I visited Thailand for three days, in the Bangkok area.  I decided the best way to see a lot of stuff quickly was with a bus tour group.

Thailand is located in southeast Asia and generally has a pretty warm climate.  It's definitely third-world, but the big cities have all the amenities you could want.  The government gets turned over regularly by coups, but they are usually fairly bloodless.

The tour group took us to several ancient Buddhist temples around Bangkok.  The city is full of ruins.  I found it fascinating.  Some structures dated back to the 1300's.  They basically looked like places you would find Indiana Jones fighting Nazis.

We also visited the old royal palace with highly intricate designs and gold leaf.  The grounds around the palace are scenic, with lots of water features and other gilded buildings.

Then we went to the new royal palace, which was even more decorated.  Because the compound was built up over so many years, the styles of one building to the next are extremely varied.  There was tons (perhaps literally) of gold leaf.

Many places required you to take off your shoes before entering.  I guess I can understand that.  It's probably how the old temples stayed so nice for so long.

The car culture of Thailand seems strange to an American.  Imagine Japanese-style modifications, but on pickup trucks.  Also, many semi trucks had little Michelin Man figurines mounted on them, some even wearing cowboy hats.  Like a lot of things about Thailand, I never figured out why.