“Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.”
Henry Adams
• The first King of the Chakri Dynasty was Phra Phutthayotfa (Rama 1) who reigned for 27 years from 1782 to 1809.
• A total of 1.042 trillion baht worth of transactions were made online through the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 2007 up 99.62% from 2006.
(Bangkok Post, January 14 2008)
• At present Bangkok has three rail lines – two elevated and one underground, carrying 600,000 passengers per day.
(Bangkok Post, January 14 2008)
• A total of 5 million tourists visited Phuket last year and the island has 36,000 hotel rooms.
(TAT)
• There are a total of 47,660 franchised outlets in Thailand with the largest groups being food and beverage (22,000 outlets), education (1,500), services (4,200), retailing (7,500) and the beauty industry (1,550).
(Somjit Likitsataporn, Franchise Focus Ltd)
• 91 teachers have been killed in the three southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani since 2004.
(TNA)
• There is an estimated 1.8million migrant workers in Thailand with Burmese nationals making up around 75%.
(Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare)
• Thailand is the 54th freest economy in the world (50th in 2006). Hong Kong is the freest followed by Singapore and Ireland. North Korea is ranked as having the least freest economy.
(Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal annual report)
• Power consumption in Thailand for the peak period from the end of March to mid-April is expected to reach 23,344 megawatts, up 2.3% year-on-year, or 13.5 billion kilowatt-hours (units).
(Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand)
• More than 50% of household electricity bills in Thailand are from air-conditioners.
(Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand)
