But why Thailand in particular? Can we not find what we are looking for in other places perhaps Paris, or maybe Tahiti, or any of the thousands of dream spots around the world?

We all search for that place in the sun where we can find those things that appeal to us the most, whether it be our mental and emotional requirements or our physical and worldly needs. Thailand offers these.

Look at the image that Thailand presents to the world. It's one of enchantment and excitement: a land of golden temples, with tiny bells tinkling in the breeze; a country with lofty mountains, tropical forests and endless off shore islands; a nation of smiling people and happy children, and monks in saffron robes moving in silent animation; a country interlaced with rivers and canals, called klongs, with rice barges, "rafts" of teak logs, ferryboats and river buses all gliding along in a kaleidoscope of changing colours. It's a Mecca for shoppers looking for the exotic, for superlative silks and gemstones, and intricately decorated objects; a country of tropical resorts with palms and white sand beaches; a country with great food.

A few years back, a large Buddha, being moved to a new location, cracked.

At a press conference, writer Robin Dannhorn, an expat who lives in Bangkok, was asked why he chose Bangkok to work and live. We expected an erudite answer that would be deep and psychological. Instead he simply said, "On the tiny soi where I live, a cock crows in the morning and during the day chickens scratch in the dirt." Robin lives off Silom Road, with all its high-rises, Macdonald's and shopping malls at hand.

Both these remarks have something to say for Bangkok. To the Thais, the residents of Bangkok, this may not be meaningful, but to the foreigner, who may come from cities littered with graffiti, it is. Bangkok has the standards of an international city, and yet it can be rustic. You find people fishing in the river that runs through the heart of the city, and even in the small klongs. And where else but in Bangkok can you see elephants walking down main thoroughfares. Anything can happen in Bangkok, and does.

Thailand is art that's seen everywhere. One expat told me he doesn't need to buy paintings to decorate his apartment in Bangkok. All he needs do is open a window. "Everywhere is a painting," he said. And how true! Glittering temples, so numerous that no matter where you are, there are always one or two in view. Shrines and stupa tower, protruding above shops or glimpsed between modern high-rise buildings, poking up from forested hilltops, jutting up on rocky shores.

The irony is that these places stand side by side with magnificent five-star hotels, shopping plazas with brand names, cinemas with the latest movies and theatre houses with Broadway plays, and vast green parks and open areas.

The mood of Bangkok was captured in print by a seaman who sailed up the Chao Phraya River a hundred years ago. "One early morning we steamed up the innumerable bends, passed the shadow of the great gilt pagoda, and reached the outskirts of town.

There it was, spread largely on both banks, the oriental capital which had yet suffered no white conqueror.