{"id":929,"date":"2011-10-26T10:44:43","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T10:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/?p=929"},"modified":"2011-10-24T15:36:36","modified_gmt":"2011-10-24T15:36:36","slug":"provinces-in-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/provinces-in-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"Provinces in Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are 77 provinces (jung1wat2 \u0e08\u0e31\u0e07\u0e2b\u0e27\u0e31\u0e14) in Thailand . . . actually, considering the large concentrated Thai population in Los Angeles, many joke LA is the 78th province of Thailand.<\/p>\n

(note to reader: There were originally 76 provinces, and LA was referred to as the 77th in both movies and literature. But as of 2010 Bueng Karn has become the official 77th province.)<\/p>\n

A province in Thailand is somewhat like a state in the US, in that each province has its own governor and representatives. But the Thai government is very top heavy, with the majority of power centralized in Bangkok. The provinces are as such politically subservient and dependent on Bangkok.<\/p>\n

The government chain from the top to bottom is defined as:
\nCountry -> province -> district -> precinct\/subdivision -> village
\n\u0e1b\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e17\u0e28 bra2tet3 -> \u0e08\u0e31\u0e07\u0e2b\u0e27\u0e31\u0e14 jung1wat2 -> \u0e2d\u0e33\u0e40\u0e20\u0e2d um1per1-> \u0e15\u0e33\u0e1a\u0e25 dtum1bon1-> \u0e2b\u0e21\u0e39\u0e48\u0e1a\u0e49\u0e32\u0e19 muu2baan3
\nA full chart of all divisions can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As there are 77 Thai provinces<\/a>, I\u2019m going to limit this article to those we actually care about. For example, who cares about Idaho or Nebraska, anyway? Thailand has plenty of Nakorn Nowheres, too. In the following list, you\u2019ll see the Thai spelling, phonetic spelling with tone numbers, the actual name in (parenthesis), and what\u2019s special about it in [brackets]. I chose the provinces based on which you\u2019ll most likely go to and hear about.<\/p>\n

Central
\n\u0e01\u0e23\u0e38\u0e07\u0e40\u0e17\u0e1e\u0e2f grung1thep3 (Bangkok) [capital]
\n\u0e25\u0e1e\u0e1a\u0e38\u0e23\u0e35 lop4bu2ree1 (Lopburi) [monkey temple]
\n\u0e2a\u0e38\u0e42\u0e02\u0e17\u0e31\u0e22 su2ko5tai1 (Sukhothai) [old city (it\u2019s very northern for a central province!)]
\n\u0e1e\u0e34\u0e29\u0e13\u0e38\u0e42\u0e25\u0e01 pe4su2nu4lok3 (Phitsanulok) [nice nature areas]
\n\u0e2a\u0e21\u0e38\u0e17\u0e23\u0e1b\u0e23\u0e32\u0e01\u0e32\u0e23 sa2mut4braa1gaan1 (Samut Prakan) [south of Bangkok, closest beach to Bangkok]<\/p>\n

East
\n\u0e0a\u0e25\u0e1a\u0e38\u0e23\u0e35 chon1bu2ree1 (Chonburi) [beaches, Pattaya is here]
\n\u0e23\u0e30\u0e22\u0e2d\u0e07 ra4yawng1 (Rayong) [islands and beaches]
\n\u0e15\u0e23\u0e32\u0e14 dtraat2 (Trat) [islands and beaches]<\/p>\n

North East\/Isaan
\n\u0e19\u0e04\u0e23\u0e23\u0e32\u0e0a\u0e2a\u0e35\u0e21\u0e32 na4kon1raa3cha4see5maa1 (Nakhon Ratchasima) [largest province, waterfalls and nature, farms]
\n\u0e1a\u0e38\u0e23\u0e35\u0e23\u0e31\u0e21\u0e22\u0e4c bu2ree1ram1 (Buriram) [ancient Khmer ruins]
\n\u0e2a\u0e38\u0e23\u0e34\u0e19\u0e17\u0e23\u0e4c su2ren1 (Surin) [elephant festival]
\n\u0e2d\u0e38\u0e1a\u0e25\u0e23\u0e32\u0e0a\u0e18\u0e32\u0e19\u0e35 u2bon1raat3cha1taa1nee1 (Ubon Ratchathani) [nature, national parks]
\n\u0e02\u0e2d\u0e19\u0e41\u0e01\u0e48\u0e19 kawn5gaen2 (Khon Kaen) [very populous, they tell me it has the most beautiful women haha]
\n\u0e2d\u0e38\u0e14\u0e23\u0e18\u0e32\u0e19\u0e35 u2don1taa1nee1 (Udon Thani) [an old historical city with lots of sights]
\n\u0e40\u0e25\u0e22 loy1 (Loei) [has the famous pee dta kon and the bang fai festivals]
\n\u0e23\u0e49\u0e2d\u0e22\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e47\u0e14 roy4ed2 (Roi Et) [known for vote buying]<\/p>\n

North
\n\u0e40\u0e0a\u0e35\u0e22\u0e07\u0e43\u0e2b\u0e21\u0e48 chiang1mai2 (Chiang Mai) [major northern city]
\n\u0e40\u0e0a\u0e35\u0e22\u0e07\u0e23\u0e32\u0e22 chiang1rai2 (Chaing Rai) [very old city, now has hill tribes]
\n\u0e41\u0e21\u0e48\u0e2e\u0e48\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e2a\u0e2d\u0e19 mae3hawng3sawn5 (Mae Hong Son) [lots of cheap shopping at Burmese border]<\/p>\n

South
\n\u0e01\u0e23\u0e30\u0e1a\u0e35\u0e48 gra2bee2 (Krabi) [it\u2019s a popular tourist island with beaches]
\n\u0e1e\u0e31\u0e07\u0e07\u0e32 pang1ngaa1 (Phang Nga) [cliff islands and beaches]
\n\u0e20\u0e39\u0e40\u0e01\u0e47\u0e15 puu1get2 (Phuket) [it\u2019s a famous tourist island with beaches]
\n\u0e2a\u0e38\u0e23\u0e32\u0e29\u0e0e\u0e23\u0e4c\u0e18\u0e32\u0e19\u0e35 su2raat3da2taa1nee1 (Surat Thani) [islands and beaches]
\n\u0e2a\u0e07\u0e02\u0e25\u0e32 song5klaa5 (Songkhla) [one of three provinces with southern insurgency]<\/p>\n

West
\n\u0e01\u0e32\u0e0d\u0e08\u0e19\u0e1a\u0e38\u0e23\u0e35 gaan1ja2na4bu2ree1 (Kanchanaburi) [The Bridge over River Kwai \u2013 a famous WW2 Japanese bridge]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are 77 provinces (jung1wat2 \u0e08\u0e31\u0e07\u0e2b\u0e27\u0e31\u0e14) in Thailand . . . actually, considering the large concentrated Thai population in Los Angeles, many joke LA is the 78th province of Thailand.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[10208,10341,161],"tags":[94583],"class_list":["post-929","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-beginner","category-intermediate","category-travel","tag-thailand-provinces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":931,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions\/931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}