Thailand

Thailand sits in Southeast Asia between the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, with Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia along its land borders. It covers 513,120 square kilometres. Civil registration in 2024 counted 65,975,198 people. The capital is Bangkok. Thai is the official language, the baht is issued by the Bank of Thailand, and clocks stay seven hours ahead of Greenwich all year. The highest point is Doi Inthanon at 2,565 metres in the north. The coastline runs for 2,815 kilometres.

Bangkok is a low city on the Chao Phraya, a river 372 kilometres long. It became the capital on 21 April 1782. The Grand Palace complex was begun on 6 May 1782 and covers 218,400 square metres inside four walls. Wat Phra Kaew, inside those walls, was begun in 1783 and holds a small green stone figure. South of the palace, Wat Pho has a reclining figure 46 metres long. On the west bank in Thonburi, the main prang of Wat Arun was built in 1851.

North of the capital, Ayutthaya stands on an island where the Chao Phraya meets the Pa Sak. It was founded in 1351. The municipality covers 14.84 square kilometres, and the historical park was listed in 1991. Farther north, Sukhothai Historical Park holds 193 ruins across 70 square kilometres. The walls form a rectangle about 2 kilometres east to west and 1.6 kilometres north to south, with twenty-six temples inside and Wat Mahathat the largest. That park was listed in 1991 as well, within the Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns. As of 2026 the country has nine World Heritage sites: six cultural and three natural. The latest is Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

Chiang Mai lies about 700 kilometres north of Bangkok. It was founded in 1296 as the new capital of Lan Na, and the name means new city. The municipality covers 40.216 square kilometres and had 127,240 residents in the 2019 figure, while the built-up area exceeds a million. The old city is roughly a square about a mile on each side, with a brick wall and a moat. Doi Suthep rises to 1,676 metres about 15 kilometres from the centre, and the twin summit of Doi Pui reaches 1,685 metres. The usual way up Doi Inthanon is the road through a national park created in 1954 and covering 482.4 square kilometres.

In the south, Phuket is the country’s largest island, plus 32 smaller ones in the Andaman Sea. The province covers 547 square kilometres and had 432,464 people in 2025. The Sarasin Bridge links it to the Phang Nga mainland. Krabi lies east across the same bay: a province of 5,323 square kilometres, with the Railay peninsula reachable only by boat because of the limestone cliffs, and the Phi Phi Islands at 12.06 square kilometres. In the gulf, Ko Samui covers 228.7 square kilometres, the second largest island after Phuket. Offshore, Mu Ko Ang Thong holds 42 islands across 102 square kilometres and was established on 12 November 1980.

Rain does not follow one calendar. In Bangkok, September is the wettest month at 335.9 millimetres in the 1991–2020 normals, while November on Ko Samui reaches 444.6 millimetres. The Andaman coast is drier from November through February. Five airports shape the trip: Suvarnabhumi is the busiest, then Don Mueang, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Krabi. The general price level is about 31 percent of the United States level on 2025 figures, and it measures the whole economy, not hotels alone. Entry rules depend on nationality; the official electronic-visa page is the place to check before you travel.[1,2,21,11,3,28,15,18,17,16,4,5,7,20,6,12,8,9,14,42,10,39,22,23,25,24,26,44,45,46]Source1. Thailand · Wikipedia2. Geography of Thailand · Wikipedia21. Thai baht · Wikipedia11. Doi Inthanon · Wikipedia3. Bangkok · Wikipedia28. Chao Phraya River · Wikipedia15. Grand Palace · Wikipedia18. Wat Phra Kaew · Wikipedia17. Wat Pho · Wikipedia16. Wat Arun · Wikipedia4. Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (city) · Wikipedia5. Ayutthaya Historical Park · Wikipedia7. Sukhothai Historical Park · Wikipedia20. List of World Heritage Sites in Thailand · Wikipedia6. Chiang Mai · Wikipedia12. Doi Suthep · Wikipedia8. Phuket province · Wikipedia9. Krabi province · Wikipedia14. Railay Beach · Wikipedia42. Phi Phi Islands · Wikipedia10. Ko Samui · Wikipedia39. Mu Ko Ang Thong National Park · Wikipedia22. Suvarnabhumi Airport · Wikipedia23. Don Mueang International Airport · Wikipedia25. Phuket International Airport · Wikipedia24. Chiang Mai International Airport · Wikipedia26. Krabi International Airport · Wikipedia44. PPP conversion factor, GDP (LCU per international $) · World Bank45. Official exchange rate (LCU per US$, period average) · World Bank46. Official Website of Thailand Electronic Visa · Ministry of Foreign Affairs