What is the area and the population of Thailand?

I was wondering how big Thailand is and how many people are living here. I checked the CIA World Factbook and found the following numbers. I added some other countries, so you'll be able to compare it.

Thailand

Area: 514,000 sq km
Population: 65,444,371

Switzerland

Area: 41,290 sq km
Population: 7,489,370

Germany

Area: 357,021 sq km
Population: 82,431,390

Israel

Area: 20,770 sq km
Population: 6,276,883

Thailand is more than 12 times bigger than Switzerland! Impressive, isn't it? :-)

I like the World Factbook a lot, it's very interesting. Have a look by yourself and you might discover some interesting facts.

Lokthip meditation Center

Next to the mansion I'm staying, there is a small place called Lokthip Meditation Center. It's a very nice and the people are very friendly.


I didn't have time to visit so far, but I definitely will have a look next weekend. I'm looking forward to some nice meditation hours.

Impressive sky

The weather is changing really fast here and so does the sky, have a look at the following pictures...

Daily lunch...

There is a little street kitchen in front of the mansion I'm staying. "Pi" Daeng is cooking there everyday different Thai meals.


"Pi" is a polite form to call an older person and daeng is the color red in Thai. Thai people usually refer to an older person with "pi" and to a younger person with "nong". It's also very common, that everyone has a nickname. Usually this has to do something with the birth of the person or the feelings the mother had during the pregnancy. I'm sure there are some other reasons too :-)

So "pi" Daeng is a really good chef. My favorite meals, she's cooking are: Khao Pat Gai, Pag'gana Pat Gai and Pat Krapau Gai. Everything clear?

The meals are very cheap, compared to Switzerland or other European countries. Khao Pat Gai costs 25 Baht, which is about 0.85 CHF. Don't forget, that a cup of cold water is included and if you are really thirsty, you can have a second one too.

Just beside the street kitchen a few motorbike taxi drivers are waiting for people who are looking for a ride.


They are really nice and friendly guys who are always looking for a conversation. Unfortunately my Thai is still not that good, so we can talk only about very simple subjects, like: "Today it's really hot...", "Do you like the food?", "Where do you go today?" and similar ones... Mostly the conversations are ending with a nice smile :-)

A sea of houses and probably a sea of dreams...

Every morning I look out of my balcony and the same question is going through my mind. I see a sea of houses in front of me and I think, that behind every window there might be a person, getting up just right now, as I do.


These persons might have dreams, wishes and fears. What are there dreams? Why do they get up every morning and try to achieve there goals?

What is it, that pushes us to achieve certain dreams and wishes? How do we get the idea of a goal? What is influencing us and why do we try to get something?

I think, to expect an answer is not necessary, I believe it's enough, to get a better answer. I believe, that the most certain thing in our life is, that nothing is certain :-) Somehow this makes me feel very comfortable. If we would be able to accept, that life might have a plan for us and our role is much less significant, than we would like to believe, we probably would be less greedy, more understandable and probably wiser.

I wish you all a wonderful day and take care! Most things, happing to us, are not as important as we might think in this very moment... Give the impressions some time and reflect upon it, you might discover some different point of view after a few days...

Getting used to it...

The first wave of new impressions and feelings is over and the daily life starts to establish itself.

I think it's a good sign, since it shows me, that we can adapt quite fast and basically we can live everywhere.


I'm looking forward to some new impressions and hope it's going to be very interesting too :-)

Public Transportation - Sky Train and Subway

Bangkok is offering a huge range of different public transportations. There are sky trains, subways, buses, taxi's, tuk-tuk's and motorbikes.

The most convenient transportations are the sky train and the subway:

• Sky train (BTS)
• Subway (MRT)

The sky train has two lines, the Silom line and the Sukhumvit line. To change from one line to the other, there is an interchange station, called Siam. Many of the stations are connected directly to shopping malls or nearby important places. So far there is only one subway line. As you can see, the sky train and the subway are complementing each other, so it's very easy to go from one place to another.


Between the stations, it's recommended either to walk or to take a motorbike taxi. But please don't forget to ask for the price in the first place ;-)

Visa Run July 2005

My visa got expired, hence I had to go to Cambodia to get a new tourist visa for 30 days. The first impression was really great. You book a seat in a bus which drives to the border of Cambodia, there you pass the border, eat lunch on the Cambodian side, come back to Thailand and you get a new visa :-)

I had to be at Sukhumvit Soi 12 at 5.00am and got on a nice bus...

In the bus, they had some simple and tourist friendly instructions, how the day would look like... Basically the following steps:

1. Departure from Sukhumvit Soi 12, 3.5 hours to the border of Cambodia (Poipet)
2. At the border, all the formalities will be done by our guide... (no line up at the Thai immigration)
3. Cambodian immigration
   
4. Lunch
5. Enter Thailand, get in the bus
6. Back to Bangkok
   

Unfortunately, the day looked a bit different... :-( The prime minister of Thailand replaced the responsible minister and everything got a little messy...

When we arrived at the border, the bus driver told us, that we have to line up at the Thai immigration, since they didn't sort it out yet with the local police who was in charge. I guess they had to renegotiate the deal ;-)

I don't know, how many people lined up at the Thai immigration, but it took us 4 hours to pass it! I have chosen a very bad day, since I went on a Saturday. On the Cambodian side, there are huge casinos and since gambling is forbidden in Thailand, many Thai's go gambling for the weekend in Cambodia... So, never go on the weekend! It's full with gambling addicted people...




One of the first things I recognized, where all these young and very dirty children, who tried to get some money by holding an umbrella above your head - as sun protection. This was really very sad to see and made me think a lot... It looked like they were living on the street and nobody took care of them...

On the Cambodian side you could see, how these people where living...


After 4 hours, we finally could enter Cambodia. The first impressions wasn't much different from Thailand, but I guess this comes from the fact that most people passing this border need either a new visa or just would like to waste there money in gambling...


Just two hundred meters from all these poor families and children, you could see the casinos and there we went for lunch...


This gave me a very bad feeling and I couldn't eat much. Somehow I felt very bad about sitting in front of huge buffet and on the other side, these children where begging for some Baht's standing in the sun all day long...

Before we went back to Thailand, we had to line up again and luckily, this time it took us only 1.5 hours :-) But standing there, a sign came to my attention...


This is no joke! Never ever get in touch with drugs in Thailand or Cambodia, you might have a lot of time to rethink your actions after, or in the worst case you won't have any time at all!

American Food Culture

If you are a friend of the american food culture, you'll be very happy in Bangkok. Here you can find everything...

McDonalds


Pizza Hut


KFC


Starbucks


and many more... :-) Enjoy!

Studying Thai

Daily I go to my Thai lessons. It's really difficult and very tiring. I think I'm very lucky with my teacher, since she has a great sense of humor and is very patient with me.


She can explain the things really well and luckily, she speaks English very well, so we can communicate on a good level. At least the impressions of misunderstandings is low.

She also explains me a lot about Thai culture and thinking and it's not always easy to understand it. Hence I have to be patient and shouldn't judge anything I see or hear. I consider myself as a guest in a foreign country and therefore I believe I have to except many things as they are. I'm looking forward to understand more as the time goes on.

Motorbike Taxi

All over Bangkok, you can find motorbike taxis. They are a big help, if you would like to go from your apartment to the next subway or skytrain station or if you just a little hungry and you're looking for a spicy noodle soup :-)

Usually you recognize the motorbike taxi's due to the orange jacket they wearing. Most of them are coming from Isan and looking for a better life.


With some of these guys you have to be very carefully. You can take a route everyday and everyday you're paying 10 Baht. Suddenly one morning you don't ask for the price and you just take the ride and like a very sudden change at the stock market, the price has gone up and it costs now 25 Baht. So whenever you take a motorbike taxi, ask for the price first.


By the way, if you can talk a little Thai it's a big help, because the drivers usually don't speak English. If they think you are some naive tourist, they might just smile at you and say "50 Bath, sir" ;-)

Heavy Rain

Today was the first day with heavy rain. It was unbelievable, after a few minutes many streets where covered with water and it looked like I was staying in Venice ;-)


Above you see a taxi passing one of this water-streets :-)

Thai Language

Since I'm studying Thai every day, I thought, you might would like to know a little about it...

First of all you have to know, that Thai is a tonal language. This means, that the same word pronounced in a different way gets another meaning. Thai contains five different tones. Luckily there are not five different meanings for each word.

Thai is using an alphabet, which consists of 44 consonants and 18 single vowels. The vowels are used in compounds, so there are 32 in total. The consonants are organized in three groups: middle class, high class and low class consonants.

In the table below, the green consonants are middle class, the red consonants are high class and the blue consonants are low class consonants.


In the table below you can see the most used vowels. Nowadays not all vowels used, but I think these are more than enough for the start ;-)


Since this would be to easy so far, some clever person invited tone marks to get it really confusing ;-)

The tones are:
- unmarked,
' mai eak (low),
้ mai toh (falling),
๊ mai dtree (high),
+ mai juttawa (rising).

There are some rules how to apply the tone marks. Basically the tonemarks can change the tone of the consonant, which means, that the tone changes and although a consonant belongs to the middle class you'll have to use a raising tone.

And to complete the funny part, there are even different number


The get an idea, how a text in Thai looks like, have a look this:

Translation: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Some of the images above I copied from Omniglot, thanks.

New Thai Language School - Thai Solutions

Last week I started at a new Thai language school - Thai Solutions. It's a small school with very nice teachers.

The teacher's name, who is teaching me, is E. In Thai you would write this: เอ๋ (long sala e - or aang - mai juttawa).


She's a really good teacher and can explain complex things very easy. Beside this, she's really very cute, isn't she ;-)

New apartment in the same mansion

I got a new apartment in the same mansion. This apartment is rented monthly, so it's much cheaper. I'm paying about 5'500 Bath per month, not including water and electricity.

I think it's quite cheap and a really nice place :-)

Here you can see the view from my new balcony...



To get a good start in the room and to be protected from ghosts, I got a little Buddha from nice neighbor's in the mansion. It's really lovely, and maybe it's true...



I have a little working and study table, where I spend quit a lot of my time...



Of course I have to eat from time to time and I really love the fruits in Thailand, therefore I always have some fruits in my fridge...



If I'm tired I have a hug bed to sleep in...



And for the daily needs, there is a nice bathroom...





As you can see, I'm very lucky with my room and it's a really nice place to stay :-)

Staff party in the mansion I'm staying

I was invited to a staff party of the people who are working in the mansion I'm having an apartment. Most of these people are coming from Isan, the north-east part of Thailand. They come to Bangkok for work, so they can make a living and support there families.

Most of the time they speak "Phasa Isan", which usually is a Thai dialect of the Laos language. It's difficult enough to understand Thai, but when they talk there language, it's impossible to understand... :-)

It's not uncommon, that people in Isan earn less than 1'000 Bath per month, while in Bangkok they can earn about five times as much.

Football on the roof

Every night, there is a group of young Thai people, playing football on the roof of a neighbor building...

It's funny to watch them :-)