Thailand

Thailand is the world's 51st-largest country in terms of total area and has approximately 63 million inhabitants. About 80% of People are Thai, 10% Chinese, 3% Malay and the rest are minorities such as Mon, Khmer and various so called hill tribes which are again Karen, Lisu and plenty of others.

Ethnic Thais are basically Chinese who came to Thailand about thousand years ago from the today area of Yunnan, they got split with the Shan in present day Myanmar or Burma.

Thailand always was a migratory crossroads and got a wide ethnic diversity. About 70% of the Thai population are Buddhist, others are Muslims, Taoists and some Christians.

Thailand also has a huge community of people from India, Pakistan, Arab, Malay and so called western people. All of them influenced Thailand's traditions and cultures over time.

Theravada Buddhism is the main religion but the belief in spirits and demons is very popular, most house in Thailand have a spirit shrine in front of the house or inside to please the spirits. Actually its very similar to Myanmar or Burma where they call this spirits ‘Nats” and the shrines are placed similar to the way its done in Thailand.

For the best places to visit have a look to the menu bar at left since Thailand has a great tourism diversity, from the mountain jungle of the north and west of Thailand all the way to

the beaches and limestone cave world in southern and south east Thailand.

Most of people who come to Thailand on a Thailand vacation or holiday package choose Thai beach vacation, either at the endless beaches and beach resorts on the mainland or the great beaches on the islands.

Phuket is the biggest island in Thailand, second is Koh Chang und Ko Samui is Thailand's third largest island in the Gulf of Thailand.

Just a short distance from Koh Samui is Koh Phangan and the Ang Thon Archipelago. Around Phuket, Phang Nga Bay and towards Krabi, Phi Phi and Trang are countless islands, beaches and coral reefs.

On the east side of the gulf of Thailand is Pattaya and several attractive islands and tourist destinations. Along the eastern seaboard is also one of the highest industrial density in Thailand and a huge deep sea port.

Thailand to  Malaysia is in the far south. Off the southern westcoast of Thailand is the Tarutao Archipelago with more than 50 islands. Behind the border is the island of Langkawi and further south is the betel nut island Penang or Pulau Pinang.

There is big game fishing in the Andaman Sea and Thai scuba diving off  the west coast with some of the best diving grounds on earth.

Bangkok, is a great Asian metropolises with a new airport of modern architecture.

Almost all roads and flights to and from Thailand and within go through Bangkok.

Huge shopping malls and a relatively new elevated train system together with a excellent underground train system took out some of the traffic problems of the past, but for sure not enough.

Bangkok nightlife and shopping is legendary, for sure one of the best in the world, also almost everything produced in Thailand is quite cheap (to US-EU) standard.

Bangkok with about 10 million of people  is the commercial hub of Thailand is more or less located at the centre of Thailand.

Bangkok has plenty of sightseeing tour spots like Wat Phra Kaew – a very famous monastery and temple, Chinatown is a legend of its own.

At the northern greater Bangkok city boundary is Ayuthaya, the legendary old capital of Siam and Thailand. Much more on Bangkok is here.

Backpacking Thailand is very popular since

accommodation, food and transportation is quite cheap with a excellent and cheap bus system for road travel means no need to travel on the back of a elephant or buffalo. You could hire one of the small motorbikes, called "motocyc" for about 4 - 5 dollars per day. But be careful, road traffic in Thailand is a chaotic experience with lots of accidents since nobody cares about traffic rules. Actually is looks

that most of the Thai people never even heard that traffic rules exist.

Thailand holidays are not complete without visiting a Thai orchid nursery. Thailand orchids in particular dendrobium orchids are somehow national flowers of the country.

A Thai orchid nursery or garden is a overwhelming optical adventure. A unbelievable sea of orchid colors in all shades of the visible spectrum it is a feast for the eyes. They usually have, dendrobium, cattleya, vanda, dyakia, phalaenopsis, paphiopedilum and other type of hybrids and species. Only the hybrids are usually for sale, there is a strict ban on any export of species to curb orchid poaching.

Aside of orchid cut flower and orchid retail they also sell orchid seed and orchid seedlings sterile packet into the bottle. The bottle are reused Thai whisky bottles, at least to do a good purpose here.

Thailand is also a excellent honeymoon destination with luxury hotels and beach resorts just the right destination for your happy days. At Trang in southern Thailand they even offer underwater weddings every year.

To easily find out what to do in Thailand and where to go in Siam -Siam is the old name for Thailand-  you will find maps of Thailand at most of the relevant pages, and you can watch great videos in our video section and on our youtube Thailand channel a link is on the bottom of the video page.

One of the most attractive activity in Thailand is, go shopping, but the best is to have a look around open air markets and in particular at the Thai night markets.

If you visit one of the huge shopping center they have in every big city in Thailand you will very often just find the same stuff like in any shopping center in the world, native is in!

Thailand markets are legend, from the night markets at Patpong, Bangkok, to Phuket, Patong and Chiang Mai night Bazaar, just to mention a few among other. There are thousands of other markets in Thailand with great colors and lots to see. The markets are full with fruits, flowers, fake items, food and myriads of other items.

There are clothing market and dress markets, they all play a important role in the Thai economic.

Some of the most interesting Thailand travel destinations are the mountains and rivers of northern Thailand and at the western border areas to Myanmar.

That's also the place where the Myanmar Karen refugee camps are. The Thai picture at right are from this area.

This is the right destination for Thailand adventure travel, in particular jungle trekking,

Thailand Travel at Namtok Pra Charoen Waterfall.

Thailand, Umphang Thee Lor Sue Rock Water Fall.

Actually a Umphang river rafting tour should be on the Thailand tour plan of everyone.

There you can explore the real Thailand, far away from the beaches.

Touring the great mountain