Comments on: 8 fascinating things you probably didn’t know about Thailand

By: Al

Al — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:22:51 +0000

Thailand was never fully colonized….true. But Siam was basically Thailand, Cambodia and Loas. The French took Cambodia and Laos and threatened to take the rest of the country unless they received money from the then King Rama5. They made the border along the Mekong river. The French also blockaded Thailand for a ransom by stopping shipping from Koh Chang in The Gulf of Thailand. The French also settled in Chantaburi and Trat areas and their building are still there today. The Brittish encroached from the West and decreased the border of Siam.
So really Siam lost half its land. Rama 5 paid off the French but he also united what was left of the country. Siam was basically divided up by wealthy warlords.
Look it up.
Thailand was never colonized cause it never existed then. Siam was halfed in size.

Also WW2 — The Japanese were allowed to walk through the country. Hmm

By: Travel With a Mate

Travel With a Mate — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:33:15 +0000

Interesting stuff! Especially finding out the King can play the sax! Does he have a band?

Kings and musical instruments are normal I guess. Henry 8th in England toured with his band…. before he got all fat and crazy.

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Fri, 21 May 2010 01:34:43 +0000

Haha ditto!

By: Tim Patterson

Tim Patterson — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:59:05 +0000

possibly my favorite comment response ever.

By: ryan libre

ryan libre — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:39:02 +0000

Hello Jake, thank you for comment.

I have heard this from 1 or 2 academics before, but Tai (for ethnic group) is ไต and for freedom is ไท. Thai as in Thailand is spelled ไทย. ( the last letter ย is basically silent.

they sound very similar to non Thai ears, but actually ไต the ethnic group is closer a “D” sound. If they really named it after the Tai ethnic group i can’t imagine why they would spell and pronounce it differently than that groups name…

But really what im doing here is not academic, if you ask common Thai people nearly everyone will tell you it means free. so that is what i want people to know.

Thanks again for you comment

By: ryan libre

ryan libre — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:59:46 +0000

Thanks for writing Martin, if the western calender, or any calender started from the birth date of the Lone Ranger i would have surely mentioned him as well.

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:57:46 +0000

“It is Year 2552

Buddha statue by Ryan Libre
Thai people start counting from when the Buddha was born, who came along before Jesus.”

Why do you have to mention this, who cares if he came before Jesus, why not say he came along before the Lone Ranger as well? Anyone who can do simple math can figure out who came first.

By: J

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:52:17 +0000

Hmmm

The Clock Starts Over Every 6 Hours

You know the 12 hour clock, you’ve heard of the 24 hour clock, but you didn’t know that most of Thailand runs on a 6 hour clock that resets 4 times a day.

I’m Thai and I have no idea what you’re talking about. Yes we start our 7 pm by referring to it as “nung toom” – 1st hour of evening, and that goes til 12pm. and 1 am is Tee Nung, morning 1…but its not like we reset our clocks 4 times a day as you imply??

There’s a lot more to thailand than these 8 weird (and possibly false) facts

By: J

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:50:38 +0000

Hmmm

The Clock Starts Over Every 6 Hours

You know the 12 hour clock, you’ve heard of the 24 hour clock, but you didn’t know that most of Thailand runs on a 6 hour clock that resets 4 times a day.

This should be titled 8 things i might have just made up about Thailand.

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:58:30 +0000

The country’s official name was Siam (Thai: สยาม; IPA: [saˈjaːm], RTGS: Sayam origin unknown) until 23 June 1939,[3], when it was changed to Thailand; it was renamed Siam between 1945 and 11 May 1949, after which the name Thailand was once again adopted. The word Thai (ไทย) is not, as commonly believed to be, derived from the word Tai (ไท) meaning “free” in the Thai language; it is, however, the name of an ethnic group from the central plains (the Thai people).[citation needed] A famous Thai scholar argued that Tai (ไท) simply means “people” or “human being” since his investigation shows that in some rural areas the word “Tai” was used instead of the usual Thai word “khon” (คน) for people [4]. With that in mind the locals seemed to have also accepted the alternative meaning and will verbally state that it means “Land of the free”. This might be due to language barriers and the avoidance of long difficult explanations.