THAILAND Overview Thailand is located in Southeast Asia between Burma, Laos, and Cambodia. Thailand is approximately 514,000 square kilometers. Thailand is made up of all types of land. The main land is the central plains, which is surrounded by the Mae Nam River and its tributaries. Northeast of here are the plateaus and the Mekong river. Mountains run along the north and west borders, and the rain forest peninsula is in the south. Thailand has a tropical monsoon climate, and usually the south gets the most rain and the north gets the least amount of rain.
Thailand's formal name is the "Kingdom of Thailand"ÃÂ, but everybody calls it Thailand for short. The capital of Thailand is Bangkok. There are over 60 million people living in Thailand today. Most the population is Thai (85%), but there are also Chinese (11%), Laos (1%), Malays (3-4%), and other nationalities from Southeast Asia. Most of the core Thai's in Thailand practice Buddhism, but Islam and Christianity are also practiced among the Malays, hill people, and Vietnamese.
English: Boxing match in Bangkok,Thailand. http://...
English: In Bangkok, these students were returning...
English: Seal of Bangkok.Education is important in Thailand. "Government supports universal free primary education. Most children attend school several years, and more than 85 percent of [the] population [is] literate"ÃÂ ("Thailand,"ÃÂ XV). Thailand has been an independent country for most of its history.
Prostitution and AIDS One of the main global issues facing Thailand is prostitution, which eventually leads to AIDS. Prostitution is illegal in Thailand, "but the operation of a facility where prostitution occurs is not"ÃÂ(Slagter). Prostitution is tolerated in Thailand and is encouraged in official circles. The owners who run prostitution rings, sometimes high-level government officials, are not breaking the law; it's the actual prostitute who is breaking the law.
Most of the women in this occupation are between the ages of 15 and 29. There are between 200...