Bangkok makes the shortlist of the World's Best Cities

[bigbamboo]

Given that the final poll will be in the hands of travellers and not 'experts' I guess most of the surprises will be eliminated through lack of interest or lack of knowledge.

So I'd hazard a guess that London ( because it's a truly interesting city to visit ) or Bangkok ( because business executives love it's distractions) will feature very highly.

[chrisrazz]

Of all the cities I've had the pleasure of visiting, Bangkok has it's appeal, but is not a city I would be excited about living in. 30 years ago maybe, but not now. For lifestyle, beauty, cleanliness and ability to find well paid work Sydney ranks highly in my opinion. I lived on Balmoral Beach, took a ferry to The Rocks, worked in an heritage listed building, my office boasted panoramic views of the Harbour Bridge and The Opera House. I have happily traded all that for the simple life. It takes all sorts I suppose.

[Card]

Seoul, South Korea; Shenzhen, China

Definitely another metric at work here. I cant think of too many major cities in the Asia-Pacific region (Sydney included) that wont be completely unlivable within 30 years at current growth rates - happy to hear otherwise.

well, as a resident of central BKK for the last 10 years I can vouch for the fact that it has actually got better and probably get even better with time as the MRT and BTS are going to be widely expanded. Air quality, public transport, bicycle lanes, have made it much easier to get around - and OMG who would have thought they would have a public bicycle system 10 years ago? And no smoking policy is working fine in places I go. Entertainment, alcohol and food prices have only recently increased a bit, condo prices i believe are stagnant and I am paying less in rent for a bigger and better place than I did 10 years ago. High end shopping has greatly improved with Paragon etc.

[Prbkk]

Including Doha and Shenzen makes it ridiculous. On the other issue, the Chinese have been give etiquette for tourists brochures, warning them what NOT to do overseas. Nose picking is high on the list. I don't know what they must think when they get here because for Thais it is a habit of epic, almost Olympic proportions

quote name="HeijoshinCool" post="6959311" timestamp="1382610534"]

Beats me how anyone could willingly spend more than a day in Bangkok.

I really enjoy Bangkok for 3 or 4 days; JJ, Emporium, Dusit zoo; but world class, it ain't.

Two weeks ago I passed through. I wanted some western food. Went to a fancy Japanese establishment knowing I'd pay through the teeth.

Sure enough, the Ramen in Sukhumvit cost more than Tokyo's very famous, and oldest, ramen shop.

Both have open kitchens, I sat at the bar overlooking the cooking process.

Here's the difference:

In Tokyo, the chef did not duck down behind the stainless steel island (but still in plain view of us at the bar) halfway through preparing my meal, and pick his nose.

I walked out. So did the lady sitting next to me.

Nope, not world class.

[TianBlade]

Or any other city in the world, not only in Asia. Writing this from Brussels: a number of excellent restaurants, cheep beer, but quite on the downturn, dilapidated areas abound, dirty streets, metro stations reeking of piss ...

Great hotels, restaurants, bars, cinemas. Like the BTS. Pretty girls. Good medical care. Fantastic shopping. Relatively cheap. Great weather. Good sightseeing.

Now, before anyone replies with a long list of all the things that are wrong with BKK: I am aware of that, but show me a city in Asia that does not have lots of things wrong with it one way or another?

[HeijoshinCool]

... I wanted some western food. Went to a fancy Japanese establishment ...

That was a good place to start.

Got me there. Yeah, shoulda said non-Thai food.

But Japan is west of Thailand, if you go the long way.

[Angeledge777]

I've seen a real shortlist of the world's best cities a week ago and Bangkok wasn't there at all. Who can say they can compete with Quebec city, Budapest and Madrid. Not so long ago, I've read on thaivisa forum that a shortlist placed Thailand first when it comes to copied goods, even better than Canada, the US and the UK. At the end, it worth what it worth, something to clean your bottom with, not more!

[Emdog]

If they leave out cities like Seattle from their choices, it's like saying Bangkok is the best item on a McDonald's menu. I like Bangkok, btw

[seancbk]

Seoul, South Korea; Shenzhen, China

Definitely another metric at work here. I cant think of too many major cities in the Asia-Pacific region (Sydney included) that wont be completely unlivable within 30 years at current growth rates - happy to hear otherwise.

well, as a resident of central BKK for the last 10 years I can vouch for the fact that it has actually got better and probably get even better with time as the MRT and BTS are going to be widely expanded. Air quality, public transport, bicycle lanes, have made it much easier to get around - and OMG who would have thought they would have a public bicycle system 10 years ago? And no smoking policy is working fine in places I go. Entertainment, alcohol and food prices have only recently increased a bit, condo prices i believe are stagnant and I am paying less in rent for a bigger and better place than I did 10 years ago. High end shopping has greatly improved with Paragon etc.

I agree. Bangkok definitely deserves to be on the list, but I can't figure out why Hong Kong and Singapore are not there also....

Before I moved here I lived in Hong Kong for 35 years. I've now lived in Bangkok for 5 years and aside from frustrations over the lack of decent high speed internet, I'm loving it here more and more. I'd even go so far as to say I like somethings about Bangkok more than Hong Kong (super cheap rents here being the obvious).

Now if Bangkok had faster internet it would be almost perfect.

[TheSpade]

And I'm maybe not that well travelled, but I've never even heard of Mendoza, Argentina

They only produce some of the best wine in the world and are very famous for it.

A nice glass of Argentinian Malbec would go down a treat right now actually.

The city is dull as dishwater though. Though I was sick as a dog for about the whole week I was there so I was limited to how much exploring I could do.

Edited October 24, 2013 by TheSpade

[AYJAYDEE]

best for what? what were the judging criteria?

[kevvy]

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I dont know how Chicago got on there. Lived there for over two years. Couldnt wait to get out of the place.

[MrWorldwide]

I have totally different priorities when it comes to 'live vs visit', and I naively assumed that was the case for almost every sane TVer out there. I don't mind a (sunny) weekend in Sydney - grew up there - but live there ? I would put that on par with wanting to live in central Jakarta - someone would want to be paying me a hell of a lot of money AND paying my rent. There are some things money cant buy, and sanity is one of them

[AYJAYDEE]

I have totally different priorities when it comes to 'live vs visit', and I naively assumed that was the case for almost every sane TVer out there. I don't mind a (sunny) weekend in Sydney - grew up there - but live there ? I would put that on par with wanting to live in central Jakarta - someone would want to be paying me a hell of a lot of money AND paying my rent. There are some things money cant buy, and sanity is one of them

but its a survey of CITIES. surely sydney is no worse than the others on the list.

[kwaussie]

Like Emdog think Seattle is great and so two San Francisco, Auckland, Brisbane or Gold Coast

Love Thailand but only short visit Bangkok as do all my friends

[pomchop]

Start a website and call yourself some catchy name like: World Travel Experts. Put out list after list ranking worlds best cities, best food, best looking girls, etc etc....be sure and add in a bunch of cities that make people scratch their heads and think..."you've got to be kidding"....then hope that your website link gets posted and out of curiousity people will click increasing your traffic and your revenues. Then they will post like we have done saying how can you possibly include this or that city and leave out this or that. Try and get a bit of controversy going to further increase the clicks.

Sorry but I do not believe that 100 million people "voted" for anything from this website unless you count robot votes.

TV represents a lot of people from a lot of countries. How many of you had ever even HEARD of this 7 Wonders site before?

I've no problem with someone trying to rank cities etc but strongly question the agenda and methods of this particular site. If you want to be taken seriously then at least provide some criteria as to how the rankings were determined.

Edited October 24, 2013 by pomchop

[Jasun]

I'd vote for BKK as a world top city, but that list is balls.

[MrWorldwide]

I have totally different priorities when it comes to 'live vs visit', and I naively assumed that was the case for almost every sane TVer out there. I don't mind a (sunny) weekend in Sydney - grew up there - but live there ? I would put that on par with wanting to live in central Jakarta - someone would want to be paying me a hell of a lot of money AND paying my rent. There are some things money cant buy, and sanity is one of them

but its a survey of CITIES. surely sydney is no worse than the others on the list.

Agreed, but we have NO CRITERIA to work from. Let's assume that the following were criteria - how would Sydney and Bangkok fare ?

- transport infrastructure

- public safety, particularly for women at night

- hygiene

- perceived corruption

- average cost of a restaurant meal

- average cost of a basket of groceries

etc etc

I'm not saying that the above set is representative of what most TVers are looking for in a city, but the linked 'survey' doesn't attempt to provide anything beyond some bogus claim re the survey size. It's a little odd, as the OP normally makes reasoned, well thought out posts - I guess he just got caught up in the moment in this case. No harm, no foul, but I put zero faith in this 'survey'.

[AYJAYDEE]

I have totally different priorities when it comes to 'live vs visit', and I naively assumed that was the case for almost every sane TVer out there. I don't mind a (sunny) weekend in Sydney - grew up there - but live there ? I would put that on par with wanting to live in central Jakarta - someone would want to be paying me a hell of a lot of money AND paying my rent. There are some things money cant buy, and sanity is one of them

but its a survey of CITIES. surely sydney is no worse than the others on the list.

Agreed, but we have NO CRITERIA to work from. Let's assume that the following were criteria - how would Sydney and Bangkok fare ?

- transport infrastructure

- public safety, particularly for women at night

- hygiene

- perceived corruption

- average cost of a restaurant meal

- average cost of a basket of groceries

etc etc

I'm not saying that the above set is representative of what most TVers are looking for in a city, but the linked 'survey' doesn't attempt to provide anything beyond some bogus claim re the survey size. It's a little odd, as the OP normally makes reasoned, well thought out posts - I guess he just got caught up in the moment in this case. No harm, no foul, but I put zero faith in this 'survey'.

i put less than that but i would still expect that sydney, as a big city, would rate as one of the better places to live

[Bagwan]

Great hotels, restaurants, bars, cinemas. Like the BTS. Pretty girls. Good medical care. Fantastic shopping. Relatively cheap. Great weather. Good sightseeing.

Now, before anyone replies with a long list of all the things that are wrong with BKK: I am aware of that, but show me a city in Asia that does not have lots of things wrong with it one way or another?

There is NOTHING fantastic about shopping. Only a masochist would think so. It should be reserved to be an exclusive occupation/pasttime for the female element.

So the state of the clogged pavements, the kamikaze drivers and the corrupt police are OK then?