travelled stomach might recognize as real food, then just keep going on up the soi for a couple of hundreds metres or so till you find the Aussie Pub. Burgers and beers done just right, with football (any shape of ball you can think of) on the big screen.

That should keep you going. And then there’s still so much more to move on to in Soi 11 any time of day and night …

Read my previous Soi 11 blog here for some of the other nocturnal attractions of one of Bkk's hottest (or is that coolest?) streets.

Hangover 2: Mission Impossible - Travel in Thailand

Oh, and another thing about that movie ...

I notice the lads borrow someone's speedboat and go belting down the much-fabled Chao Phraya River in Bangkok and in about one minute of screen time are suddenly surrounded by the beautiful emerald waters of Krabi with its signature limestone upthrusts.

Attention Hollywood: that is NOT possible!

You see, the Chao Phraya feeds out below BKK into the Gulf of Thailand. A quick glance at a map tells me that is on the opposite side of Thailand's land mass from Phuket, Krabi, etc.

They would then have to go down the length of Thailand, past Hua Hin on the right, Pattaya on the left, past Koh Samui, reach Malaysia's east coast, keep going, chuck a right at the Singapore straits, cut through to Malacca and up the western side of the Malaysian peninsula.

Eventually they would go past Langkawi in north-western Malaysia before reaching again the waters of Thailand around Phuket after around 3,000km of sea travel.

By my SWAG method of estimation (Scientific Wild-Assed Guess) that would take more like 4 or 5 days at quickest, and several petrol stops, meaning the lads would have missed the wedding, jing jing.


Sorry to be so hard on an American B-movie (which I actually enjoyed a lot), but I haven't forgiven Hollywood for it's far-fetched fictional treatment of The Bridge on the River Kwai yet.

There are much quicker ways of getting to beautiful Krabi, of course. You can always fly, or take a car or bus.

Hangover 2 filmed in Bangkok and Krabi, Amazing Thailand.

This is the worst hangover yet ... the sort of drunken night out that's not even blurry, it's completely deleted from your hard drive, until you wake up and start piecing the story together piece-by-achingly--painful piece.

At which point it becomes a living (or re-lived) nightmare ...

The action (and I do mean action) mainly takes place in Amazing Thailand with Bangkok as the leading lady, and a beautiful cameo supporting role by the limestone islands and emerald waters of Krabi.

Sadly, Bkk itself is depicted all grey and squalid, whereas in real life it's only like that at day time. Just kidding. in fact the general march of marbling Bangkok over the past 5-10 years has been staggering.

Congrats to the location scout for finding a place with cockroaches that big. These things could be mistaken for elephants if they had trunks, jing jing.


Bangkok's Chinatown, Yaowarat (or "F***ing Asiatown" as they call it), gets a good working over, to the point it often feels more like an early Jackie Chan flick set in Hong Kong than Bangkok, so stylized were the street scenes. Of course, Thai girls, Bangkok bar girls, go go bars, ping pong balls and hair-trigger machine guns all get the expected role in this lad's pre-wedding night out gone massively, irretrievably wrong.

The cultural tone of the movie is probably best summed up by Alan's observation as they roar along in a song taew van towards the Chiang Mai monastery: "When a monkey nibbles on a penis, that's funny in every language!"And the well-endowed katoey lady boy scene does its bit to keep things firmly rooted in the gutter. (I won't spoil the movie for you, but the photo in the end credits of the groom-to-be on the receiving end of the ladyboy is priceless!)

That the main actor is named Stu just made all of this just a little close to the, um, bone for me.

At the upper end of the scale, the Lebua Hotel (arguably the finest hotel in Bangkok) and its 63rd floor rooftop restaurant Sirocco enjoy a starring role, replete with CIA, mafia and helicopters.

Throw in some quirky touches like, oddly, a hilariously reworked version of Billy Joel's Allentown, dripping in pathos and bodily fluids, and an inexplicable song-and-dance routine by professional thug Mike Tyson, and the Hangover 2 has got something for everyone.

Just like Bangkok, I guess.


Quick quiz: Do you think Hangover 2 will attract tourists to Thailand or put them off from coming? Love to hear your thoughts.

Amazing Thailand Grand Sale 2011 - big sale starting soon

Attention Shopaholics, crazy sale fans and bargain hunters!

 There's just over one month to go, folks, before the kick-off of the two month long Amazing Thailand Grand Sale 2011 on June 15.

Fifteen thousand, yes, 15000 shops, department stores, duty-free outlets, airlines, hotels, spas and even golf courses have signed up for what will be the 14th staging of this fun and value-filled event.

So, is this all about coming home with arms-full of branded goods and designer stuff or can shoppers who've enjoyed this sale before expect anything different?

Yes, for the first time, locally made products will be the focus, underlining two of Thailand's current economic initiatives. One is the Creative Thailand economic drive, and the other is the One Tambon One Product program. OTOP as it is known encourages each village (tambon) to specialise in the design and production of one item, which is how you end up with 1,000,000 umbrella makers in Borsang, for instance. (What, you just thought it was a coincidence?)

Other villages produce silks, handicrafts, apparel, and home-use goods, all of which will be specially featured.

OTOP is a Royal Thai Government project which supports the sales, marketing and distribution of the villages' products.

Around Bangkok you can head to the favourite haunts of JJ Mall, Chatuchak Market (the famous 'weekend market'), the gigantic Pratunam Platinum and Outlet Mall among others to find these products and tons -- truckloads and tuk tuk loads! -- more.

And it's not just in BKK of course ... it is the Amazing THAILAND Sale after all. So if you find yourself in Pattaya, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Had Yai or Hua Hin between June 15 and August 15, make sure you rev up your shopping cart and head to the designated shopping streets.

That's 7 cities for 2 months. Now that's what I call a BIG sale, jing jing.

Bangkok situation update and, er, the best rooftop bars.

Please see http://www.thailandjingjing.blogspot.com for more recent up-to-the-minute updates on the Bangkok situation and the situation in Thailand as the Thai election draws nearer. Thanks.


'Oim roolly glared we caaaim,' said a middle-aged female Aussie tourist, as the group chinked glasses at Vertigo, on the 61st floor of the Banyan Tree Hotel. It's funny how the Aussie accent at home is just the endearing Aussie accent we all know. But somehow on this romantic night it cut through the air like a chinesaw. I mean chainsaw. The group was saying how they nearly cancelled their flights after hearing 'the news' about Bangkok, but here they are enjoying a truly stunning 360-degree city night vista and quenching their thirsts with cocktails.

In fact this blog was supposed to be about 'all the bad stuff' going on in Bangkok at the moment (no, no, I'm not talking about Patpong). So we caught the Skytrain to Sala Deang station right in the middle of the Silom District. You might remember that as being one of the places I indicated might be best to avoid around this time.

Anyway, we enjoyed a really authentic Thai meal at a restaurant called Banana Leaf in Silom Complex, adjoining the BTS, before getting a tuk-tuk to the Sukhothai Hotel. Apart from a car accident, there was no sign of anything untoward, and certainly not an out of place policeman, soldier nor Red Shirt to be seen anywhere. So ...

From there we strolled to the Banyan Tree. And, boy, is Vertigo well named. I swear the skinny building was swaying in the evening breeze as we emerged on the top deck. And busy! We finally found a cushioned bench at the far end adjacent the railing. Bangkok seemed right in our faces, as we picked out the major buildings and got our bearings. Cocktails are a bit punchy at around 300-350 baht, but, hey this is a five star hotel rated by Conde Naste as one of the world's very finest. The special Jamaican coffees only added to the swaying sensation.

In a similar vein, check out Skybar and Sirroco on top of the Lebua Hotel. On the 63rd the latter holds the distinction of being the world's highest al fresco restaurant. Woah -- this is high! What an amazing difference those two floors make ... it seems like we are set well back from the action, looking at Bangkok from afar -- more like we're in a low-flying airplane -- although it is easy to pick out the Chao Phraya River coursing below. The Skybar itself is a circular bar that glows radioactively amid the plush surroundings, seeming to levitate transcendentally.

Continuing the sky theme, try Red Sky at Centara Grand Hotel, which is a chic urban bistro and lounge style set up (see photo). The lighting on the roof is one of the most amazing lights on the Bangkok skyline, as it looks like some sort of extreme Rollercoast of Death arcing over the roof of the building, glowing red and all the colours of the rainbow. Here, you are only 55 stories up, but being right downtown in the Siam area, gives you a different perspective of Bangkok again.

Anyway, we finished our night with a deliberately long and slow walk from Banyan Tree hotel down Silom Road to the MRT station Silom. Under a perfect half moon sky, with stars and the odd cloud for character, it was a lovely, peaceful night.

Now I am reading this morning's Bangkok Post (Thursday 25 March 2010) and I read where the nationwide rally in support of Thaksin, widely tipped to beheld on Verdict Day (tomorrow) -- and the subject of so much media bleating and over-reaction -- has now been deferred. Furthermore Red Shirt leader Veera Musikhapong is quoted as saying whatever their moves may be, they will be adhering to a strict code of 'non-violence, peaceful, unarmed.'

Certainly not the story I thought I was going to be writing, but, that folks, is what Bangkok is like right now. Jing jing! So another beautiful day writing around the pool then ... Oim roolly glared I caaaim, too.

PS: Footnote (May 2011): Sirroco Bar features prominently in the Hollywood movie Hangover 2 ... complete with gangsters, CI agents and helicopters. That doesn't happen there every day, trust me!