Sign up for exclusive roomguide.co.uk email only offers

Thailand, in Southeast Asia, is dominated by the Chao Phraya River basin, which contains Bangkok—the capital and largest city, with some 9.7 million people. Bangkok presents a distinctive Buddhist landscape, with gold-layered spires, graceful pagodas, and giant Buddha statues. To the east rises the Khorat Plateau, a sandstone plateau with poor soils supporting grasses and woodlands. The long southern region, connecting with Malaysia, is hilly and forested. The highest mountains are in northern Thailand, and the rich soils in the remote mountain valleys produce opium poppies.