Thailand – The Basics
Thailand in a nutshell – the old and the new side-by-side
Posts on Thailand:
SIM cards
There are three major cell providers in Thailand: AIS, DTAC, and TrueMove H. They seem to have good coverage in the cities and even small towns that are frequented by tourists. AIS apparently has the best coverage in very rural areas. At the Chiang Mai airport, AIS had a booth just outside baggage claim with various data SIMs starting at about 100 baht (US$3); note that the cheaper data cards are often on the 3G/4G networks, not the 5G.
I ended up buying SIMs on the plane from Hanoi to Chiang Mai (Thai AirAsia). For 199 baht (US$5.38), I got a TrueMove 5 day card with unlimited data on the 5G network, plus unlimited calls and unlimited Wi-Fi (TrueMove has a number of Wi-Fi areas throughout Chiang Mai, though all restaurants and many public spaces also provide Wi-Fi for free). Though we don’t often make calls, it turned out to be very handy immediately upon leaving the airport as our pickup person went to the wrong terminal and we were able to call them on their Thai phone number.
We tried a new system in Thailand. Rather than both of us getting SIM cards, I just kept my personal hotspot on and Sarah tethered to my phone. It worked pretty well since we were usually near each other. When we weren’t, items would just queue up on her phone until she was in range of me.
Visa
Thailand does not require a visa for tourist US citizens staying less than 30 days.
Getting Around Chiang Mai
We used four different ways of getting around though we mostly walked or used Grab.
Walking – by far, our most frequent mode of transportation. Easy to stumble upon good food, interesting shops and museums or just meet nice people.
Tuktuk – good for the 1-3 km trip you don’t want to walk. Confirm the price before getting in. For example, a 4 km trip from the middle of the Old City to a location near the Ping River cost 100 baht (US$2.70); another trip from the Ping river to the Nimman district, west of the Old City, cost 150 baht (US$4.05).
Red truck – Show or tell driver where you want to go. It’s often easiest to show a major landmark or location near where you want to go to avoid confusion. Then hop in the back of the truck. Within the Chiang Mai Old City, 30 baht (US$0.80) per person. Pretty cheap almost anywhere in the city, though it may not be direct if the driver is making multiple stops.
Grab – We often used Grab to get around – it’s the Southeast Asian alternative to Uber. The app works slightly differently than Uber but the basics are the same. Several things to note: first, you don’t need to enter your credit card info; instead you can just pay cash for every ride. (Grab drivers pay a commission for every pickup, so Grab still gets their cut). Second, you need a local phone number, so assuming you have a local data SIM you should be good to go.
ATMs
Most Thai bank ATMs seem to be on the Plus (Visa) or Star systems, which most American banks and credit unions are part of. However, even if a bank ATM states it is on your ATM network/system, it may not work. You will probably have to try a few. We found that all ATMs charged a fee for foreign ATM cards – it was typically in the range of 2%.
We had good luck getting money (up to $300) with Siam Commercial Bank (SCB). There was an SCB ATM just a few minutes from where we stayed in the Old City on Prapokkloa Road at Prapokklao Rd Alley 4.
Greetings (and what to do for gender neutral):
The 2 basic things you should be able to say in any new country: “hello” and “thank you”
Hello is “Sawadee” + a particle that indicates your gender. Sawadee krab = hi from a male. Sawadee kha= hello from a female. If you are nonbinary, you can go with “Sawadee” by itself. This is less formal, but will get the job done for tourists. If you are there for business, then you will need better guidance than I can give.
Some better gender neutral news is that Thai uses one gender neutral term for Mr/Ms. You will be called “Ca” regardless of your gender.
Water: bottled only
Health precautions:
On the advice of our travel nurse, we took Pepto Bismol 2x per day. We had no negative reactions though we ate street food everywhere we went. We also advise eating yogurt to add local beneficial bacterium to your system. If you do an elephant encounter, keep your mouth closed if you go in the water with them. Other tourists tend to think splashing about and throwing mud is fun (happened on our trip, and we heard bad things about folks who accidentally ingested dirty water during these activities on other trips).
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