The basic things to know about Thailand

If you need or want to know the necessary things about Thailand, then you really should read this article!

Thailand is not very big with its 513 000 sqkm, only rank 50 worlwide. The same size of France and the state of California, and a little smaller than U.S. state of Texas. I visited Thailand in March, and I was very enthusiastic. Here are the basics.

It is located in south east Asia, and the tourism in Thailand has been booming since decades. It attracts much more tourists than its neighbours due to the geographic variety, low prices and good hotels.

The exotic Thailand was long time associated with sex tourism, which is not fair, because it is not the country’s main attractions. It has mountains, plains, beaches, islands(e.g. the Krabi islands, with its Phi Phi Don Island).

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

If you want to travel to Thailand, there are three basic things to respect:

• do not allow yourself to say anything wrong about the King and the royalty, the punishments are very bad
• if you learn something words in the Thai language, the locals will appreciate it very much
• best time to go is February and March, and the worst between July and September(very uncomfortable due to the mansoon, which causes heavy rains)

Until 1938 Thailand was known as Siam. The Thailand history is long, rich and interesting. Its study worths separate posts, and I am only making this introduction to you:

• people lived here since 10000 years
• in the Medium Age many neighboring kingdoms fought to conquer Thailand, but they only succeed for short periods of time(Khmere for example)
• in the XVIIth century started the european influence, with the portuguese
• unlike to its neighbors, Thailand was never a colony! The explanation resides in the ability of local rulers who took profit from the British-France colonial rivalty
• during the WWII Thailand was invaded by the Japanese, becoming one of their ally. Inside emerged and developped a guerilla against Japanese
• 95 % of the thai are budhist. The other religions are muslims, christian and jewish.
• after the war Thailand became a near U.S. ally and started developping its economy
• Thailand is one of the asian tigers( new developped countries), having high developpment rates
• in 1997 Thailand was seriously hit by the Asia financial crisis. A baht(thai national curency) peaked up at 56 baht/dollar( compare to the prior 25 baht /dollar).
• Thai capital is Bangkok, a giant megacity, one of the world’s biggest. From country’s 63 000 000 inhabitants, almost one third live in the capital.

Now you know the basics about Thailand! Try your best to visit it, it is worthy, for sure.