Bangkok (Lonely Planet) - Andrew Burke [221]
The Bangkok Tourist Division (BTD; Map; 0 2225 7612-14; www.bangkoktourist.com; 17/1 Th Phra Athit; 8am-7pm Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Sat & Sun), operated by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), has this main office near Saphan Phra Pinklao with well-informed staff and a wealth of brochures, maps and event schedules. Kiosks and booths around town, and particularly in major shopping malls, are less useful, but do have maps; look for the green-on-white symbol of a mahout on an elephant.
The larger TAT ( 1672 for assistance; www.tourismthailand.org; 8am-8pm) Head Office (Map; 0 2250 5500; 1600 Phetchaburi Tat Mai; Makkasan, Ratchathewi; 8.30am-4.30pm Mon-Fri); Banglamphu (Map; 0 2283 1555, ext 1556; cnr Th Ratchadamnoen Nok & Th Chakrapatdipong; 8.30am-4.30pm); Suvarnabhumi International Airport ( 0 2134 4077; International Terminal, 2nd fl, near Exit Door 1 & Exit Door 10; 8am-10pm) has well-stocked offices with brochures and maps covering the whole country. The Banglamphu branch is also home to the Tourist Police (Map; 1155; 24hr). If you need information over the phone we strongly recommend you call the 1672 line, not the offices themselves. Questions can be answered online by clicking through the ‘1672 Tourist Hotline’ link from the website.
TAT Offices Abroad
TAT has 20 offices scattered about the globe, mainly in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. For a full list, with exhaustive contact details, see www.tourismthailand.org/tat-oversea-office.
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TRAVELLERS WITH DISABILITIES
Bangkok presents one large, ongoing obstacle course for the mobility-impaired, with its high kerbs, uneven pavements and nonstop traffic. Many of the city’s streets must be crossed via pedestrian bridges flanked with steep stairways, while buses and boats don’t stop long enough to accommodate even the mildly disabled. Aside from some Skytrain and Metro stations, ramps or other access points for wheelchairs are rare.
A few top-end hotels make consistent design efforts to provide disabled access. Other deluxe hotels with high employee-to-guest ratios are usually good about providing staff help where building design fails. For the rest, you’re pretty much left to your own resources. These companies and websites might help:
Asia Pacific Development Centre on Disability (www.apcdfoundation.org)
Society for Accessible Travel & Hospitality (www.sath.org)
Wheelchair Tours to Thailand (www.wheelchairtours.com)
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VISAS
Thailand has developed a penchant for changing its immigration laws in recent years, ostensibly to get rid of illegal workers and ‘bad influences’ such as sex tourists. At the time we went to press the citizens of 42 countries, including most Western European countries, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and the USA, could still enter Thailand without a visa. If you arrive by air you could stay for up to 30 days, but coming overland you can only stay for 15 days. Either way, citizens of Brazil, Republic of Korea and Peru may enter without a visa for 90 days. For a full list of eligible countries and other visa matters, see the Royal Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs website: www.mfa.go.th/web/12.php.
Thai authorities love a good crackdown and periodic immigration offensives have meant, in recent years, the once-ignored requirement of an onward ticket is being more strictly enforced, usually by airline staff in the departing city. We’ve heard of several people who had to buy an onward ticket just to get onto