BANGKOK -- Most first-time visitors to Bangkok find Thailand's capital an overwhelming, chaotic and yet exuberant experience. Nearly 6 million people hustle along concrete canyons and tepid canals, paying their respects to Buddha in countless glittering temples and passing century-old palaces on the way to work, school and home.
New skyscrapers emulate Singapore's cityscape, but thousands of low-rise structures built after World War II are disappearing -- both iconic landmarks and anonymous, mundane structures. Residential neighborhoods and public housing estates are making way for shopping malls, while temples are repainted so often that they look new even if they were built 100 years ago. The city is in a constant state of renewal.
