Flag – Thong Trai Rong (“Tricolor flag”)
- 5 horizontal bars in colors: red, white, blue, white and red
- The center blue stripe is 2x larger than the others
- Red stripe: means the land and people
- White stripe: represents the religion
- Blue stripe: represents the monarchy
- The proposal was adopted on September 28, 1917, according to the royal decree, and from 2016 this day is a national day in Thailand celebrating the national flag.
Emblem – Phra Khrut Pha (“Garuda as the vehicle”)
- Garuda is displayed on the seals used by the King and the Government of Thailand to authenticate official documents.
- Garuda is the mythological beast of Hindu and Buddhist traditions. According to Hindu mythology, Garuda (vehicle) is God of Narayana. The ancient kings of Thailand believed in the divine kingdom and considered the incarnation of God Narayana. Garuda thus came to symbolize the divine power and authority of the king.
Thai National Anthem – Phleng chat Thai
- It was adopted on December 10, 1939, when the name of the country changed from Siam to Thailand.
- The anthem began to play every day at 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. during which people had to stand up to show respect for the nation.
- Nowadays, anthems correspond to the hoisting and lowering of the national flags in public areas (schools, workplaces, public buildings), respectively. The anthem is broadcast by both radio and television channels twice per day.
- The song was composed by Phra Chenduriyang and the lyrics were written by Luang Saranupraphan.
- Phleng Chat literally means “national anthem”.
Currency – Thai baht (THB)
- Coins – 1, 2, 5 and 10
bahts - Satang – a less common coin, at 25 and 50
- Banknotes – 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000
bahts - Drawing or cutting a banknote with a portrait of a king is taken as a heavy offense. Even their wrinkling is not good and in the eyes of the Thai people, you look like misbehave person.
- 1 THB = 100 satangs
- 1 THB = 0.73 CZK
Banks, ATMs and payments
ATMs are located in all cities and international selections are no problem. However, when choosing the money, you have to pay 220 THB for each selection and it is no matter what bank you have. Some outlying areas (including the smaller islands) do not have banks or ATMs. So you need enough cash.
Credit cards are widely accepted in restaurants, shopping centers, and grocery stores, but most local businesses do not accept them. Some stores add 2-3% when you pay with the card, so it’s definitely cheaper to pay in cash in this case.
Prices
Thailand is no longer as cheap as it used to be. Bangkok was recently declared the 2nd most expensive city in Southeast Asia. Only Singapore was ahead of him. Most popular tourist islands usually have higher prices. It is common that tourists pay much more in tourist areas than in more remote places in the country.
The bargaining is still common in some markets, but in most places, the prices are written on papers and they are fixed. In general, there are very good merchants in Asia, so it depends on your talent in bargaining. Unfortunately, I wasn´t good at this thing.
Prices of food:
- Fried rice with chicken on the street: 35 THB
- Cooked rice with egg omelette on the street: 20 THB
- Pancake with
nutella on the street: 20 THB - Fried noodles at the local restaurant: 55 THB
- Mango Sticky Rice at the local restaurant: 35 THB
- Fresh coconut at the market: 40 THB
- Coconut ice cream with peanuts and
sw . milk at the market: 30 THB - Fresh pineapple: 20 THBB
- Bananas: 10 – 20 THB
- 6l of water from the machine: 5 THB
- 1l of water in the shop: 25 THB
