If you are inspired by the UNESCO World Heritage list as a recommendation of the most interesting that the country has to offer, then Thailand has five sites listed here - the important archaeological site of Ban Chiang, the two former capitals, Ayutthaya and Sukhothai along with historical parks Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet, and two natural sites, the vast Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai forest complex and the pair of neighboring reserves Thungyai-Huay Kha Khaeng.

If a young American sociologist conducting research in the Ban Chiang area had not tripped over a protruding root in 1966, the world might have been deprived of a find that changed the history of archaeology. The circles between which he landed when he fell turned out to be the necks of buried vessels. A real surprise awaited the experts when Thailand sent samples of findings from Ban Chiang to the University of Pennsylvania for examination. According to the conclusion of the American analysis, the vessels came from the period of 3000 BC. This would mean that Thailand entered the Bronze Age 700 years before Mesopotamia. Although the use of newer methods eventually pushed the dating to somewhere around 2000 BC, these findings corrected the previous view of the territory of today's Thailand as a completely insignificant region compared to the great civilizations of India and China...