Bangkok. Thailand

It’s the contradictions that give Bangkok its rich, complex personality. Climate-controlled mega-malls are side-by-side with 200-year-old village cottages; gilded Buddhist temples share space with neon-lit red-light lanes; long-tail boats plying the royal river and pass the slow moving traffic; and rooftop restaurants overlook streets teeming with foodcarts. As Bangkok races ahead, these contrasts will never stop giving the city with its unique and ever-changing strain of culture.