All of the nations we traveled to captured our hearts and heartswell; however, Thailand stood out from the others because of the kindness of its people, and it was here that we had the first chance to form lasting friendships with people we enjoyed amazing times with. We made two trips to Thailand. We visited Phuket and Khao Lak on our first visit, then Bangkok, the country’s capital, in our second visit.
Thailand would be our first choice if we had the chance to relocate when we were elderly.Before your journey to Thailand, we advise you to peruse our travel guides and draw inspiration from the places we’ve been and the tours we’ve taken. You’ll discover the most crucial advice there.
Where is Thailand on the map?
Southeast Asian nation of 513,120 square kilometers (198,120 sq mi), home to about 70 million people, is situated in the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula. Historically known as Siam, Thailand is officially recognized as the Kingdom of Thailand. The nation is bounded to the north by Laos and Myanmar, to the east by Cambodia and Laos, to the south by Malaysia and the Gulf of Thailand, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the northern tip of Myanmar. Additionally, Thailand borders Vietnam to the southeast and India and Indonesia to the southwest by sea. The biggest citty and capital of the country is Bangkok.
During Chulalongkorn’s reign, the Siamese political system was centralized and evolved into a contemporary unitary absolute monarchy. Siam took the political choice to support the Allies in World War I in an effort to change the unfair treaties. After a peaceful uprising in 1932, it established itself as a constitutional monarchy, adopted the name Thailand as its official name, and sided with Japan in World War II. Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat’s military takeover in the late 1950s brought back the monarchy’s historically significant political influence.
Photo Source : OanaAlexandra on canva.com
Subscribe to our newsletter
Thailand has alternated between military control and democracy on several occasions, with the exception of a brief parliamentary democracy in the middle of the 1970s. Since the 2000s, the nation has been embroiled in an ongoing, bitter political struggle between Thaksin Shinawatra’s supporters and detractors. This has led to two coups (in 2006 and 2014), the establishment of the current constitution, the election of a nominally democratic government following the 2019 general election in Thailand, and sizable demonstrations in favor of democracy in 2020–2021, which included previously unheard-of calls for the monarchy to be changed.
Approximately 6% of the nation’s GDP is derived from tourism. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s World Tourism rankings, Thailand was the seventh most visited country in the world prior to the pandemic. Thailand welcomed 39.8 million foreign visitors in 2019, surpassing both the United Kingdom and Germany. The country earned 60.5 billion US dollars, which ranked fourth globally from international tourism. The World Tourism Organization reports that in 2013, Thailand was the most visited nation in Southeast Asia.The percentage of tourism-related revenue that directly contributes to Thailand’s 12 trillion baht GDP is estimated to be between 9 and 16 percent (2013) of total GDP.
It is estimated that tourism contributes 20.2 percent (2.4 trillion baht) to Thailand’s GDP when indirect effects are taken into consideration. Bangkok and the surrounding historical, ecological, and cultural sites draw most Asian tourists to Thailand. In addition to Bangkok and its environs, many Western visitors also visit the beaches and islands in the south. With its varied ethnic minority groups and mountainous terrain covered in forests, the north is the most popular place for trekking and adventure travel. Isan is the area with the fewest tourists. A distinct tourism police force was established, complete with offices and an emergency phone number, to cater to foreign tourists.
