Thailand

Officially called the Kingdom of Thailand was up to the year of 1939 known as Siam. Nowadays people also call it „the land of smiles“ 🙂

Thailand is located in south-east Asia with Myanmar on its left, Laos in the north, Cambodia on its right and the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia in the south, with Bangkok as it´s captiol.

It is known for it´s beautiful beaches, grand temples covered with buddhas, old ruines, always smiling people and the best food.

We´ve been so far to the south of Thailand – Koh Pangan and Koh Tao, and to the North of Thailand – Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Mae Klong.

Some practical information:
currency – the currency in Thailand is called baht (1€ = 33,58 baht). Hotels and big shops accept the major credit cards, but we recommend to carry cash with you, cause often you won´t be able to pay with your credit card.

electricity – standard voltage is 220 V and the standard frequency is 50 Hz, there are mainly three types of plugs and sockets used (Type A, B and C). We were carrying an adapter with us, but we didn´t use it. We also recommend to bring a power distributer, cause often there is only one socket in a hotel/hostel room.

language – it´s called thai. looks really beautiful, but you won´t be able to pronounce it correctly 🙂 in Hotels, big restaurants and shops you will be able to communicate in english, but not everybody understands the english language. We used our hands in such situations and got everything we needed, always 😀

visas – we recommend to check before your flight, if a visa is required. Austrians don´t need one, we got a form to fill out on our flight, which we had to show at the immigration centre. We were granted a 30-day-visa.

etiquette – don´t disrespect the monarchy or the king in any way, it is a criminal offence!!
if you want to visit a temple, wear decent clothing, remove your shoes when you are entering, sit on your feet (they should not face the buddha)
and in general, be careful where you point your feet. They are the lowest partt of the body – literally and metaphorically