The official name of Thailand is Kingdom of Thailand, or “Prathet Thai” in theThai language (Prathet means country). In the past, until 1939, the country was known as “Siam” (you can see in the films The King and I or Anna and the King they still use the name Siam. I love this film because it shows Thai culture and our Royal family from that period). However, and rather confusingly, it was renamed back to “Siam” from 1945 to 1949, then back to “Thailand” again on 11 May,1949. In our language “Thai” means free so Thailand can be literally translated as “ Land of the Free”. We are very proud of the fact that our country is the only country in Southeast Asia that has never been colonised. Other counties in the region - such as Malaysia, Burma and Cambodia - were colonised by Great Britain and France.
Do you know?: Thai people have a lot of respect for our King. You will see pictures of the king and queen all over the country. Their pictures are hung in homes, shops, in the streets, in taxis and anywhere else. Our current king is Rama 9. King Phumibol Adulyadej the great, who is the world's longest serving monarch.
Where we are?
Where is Thailand and how long does it take to get to our country?
The picture shows the map of Thailand from Google earth. I was taught at school that our country is shaped like an axe. Thailand sits in the centre of Southeast Asia: bordering Myanmar to the West, Laos to the NorthEast, Cambodia to the East and Malaysia to the South. At 198,000 square miles / 513,000 square kilometres, Thailand is the world's 51st-largest country. It is over double the size of the United Kingdom, similar in size to France. The country is divided into five regions: North, South, Central, East and Northeast (Isan) which are then subdivided into a total of 76 districts. With 65 million people (data from the National Statistical Office of Thailand, January 2014), it is the 20th-most-populous country in the world. 75-85% of the population are ethnically Thai and around 14% Thai Chinese.
If you travel to Bangkok on a direct flight, it will take you as follows:
Bangkok is roughly a 12 hour direct flight from London, 16 hours from New York or 6 hours from Tokyo. I currently live in England and find that you get a cheaper deal if you’re happy to change flights with a couple of hours’ stopover in the Middle East or India. This does extend the journey time to a rather tiring and draining 16-18 hours.
Our local time
During the winter Thailand is seven hours ahead of the UK and six hours ahead during British Summer Time (BST). The table below shows the time difference between Thailand and other countries.
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