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THAILAND is a feast for the senses: it's home to the finest street food, ancient ruined temples and beaches so beautiful they scarcely seem real

BANGKOK

Best for street food

The queue of hungry people can barely be seen behind the smoke and steam rising from the boiling pans and spitting grills of the street stall.

Three men work furiously, serving up bowls of a hot, peppery Thai pork broth called kuay jap nam sai, one of Bangkok's most popular dishes. Its spicy tang floods the air, mixing with the scent of roasted nuts being stirred by an elderly woman and the sweetly rotting smell of a spiky durian fruit.

Tucking into a plate of cooked-to-order noodles or skewers of sizzling meat is a daily ritual here. It seems that every street corner has at least one vendor, their charcoal grills and scorching woks hissing with stir-fried vegetables, charred meats, pungent spices and delicate sweets.

And while money can buy you a lot of things in Bangkok, it can't help you jump the queue: street cleaners and market traders patiently line up alongside office workers and suited financial whizkids.

"I've been here for 30 minutes," says one man, glancing at his watch. "But it's worth the wait."

His turn finally arrives, and he grabs his steaming bowl of soup, ladles green chilli and garlic sauce on top, then squeezes on a packed bench.

There are food stalls around Victory Monument and busy Charoen Krung Rd, but it is in Chinatown's tightly knit maze of narrow streets Bangkok gathers when its collective belly rumbles. Here, Thai vendors dishing out green and red curries or flat rice noodles with meat, stand shoulder-to-shoulder with cooks from the city's Chinese population, serving dishes such as bird's nest soup. Barrow boys wheel carts between rows of bubbling cauldrons and tables piled high with spring rolls and chicken kebabs. ....

SUKHOTHAI

Best for ruins

Sukhothai is a six-hour drive north from Bangkok through the paddy fields of central Thailand.

Each of the Buddha's long, tapered fingers is the size of a man. They rest on his gigantic right knee, close to the temple floor, while his other hand lies upturned on his lap. His face is beatific, his ear lobes dangling almost to his chin. Two Thai visitors enter the walled shrine and kneel before the vast deity. One lights the end of an incense stick and bends low to the ground in prayer. The other places a small square of gold leaf on the Buddha's index finger, glittering in the late afternoon sunlight. The great fingertip is now almost entirely covered in gold, thanks to legions of pilgrims who have visited this place: the ancient temple site of Wat Si Chum, in the ruined city of Sukhothai........ keep reading ..... http://ln.is/DDiuV