Thailand is a state on the Southeast Asian Indochinese peninsula. The country was formerly known as Siam and is composed of 76 provinces. The most populated province is the province of Bangkok. Bangkok is also the capital of Thailand.
Thai is the official language of the country. It is a so-called tone language in which the mostly monosyllabic words acquire completely different meanings through pronunciation in different pitches and tone sequences. The Thai language also has its own writing system.
The writing of the Kingdom of Thailand is ราชอาณาจักรไทย.
Thai cuisine is popular across the border. It is based on the five senses of taste. The main food is rice. The average consumption per capita is over 100 kg.
Phat Thai (ผัดไทย) is a national dish of Thailand. The fried noodle dish is mixes with dried chilli, lime, fish sauce and cane sugar the four basic flavors ( spicy, sour, salty and sweet). The noodles are fried with egg, tofu and small, dried shrimps. It is usually served with mung bean sprouts, chives and chopped roasted peanuts.
Thai names follow the Western system of given name followed by a family name. The Thai need a surname was introduced only in 1913. Before that they mostly had only a first name. At the introduction everyone was allowed to choose a surname, but it could not be used by any other person, to whom there was no family relationship.
For this reason, there are no common surnames. Surnames are also rarely used and if only together with the first name.
