Bangkok, Thailand, is one of fourteen destinations featured on Waddles' World Tour, RestMap's free daily 5-letter word puzzle. Each week's puzzles are themed around a different city, and every solve unlocks an authored travel fact about the place. The Grand Palace anchors the Bangkok week. Below are five sourced facts that turn up across the Bangkok puzzle set.
The world's largest solid gold statue was hidden for centuries under a layer of plaster. Bangkok's Golden Buddha at Wat Traimit, weighing 5.5 tons and worth over $250 million, was disguised with stucco before 1767 to protect it from Burmese invaders. Its true nature was only discovered in 1955 when movers accidentally chipped the plaster.
Source: Wikipedia Golden Buddha, Atlas ObscuraBangkok's full ceremonial name is 168 letters long — the longest city name in the world. It translates roughly to: 'City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Visvakarman at Indra's behest.'
Source: rusticpathways.com, hotels.comBangkok is sinking at a rate of 1 to 2 centimeters per year due to groundwater extraction, and it's dropping 10 times faster than sea levels are rising. The World Bank estimates that 40% of the city could be regularly flooded by 2030.
Source: SEI, Bangkok Post, PreventionWebThailand is home to roughly one-tenth of all animal species on Earth and about a quarter of its bird species — more than Europe and North America combined. Bangkok's surrounding regions contain 1,500 orchid species, making Thailand one of the world's largest orchid exporters.
Source: rusticpathways.com, contiki.comGoong Ten (Dancing Shrimp) is a Bangkok dish where live freshwater shrimp are seasoned with lime, chili, and fish sauce while still jumping — you eat them alive as they 'dance' on your plate. The dish is considered a delicacy in Northeastern Thai cuisine.
Source: adequatetravel.com, secretfoodtours.com