Bangkok, Thailand
Thailand is a beautiful country! I’ve been here 2 weeks and have quickly grown to appreciate the people, the climate, and the culture. The people seem to be very friendly, engaging, open, and welcoming. The climate³ is mainly tropical wet (rainy season stretches from mid-May to mid-October) and tropical dry (mid-October to mid-February). The culture stresses respect for the elderly, those in leadership, and especially the royal family.
I thought I’d provide some details about the country that might help you to better understand and appreciate Thailand as well.
Country Name¹: officially Kingdom of Thailand (formerly known as Siam)
Government¹: nominally a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy but 2014 coup established a de facto military dictatorship. I’ve heard that elections are promised to return next year.
Capital City: Bangkok
Currency: Baht (currently trading at 1 US Dollar = 33 Thai Baht)
Official language: Thai
Spoken languages¹: Isan; Kam Mueang; Pak Tai
Ethnic Groups¹:
- Thai
∟ 34.1% Central Thai
∟ 24.9% Khon Isan[2]
∟ 9.9% Khon Muang
∟ 7.5% Southern Thai - 14% Thai Chinese
- 12% Others
Religion¹:
- 94.50% Buddhism
- 4.29% Islam
- 1.17% Christianity
- 0.03% Hinduism
- 0.01% Unaffiliated
Interesting statistics: 50th largest country by total area¹ (198K sq-miles) and 20th most populous country² (69.0M; 2017 data).
Foods: Rice is a main staple. “In 2017, seven Thai dishes appeared on a list of the “World’s 50 Best Foods” — a online poll of 35,000 people worldwide by CNN Travel. Thailand had more dishes on the list than any other country. They were: tom yam goong (4th), pad Thai (5th), som tam (6th), massaman curry (10th), green curry (19th), Thai fried rice (24th) and moo nam tok (36th).”⁴
Thai Flag:
Bordering countries: Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia
Time Zone: Indochina Time (ICT; UTC+7) — currently 11 hours ahead of my home in NC,USA (EST)
Sources
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand#Climate
(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_cuisine
#IBMCSC #CSCThailand3 #Thailand
