On this page you can find information about Thailand.
The focus is on how to get there and to get around by other means of transport then your bicycle. Attention is also given to visas, bordercrossings and touristic highlights.
All information is mainly in the form of links to other pages.

You can use the menu below to jump to the topic you are interested in.

• Thai visa & embassies
• Embassies in Thailand
• Border crossings & borders

• Arriving by air (Bangkok)
• Domestic flights
• Traveling by train
• Traveling by bus to all 76 provinces
• Traveling around Bangkok

• Info on all provinces
• World Heritage sites
• Currency exchange
• News and Newspapers
• Thai link pages

Visas for Thailand and Thai embassies abroad
  It is possible to get an visa upon arrival. But this is not possible for all countries. In the following List you can see if you can get a visa upon arrivel.

 If you want to get a Thai visa before you arrive in Thailand, here you can find the Thai Consulates and Embassies worldwide.The Thai minsitry of Foreign affairs also has a list of Thai embassies with a website.

Bangkok is the gateway to this part of SE Asia therefore most people arrive to Thailand by air, at the in Oktober 2006 opened Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Wikipedia has a good backgrond article about the founding of Suvarnabhumi.
We did not visited this Airport ourselves here are some links that will guide you through the Airport (pdf) and tell you how to get into Bangkok and the (North) East:

• The original Suvarnabhumi Airport website (or is that this website) also has a transportation section that tells you were the shuttle busses, Airport Expres busses and public taxi's are departing. Take care that you have to take a free shuttle bus to the transportation centre if you want to take a public bus to Bangkok. Here are public bus lines and there destinations listed.
• Wikipedia has also a section about getting into Bangkok by public transport.
• It is also possible to go from the Airport to an expanding number of locations in the East and North East of Thailand by bus directly.
• If you want to know all about transportation to from and on the airport you can take a look at this PDF-file.

A last note is that when you leave Thailand by air you have to pay Airport Tax. Currently this is 500 bath however on February 1, 2007, the international departure tax will be raised to 700 baht.

 Domestic and regional flights
 Although the changes are that this page will look like a booking page of a travel agency I have listed a number of links that give information on destinations, schedules and sometimes prices of most of the airlines that operate in Thailand.
Just hold your mouse over the link and the destinations will show up (if appropiate).

Scheduler
Time table

Asian Air Time table
BKK Airways Scheduler
BKK Airways Time table
Nok Air Time table
Orient Thai Air Time table
PBAir Time table
Puket Airlines Scheduler

BKK Airways Scheduler
PBAir Time table
Orient Thai Air Time table

Travelling by train
  Thailand has a very good inter-province connecting rail system. It is a cheap and comfortable way to travel. We ourselves have travelled by train in Thailand several times and after biking it is our favourite way of transport in Thailand. We especially like the night trains that give us the opportunity to arrive early at the starting point of our trip. In the section below you can find the train Time tables.
Because the State Railway of Thailand website is often off-line also alternative links are included.

Train Time Tables
On the internet there are several sites that give the Time tables of the four Thai railroad routes. First of all the general site of the State Railway of Thailand.

For the different routes there but html pages and Acrobat reader (pdf) files available with the official time table. The only problem is that the names of the small towns/stations are not included. While some slow train will stop there. The Time tables of the following routes are available:

  Northern route from Bangkok to Chiang Mai as HTML or PDF-file.
  Northeastern route from Bangkok to Nong Khai (near the Laotian Capital Vientiane)
as HTML or PDF-file.
Eastern route from Bangkok to Prachin Buri - Pattaya - Aranyaprathet as HTML or PDF-file.
Soutern route from Bangkok to River Kwai - Hua Hin -Surat Thani - Butterworth in Malaysia
as HTML or PDF-file.

Other English sites with the time tables of the Thai train routes are :
Thai Focus has also extensive information regarding the Thai railway system.
Including the possibility to book online.
The link page of Thailine.
Seat 61, site with information on train traveling in all countries of the World; The Thailand page.

Travelling by bus
  In Bangkok are 3 busstations where you can board regular busses and air-conditioned tour coaches to every province in the country. The busstations serve destinations in different parts of the country:

• Northern/Northeastern (Morchir) Bus Terminal is on Kam Phaeng Phet 2 Road, Tel: 9363674, 9363667-8.
• Southern (Saitai) Bus Terminal is on Pinklao-Nakhon Chaisri Road, Tel : 4351190, 4351200 (air-conditioned) and 4345558 (regular).
• Eastern (Ekamai) Bus terminal is on Sukhumvit Road, Tel: 3929227, 3919829 (air-conditioned) and 3912504, 3922521 (regular).

This is most complete bus schedule (with Bangkok outbound busses) I have found on the internet (please let me know if you have a better one). The time tables are organized according to the bus terminals they leave from and the provinces they serve: Northern and Northeastern provinces from Morchit busstation, Eastern provinces from Saitai bus station and Southern provinces from Ekamai bus station.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand site also gives info on how to get to all of the 76 Thai provinces by bus, air and rail. This might come in handy if you want another starting point then Bangkok.

The Nakhonchai Air bus company is one of the few compagnies that has an English web page. On this page you can find a route and time table scheduler to find if the city you are heading to is connected by NCA and if so when their bus does leave and arrives.

Getting around in Bangkok
 Because probably you do not want to get around Bangkok by bicycle information is given on different kinds of public transport to get around.Information on how to get around in Bangkok. But first take a look at this interactive map of Bangkok to check out the places you want to go.

You can hop on the famous Bangkok busses. Just look around the site of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA). All lines and touristic highlights with the bus lines that service these places are listed.

Another means of transport is the Skytrain (see route and time table)

Still under construction but scheduled to open in April 2004 the Bangkok Metro

The oldest means of transport are the ferries on the Chao Phraya river. Thailandtoday made a description of a sightseeing tour along the Chao Phraya river.

Foreign Embassies
  As mentioned earlier Thailand is the gateway to this part of South East Asia. Therefore many embassies are present and it is a good place to obtain your visa in case you travel on.

I have listed the addresses from the Embassies of the neigbouring countries we visited (Myanmar we did not go yet). I obtained this information from the webpage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand that has a list of all Embassies and consulates in Thailand and another list of all Foreign embassies with a website.

Other site site with information regarding Thai visas and related information is Thaivisa.com. They have also a page where all foreign embassies in Bangkok are listed.

For up to date information or addresses from embassies in other countries in SE Asia take a look at the following Link.

Currency exchange
 Allmost all major banks in Thailand have exchange rates of foreign currencies on their web pages.
Linked are the rates of The Bangkok Bank.

Information on Thai provinces
The site of the Tourism Authority of Thailand a province guide of all 76 provinces is given with general information regarding history, culture of each province and an overview of the things to do and see. Also a timetable of festivals and events is included so check if you run into a party when you cruse Thailand by bike.

A very nice way to explore all highlights of Thailand is by using the following interactive map covering Thailand and all provinces.

Thai UNESCO World heritage sites
Thailad has four World heritage sites. One natural and 4 archaeological sites. On the linked site you can make a virtual tour around this sites. Make sure Quick Time is installed.

• Sukhotai Historic Town (klik on the map to choose a site).
• Ayutthaya Historic Town (klik on the map to choose a site).
• Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary: the Waterfall and Stream.
• Ban Chiang Archaeological Site.

News and Newspapers
In Thailand there are two main english language newspapers:
  The Bangkok post.
  The Nation.

• The The Thailand directory Yahoo.
  
• In Dutch the Thailand Startpagina.
  
• The Thailand link page of Visit Mekong.