Have you seen headlines like this? Thailand Protests–Students Fight to Restore Democracy. Well, those “students” are fighting to weaken Thai-Chinese relations at Beijing’s expense. Western media’s support for the small mob–complete with quotes of support from the American Embassy in Bangkok!– is the first clue that it has little to do with democracy or Thailand’s best interests.

It’s an attempt to boost waning American influence in Thailand Asia (GM just pulled out of Thailand). A billionaire candidate named Thanathorn openly took Western embassies’ support and members of his party , Future Forward, are from US and EU-funded NGOs. Thanathorn “loaned” his party millions of dollars though it has no means or intention of repaying the “loan,” meaning that it was instead in all actuality a donation – made in direct and complete violation of Thai election laws.

Since I moved to Thailand I’ve been impressed at the wide variety of nationalities I’ve met. Chiang Mai has a remarkably diverse cross section of the world’s peoples coming through it all the time. I’ve met Slovenes and Ukrainian, done yoga with Vladimir Putin’s TV producer (she says he’s “very obedient and has a good sense of humor”) and Eritreans and Sardinians and Kosovans. It’s been great!

What hasn’t been so great is the questions they ask. As soon as they find that I’m an American citizen in Thailand they start grilling me about US foreign policy. The Thais want to know why we publicly criticize the current head of government (post-coup) without understanding the difficult position he is in and why the bloodless coup saved so much Thai blood. It’s not a simple story, to be sure, but it’s a story that anyone can understand. They’re kind of amazed at how little we know in America about what’s going on the the real world. I don’t want to bore you with a personal rant, but when I came across American expat Ann Jones wrote home recently, I couldn’t resist passing it on. Foreign policy discussions are now part of polite society’s discourse – at least among expats. Forewarned is forearmed…

Americans in Thailand, and those who live abroad — more than six million of us worldwide (not counting those who work for the U.S. government) — often face hard questions about our country from people we live among. Europeans, Asians, and Africans ask us to explain everything that baffles them about the increasingly odd and troubling conduct of the United States.  Polite people, normally reluctant to risk offending a guest, complain that America’s trigger-happiness, cutthroat free-marketeering, and “exceptionality” have gone on for too long to be considered just an adolescent phase. Which means that we Americans abroad are regularly asked to account for the behavior of our rebranded “homeland,” now conspicuously in decline and increasingly out of step with the rest of the world.

In my long nomadic life, I’ve had the good fortune to live, work, or travel in all but a handful of countries on this planet.  I’ve been to both poles and a great many places in between, and nosy as I am, I’ve talked with people all along the way. I still remember a time when to be an American was to be envied. The country where I grew up after World War II seemed to be respected and admired around the world for way too many reasons to go into here.

That’s changed, of course. Even after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I still met people — in the Middle East, no less — willing to withhold judgment on the U.S.  Many thought that the Supreme Court’s installation of George W. Bush as president was a blunder American voters would correct in the election of 2004. His return to office truly spelled the end of America as the world had known it.  Bush had started a war, opposed by the entire world, because he wanted to and he could. A majority of Americans supported him.  And that was when all the uncomfortable questions really began.

In the early fall of 2014, I traveled from my home in Oslo, Norway, through much of Eastern and Central Europe. Everywhere I went in those two months, moments after locals realized I was an American the questions started and, polite as they usually were, most of them had a single underlying theme: Have Americans gone over the edge? Are you crazy? Please explain.

Then recently, I traveled back to the “homeland.”  It struck me there that most Americans have no idea just how strange we now seem to much of the world. In my experience, foreign observers are far better informed about us than the average American is about them. This is partly because the “news” in the American media is so parochial and so limited in its views both of how we act and how other countries think — even countries with which we were recently, are currently, or threaten soon to be at war. America’s belligerence alone, not to mention its financial acrobatics, compels the rest of the world to keep close track of us.  Who knows, after all, what conflict the Americans may drag you into next, as target or reluctant ally?

So wherever we expatriates settle on the planet, we find someone who wants to talk about the latest American events, large and small: another country bombed in the name of our “national security,” another peaceful protest march attacked by our increasingly militarized police, another diatribe against “big government” by yet another wannabe candidate who hopes to head that very government in Washington.  Such news leaves foreign audiences puzzled and full of trepidation.

Question Time

Take the questions stumping Europeans in the Obama years (which 1.6 million Americans residing in Europe regularly find thrown our way).  At the absolute top of the list: “Why would anyone oppose national health care?” European and other industrialized countries have had some form of national health care since the 1930s or 1940s, Germany since 1880.  Some versions, as in France and Great Britain, have devolved into two-tier public and private systems.  Yet even the privileged who pay for a faster track would not begrudge their fellow citizens government-funded comprehensive health care. That so many Americans do strikes Europeans as baffling, if not frankly brutal.

In the Scandinavian countries, long considered to be the most socially advanced in the world, a national (physical and mental) health program, funded by the state, is a big part — but only a part — of a more general social welfare system.  In Norway, where I live, all citizens also have an equal right to education (state subsidized preschool from age one, and free schools from age six through specialty training or university education and beyond), unemployment benefits, job-placement and paid retraining services, paid parental leave, old age pensions, and more.  These benefits are not merely an emergency “safety net”; that is, charitable payments grudgingly bestowed upon the needy.  They are universal: equally available to all citizens as human rights encouraging social harmony — or as our own U.S. constitution would put it, “domestic tranquility.”  It’s no wonder that, for many years, international evaluators have ranked Norway as the best place to grow old, to be a woman, and to raise a child. The title of “best” or “happiest” place to live on Earth comes down to a neighborly contest among Norway and the other Nordic social democracies, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland.

In Norway, all benefits are paid for mainly by high taxation. Compared to the mind-numbing enigma of the U.S. tax code, Norway’s is remarkably straightforward, taxing income from labor and pensions progressively, so that those with higher incomes pay more. The tax department does the calculations, sends an annual bill, and taxpayers, though free to dispute the sum, willingly pay up, knowing what they and their children get in return. And because government policies effectively redistribute wealth and tend to narrow the country’s slim income gap, most Norwegians sail pretty comfortably in the same boat. (Think about that!)

Life and Liberty

This system didn’t just happen. It was planned. Sweden led the way in the 1930s, and all five Nordic countries pitched in during the postwar period to develop their own variations of what came to be called the Nordic Model: a balance of regulated capitalism, universal social welfare, political democracy, and the highest levels of gender and economic equality on the planet. It’s their system. They invented it. They like it. Despite the efforts of an occasional conservative government to muck it up, they maintain it. Why?

In all the Nordic countries, there is broad general agreement across the political spectrum that only when people’s basic needs are met — when they can cease to worry about their jobs, their incomes, their housing, their transportation, their health care, their kids’ education, and their aging parents — only then can they be free to do as they like. While the U.S. settles for the fantasy that, from birth, every kid has an equal shot at the American dream, Nordic social welfare systems lay the foundations for a more authentic equality and individualism.

These ideas are not novel. They are implied in the preamble to our own Constitution. You know, the part about “we the People” forming  “a more perfect Union” to “promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”  Even as he prepared the nation for war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably specified components of what that general welfare should be in his State of the Union address in 1941. Among the “simple basic things that must never be lost sight of,” he listed “equality of opportunity for youth and others, jobs for those who can work, security for those who need it, the ending of special privileges for the few, the preservation of civil liberties for all,” and oh yes, higher taxes to pay for those things and for the cost of defensive armaments.

Knowing that Americans in Thailand used to support such ideas, a Norwegian today is appalled to learn that a CEO of a major American corporation makes between 300 and 400 times as much as its average employee. Or that governors Sam Brownback of Kansas and Chris Christie of New Jersey, having run up their state’s debts by cutting taxes for the rich, now plan to cover the loss with money snatched from the pension funds of workers in the public sector. To a Norwegian, the job of government is to distribute the country’s good fortune reasonably equally, not send it zooming upward, as in America today, to a sticky-fingered one percent.

In their planning, Norwegians tend to do things slowly, always thinking of the long term, envisioning what a better life might be for their children, their posterity.  That’s why a Norwegian, or any northern European, is aghast to learn that two-thirds of American college students finish their education in the red, some owing $100,000 or more. Or that in the U.S., still the world’s richest country, one in three children lives in poverty, along with one in five young people between the ages of 18 and 34. Or that America’s recent multi-trillion-dollar wars were fought on a credit card to be paid off by our kids. Which brings us back to that word: brutal.

Implications of brutality, or of a kind of uncivilized inhumanity, seem to lurk in so many other questions foreign observers ask about America like: How could you set up that concentration camp in Cuba, and why can’t you shut it down?  Or: How can you pretend to be a Christian country and still carry out the death penalty? The follow-up to which often is: How could you pick as president a man proud of executing his fellow citizens at the fastest rate recorded in Texas history?  (Europeans will not soon forget George W. Bush.)

Other things I’ve had to answer for include:

• Why can’t you Americans stop interfering with women’s health care?
• Why can’t you understand science?
• How can you still be so blind to the reality of climate change?
• How can you speak of the rule of law when your presidents break international laws to make war whenever they want?
• How can you hand over the power to blow up the planet to one lone, ordinary man?
• How can you throw away the Geneva Conventions and your principles to advocate torture
• Why do you Americans like guns so much?  Why do you kill each other at such a rate?
• To many, the most baffling and important question of all is: Why do you send your military all over the world to stir up more and more trouble for all of us?

That last question is particularly pressing because countries historically friendly to the United States, from Australia to Finland, are struggling to keep up with an influx of refugees from America’s wars and interventions. Throughout Western Europe and Scandinavia, right-wing parties that have scarcely or never played a role in government are now rising rapidly on a wave of opposition to long-established immigration policies. Only last month, such a party almost toppled the sitting social democratic government of Sweden, a generous country that has absorbed more than its fair share of asylum seekers fleeing the shock waves of “the finest fighting force that the world has ever known.”

The Way We Are

Europeans understand, More from Ann Jones…

And a glance at corruption in Thailand.

The post America in Thailand appeared first on Thai Retirement Helpers: Retiring in Thailand Made Easy.

One of the smartest things you can do is to register online with your embassy in case of emergency or overseas crisis. Click Here for Instructions that are specific to your passport country language.

1. Australian Advice Thailand – High Degree of Caution  (12th August)
2. British Foreign Travel Advice: Thailand (12th August)
3. Embassy of Ireland 12th Floor, 208 Wireless Road Lumpini, Pathumwan Bangkok 10330
   Tel : +66 2 016 1360 Fax : +66 2 675 3933
4. Embassy of Canada: Thailand Security (12th August)
5. Republic of China: 泰國 Thailand (2016/8/12)
6. Embassy of Japan Travel Advice: 大使館からのお知らせ (12th August)
7. Embassade de France en Thaïlande: Série d’explosions (12 août)
8. Germany Federal Foreign Office: Thailand: Reise- und Sicherheitshinweise (15.08.2016)
9. New Zealand Foreign Affairs – Thailand Security Incidents  (12th August)
10.  Philippines Embassy – Thailand Situation August 2016  (13th August)
11. Singapore Travel Notice – Thailand  (updated 13 August 2016)
12. Swedish Embassy Advice: Reseinformation Thailand  (uppdaterad 12 aug)
13. Swiss Embassy FDFA: Reisehinweise für Thailand (12.08.2016)
14. U.S. Security Messages – one-day outreach, September 22, while consulate is closed September and October (ACS appointment required).

There are 17 Embassies in Chiang Mai: 

 Australia –  The Australian Consulate in Chiang Mai is located at 195/262 Moo Baan Sansaran 2 (Mod Chic), Soi 2/7 T. Banwaen, A. Hangdong, Chiang Mai 50230. Open 9am to midday, Monday to Thursday, by prior appointment only. Mobile: 091-857-6996. Line: aushoncon Email: australianconsulate.chiangmai@gmail.com. Ron Elliott is Honorary Consul resident in Chiang Mai with jurisdiction throughout the provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lamphun, Lampang, Mae Hong Son, Phayao, Phrae, Nan, Uttaradit, Sukhothai and Tak. Website: www.thailand.embassy.gov.au.

 Austria – Consulate of Austria – 15 Moo 1, Huey Kaew Road, Tambon Chang Puak, Amphor Muang, Chiang Mai 50300 Phone: (+66/53) 40 02 31 (+66/53) 22 10 02 (+66/53) 21 34 73 Fax: (+66/53) 40 02 32 Office Hours: Mon, Wed, Fri: 09.00 to 12.00 website.   

 Bangladesh – Bangladeshi Consulate General – 95 Huay Kaew Road, T. Suthep, A.Muang, Chiang Mai 50200 Phone: (+66) 53 212373 – 4 Fax: (+66) 53 223524 Office Hours: 13.00-16.00 hrs 

 Belgium – Honorary Consulate of Belgium – Chumpol building – Room 1307 – Yonok College, 444 Doi Prabaht, Lampang 52000  Phone: (+66) (54) 26.51.82 Fax: (+66) (54) 26.51.81 Email. Office Hours: 07.00 – 13.00 (Monday – Friday) Website. 

 Canada – Consulate of Canada – c/o Raming Tea Co., Ltd., 151 Moo 3, Super Highway, Tambon Tahsala, Chiang Mai 50000  Phone: (+66) (53) 850 147 / 242 292 Fax: (+66) (53) 850 147 Email.  Office Hours: 09.00 – 12.00 M-F  Street View  website. 

 China – Chinese Consulate General of China – 111 Changlor Road, Haiya District, Chiangmai 50100 Phone: 0066-53-276125, 272197, 200424(Administrative office) Fax: 0066-53-274614 Email. website.  MAP

 Finland – Honorary Consulate of Finland – Ratanapon Stationery Store, 104-112 Tapae Road, Muang District, 50300 Phone: +66-53-234 777, 234 812, 233 532 Fax: +66-53-251 512  

 France – Consulate of France – Alliance Française 138 Charoen Prathet Road, Muang District, Chiang Mai Phone: (+66) (53) 281 466 / 275 277 Fax: (+66) (53) 821 039 Email: tbaude@laposte.net  Office Hours: 10.00 – 12.00 website.   MAP

 Germany – Consulate of Germany – 199/163 Moo 3, Baan Nai Fun 2, Kan Klong Chonpratan Road, Tambon Mae Hia, Amphoe Muan, Chiang Mai 50100  Phone: (+66) (53) 83 87 35 Fax: (+66) (53) 83 87 35 Email. Office Hours: 09.00 – 12.00 Honorarkonsul Hagen E.W. Dirksen website. 

 Greece – Honorary Consulate of Hellenic Republic – Apartment 404 Mooban Nai Fan Condominium, 203/19 M.3 Kunklongchonprathan, Tambon Maehiech, Amphoe Muang, Chiang Mai 50100 Phone: (00660) 53839087 Fax: (00660) 53838756 Email: bangkok@embgreece.or.th

 India – Consulate of India – 33/1, Thung Hotel Road, Wate Kate, Muang Phone: 00-66-53-243066 Fax: 00-66-53-247879 Email: cgi.chiangmai@yahoo.com Office. Hours: 0900 hrs to 1200 hrs   MAP

 Italy – Consulate of Italy – Honorary Consul – Dr. Vichit Leelamanit 19 Soi 9 Sirimungkalajarn Road Amphur Muang, Chiang Mai 50200  Phone: (+66) 5321-2925 Fax: (+66) 5322-4832 Cell: +66 (0) 81-8825252  E-mail: doctorvichit@gmail.com. Office. Hours: 09.00 – 12.00 and 13.00 – 16.00. MAP

 Japan – Consulate General of Japan – 104-107 Airport Business Park, 90 Mahidol Road, Haiya, Muang District, Chiang Mai 50100, Thailand Phone: (+66) 5320-3367 Fax: (+66) 5320-3373 Office. Hours: 08.30 – 12.00 and 13.30 – 16.30    MAP

 Korea – Consulate of The Republic of Korea – (ROK : South Korea) 50 V-Group Building Huey Keaw Rd., Chang Puak, Mueang District, Chiang Mai 50300 Tel.: 0 5322 3119-23 ext. 204, Fax.: 0 5322 5661 email: vgroup@cmnet.co.th

 Peru – Consulate of Peru – The Chiang Mai Ballet Academy, 362/30 U-Sa-Fah-Haam Compound, Charoenraj Road, Chiang Mai 50000 Phone: (+66) 5330-6357 Fax: (+66) 5330-6358 Email:  Office Hours: 13.00 – 15.00 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday)

 South Africa – Consulate of South Africa – 32 Hueaykeaw Road, Tambon Changpuek, Amphur Muang, Chiang Mai 50300, Thailand Phone: (+66) 53 711 800 Fax: (+66) 53 712 972 Email: sawaeng@loxinfo.co.th Office. Hours: 09.00 – 12.00 Details: Honorary Consul – Mr S Crueaviwatanakul  

 Sweden – Consulate of Sweden – 186/48 M.5 Green Valley, Mae Sa, Mae Rim District, Chiang Mai 50180 Tel.: 0 5329 8632, Fax.: 0 5329 8634 email: swedconsulcm@yahoo.com. websites. 

 United Kingdom – British Consul – 198 Bumrungraj Rd, Muang, Chiang Mai 50000 Phone: (+66) (53) 263 015 Fax: (+66) (53) 263 016 Email: ukconsul@loxinfo.co.th Office Hours: Mon-Fri: 0900-1130 website.  MAP

 United States – Consulate General of United States – 387 Wichayanon Road, Chiang Mai 50300 Phone: 053-107-700 (from inside Thailand); +66-53-107-700 (from outside Thailand) Fax: 053-252-633 | Non-emergencies: ACS Appointments page | After-hours emergency telephone number is 081-881-1878 (from inside Thailand); outside +66-81-881-1878 | Consular services (includes recommended STEP enrollment)  Email: acschn@state.gov  MAP

Outside Chiang Mai:

(see embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-in/thailand for more comprehensive list – please send corrections/other suggestions to crfthailand@gmail.com)

 Brazilian Embassy – Embassy of Brazil 34th Floor Lumpini Tower, 1168/101 Rama IV Road, Thungmahamek, Sathorn, Bangkok 10120 Phone: (66 2) 679-8567/8 Fax: (66 2) 679-8569 Website: http://www.brazilembassy.or.th Email: info@brazilembassy.or.th Office Hours: Mondays to Thursdays: 9:30 to 12:30 and 14:30 to 16:30 (from 15:00 to 16:30, document collection only) Fridays: 9:30 to 13:00

 Cambodian Embassy – Embassy of Cambodia 518 / 4 Pracha Uthit Rd., ( Soi Ramkamhaeng 39 ), Wangtonglang Bangkok 10310  Phone: ( 02 ) 957-5851-2 Fax: ( 02 ) 957-5850 Email: camemb.tha@mfa.gov.kh  MAP

 Danish Embassy – Royal Danish Embassy 10 Soi Attakarn Prasit, South Sathorn Road, 10120 Phone: +66 2 213 2021 Fax: +66 (0)2 213 1752 Website: http://www.ambbangkok.um.dk Email: bkkamb@um.dk

 Ghanaian Consulate – Consulate of the Republic of Ghana 976 Promsuan Building, Rimklongsamaem Road, Huay Kwang Bangkapi, Bangkok 10320 Phone: +662-6415214 Fax: +662-6415215 Honorary Consul General: Dr. Sicha Singsomboon  Website: http://www.ghanaconsulate-thailand.com/html/contactus.html  Email: info@ghanaconsulate-thailand.com

 Hungarian Embassy – Embassy of Hungary 20th Floor, Oak Tower, Prakanon, President Park Condominium,, 99 Sukhumvit Soi 24, Prakanong, Bangkok 10110  Phone: (+66) 2661-1150 / 1 / 2 Fax: (+66) 2661-1153 Email: huembbgk@mozart.inet.co.th Office Hours: 08.00 -14.00

 Indonesian Consulate – Consulate of Indonesia in Songkhla 19, Sadao Road, Amphur Muang, Songkhla 90000  City: Songkhla Phone: (66-74) 311-544, 312-219, 441-867 Fax: (66-74) 441-094 Email: song4kom@hadyai.loxinfo.co.th

 Irish Consulate – Honorary Consul of Ireland 28th Floor, Q. House Lumpini Building, 1, South Sathorn Road, Tungmahamek, Sathorn, Bangkok 10120 Phone: [66] 2 677 7500 Fax: [66] 2 677 7501 Website: http://www.irelandinthailand.com/ Email: ireland@loxinfo.co.th Details: Honorary Consul: Peter Gary Biesty  CHIANG MAI – Voluntary Representative Annette Kunigagon Tel: 053-874-126, 053-235-387

 Israeli Embassy – Embassy of Israel 25th Floor, Ocean Tower II, 75 Sukhumvit Soi 19, Bangkok, 10110 Phone: 02-204-9200; 02-204-9237; 02-204-9226-7 Fax: 02-204-9239; 02-204-9221 Website: http://embassies.gov.il/bangkok-en/Pages/default.aspx  Email: info@bangkok.mfa.gov.il  MAP

 Kenyan Embassy – Embassy of the Republic of Kenya – 62 Soi 5 Thonglor, Sukhumvit 55 Road, Klongtan, Wattana, Bangkok 10110  Tel: (+66)(0)2 7125721, (+66)(0)2 1853682, (+66)(0)2 1853683 Fax: Fax: (+66)(0)2 7125720 E-mail: info@kenyaembassy.or.th  Office hours: 09:00 – 13:00, 14:00- 16:30 hours, Monday to Thursday, Friday 09:00 – 12:30  http://www.kenyaembassy.or.th/home.htm  Citizen Registration

 Lao or Laotian Embassy – Embassy of Laos 502,502/1-3 Soi Sahakarnpramoon, Pracha-Uthit Road, Wangthonglang, Bangkok 10310  Phone: (+66) 2539-66679-8 Fax: (+66 2) 539-6678 Website: http://www.bkklaoembassy.com Email: sabaidee@bkklaoembassy.com,embalao@bkklaoembassy.com Office Hours: 08.00 – 12.00 and 13.00 – 16.00

 Malaysian Embassy – Embassy of Malaysia 33-35 South Sathorn Road, Tungmahamek, Sathorn, Bangkok 10120 Phone: +66-2-6296800 Fax: +66-2-6792208 Website: http://www.kln.gov.my/perwakilan/bangkok Email: malbangkok@kln.gov.my

 Mexican Embassy – Embassy of Mexico 21/60-62 Thai Wah Tower l, 20th. floor South Sathorn Road, Yannawa, 10120 Phone: (662) 285-0995, 285-0815 al 18 Fax: (662) 285-0667 Website: http://www.sre.gob.mx/tailandia Email: mexthai@loxinfo.co.th Office Hours: Monday – Friday: 08:00 – 16:00

 Mongolian Embassy – Embassy of Mongolia 100/3 Soi Ekkamai 22,Sukhumvit 63 Road,Klongtan -Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110 Phone: 02-381-1400 Fax: 02-392-4199 Email: mongemb@loxinfo.co.th Website: http://www.bangkok.mfa.gov.mn/index.php?lang=en MAP

 Moroccan Embassy – Embassy of Morocco One Pacific Place Bldg., 19th Floor, 140 Sukhumvit Road, (between Soi 4-6) Klongtoey, Bangkok 10110 Phone: (+66) 2653-2444 – 6 Fax: (+66) 2653-2449 Email: sifambkk@mweb.co.th, sifambkk@samarts.th Office Hours: 09.00 – 16.00 Details: Ambassador: Mr. El Hassane Zahid

 Myanmar Embassy – Embassy of Myanmar 132, Sathorn Nua Road, Bangkok 10500 Phone: (662) 233-2237, 234-4698, 233-7250, 234-0320, 637-9406 Fax: (662) 236-6898 Email: mebkk@asianet.co.th

     Nepalese Embassy – Embassy of Nepal 189 Soi 71, Sukumvit Road Prakanong,, Bangkok 10110 Phone: 00662-391-7240, 390-2280 Fax: 00662-381-2406 Email: nepembbk@asiaaccess.net.th

 Dutch Embassy – Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands 15 Soi Tonson, Ploenchit Road, Lumpini, , Phatumwan, Bangkok 1030   | P .O. Box 404, Bangkok 10500  Phone: +66 (0)2 3095200 Fax: +66 (0)2 3095205 Website: http://thailand.nlembassy.org/  Email: ban@minbuza.nl Office Hours: Monday-Thursday 08:00-16:00 Friday 08:00-12:00 Monday-Friday 09:00-12:00 (consular)

 New Zealand Embassy – Kiwi Embassy – M Thai Tower, 14th Floor, All Seasons Place, 87 Wireless Road, Pathumwan, Lumpini Bangkok 10330 Tel: +66 2 254 2530 Fax: +66 2 253 9045 or 253 0249 E-mail: info@newzealandembassybkk.com Emergency After Hours Duty Officer: +66 81 837 7240 Office hours: 08:00 – 12:00 and 13:00 – 14:30 hours, Monday to Friday http://www.nzembassy.com/thailand  Consular Assistance  Safe Travel Registration MAP

 Norwegian Embassy – Royal Norwegian Embassy Office Address: UBC II Building, 18th floor, , 591 Sukhumvit Road, Soi 33, 10110, G.P.O. box 81, Bangkok10501 Phone: +66 (0)2 204-6500 Fax: +66 (0)2 262-0218 Website: http://www.emb-norway.or.th Email: emb.bangkok@mfa.no Office Hours: 09:00 to 12:00, and from 13:00 to 16:00 Monday through Friday Details: Ambassador: H.E. Ms Merete Fjeld Brattested

 Filipino Embassy – Embassy of the Philippines 760 Sukhumvit Road, cor. Soi Philippines, (Soi 30/1) Bangkok 10110 Phone: (00662) 259-0139 to 40; 258-5401 Fax: (00662) 259-2809 / 259-7373 Website: http://www.philembassy-bangkok.net Email: bangkokpe@dfa.gov.ph or inquiry@philembassy-bangkok.net Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m

 Portuguese Embassy Embassy of Portugal 26, Bush Lane (Soi New Road 30), Bang Rak, Bangkok 10500 Phone: (+66) 22342123, 22340372, 22347435 Fax: (+66) 26396113 Email: portemb@scban.dgaccp.pt

 Russian Embassy – Embassy of the Russian Federation – 78 Sap Road, Surawong, Bangrak 10500 Telephone: (+66)2-234-9824, (+66)2-268-1169 email: rusembbangkok@rambler.ru www.thailand.mid.ru   http://www.thailand.mid.ru/Win_work/maps_eng.htm  MAP

 Singaporean Embassy – Embassy of Singapore 129 South Sathorn Road, Bangrak

10120 Phone: +286 2111, +286 1434 Fax: +286 6966, +287 2578 Website: http://www.mfa.gov.sg/bangkok/ Email: singemb_bkk@sgmfa.gov.sg Office Hours: Mon – Fri 9.00 am to 12.00 pm 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm Sat & Sun – Closed

 Spanish Embassy – Embassy of Spain 23 Lake Ratchada Office Complex, 193/117 Ratchadaphisek Road, Bangkok 10320 Phone: 02 661 8284 Fax: 0-2661 9220 Email: embespth@mail.mae.es, spaincom@ksc15.th.com Office Hours: 08.30 -15.30 (Monday – Thursday) 08.30 – 13.30 (Friday) Visa Section: 09.00-12.00 (Monday – Friday)

 Sri Lankan Embassy – Embassy of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka – 89 Soi 15, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok Phone: (+66-2) 2512788, 2512789 Fax: (+66-2) 2553848 Email: slemb@ksc.net.th Office Hours: Monday to Friday 8:30:00 AM to 4:15:00 PM

 Swiss Embassy – Embassy of Switzerland – 35 North Wireless Road, Bangkok 10330, P.O Box 821, Bangkok 10501  Phone: ++66 2 253 01 56 Fax: ++66 2 255 44 81 Email: ban.vertretung@eda.admin.ch, ban.visa@eda.admin.ch Office Hours: Mo – Fr. 09.00 – 11.30 AM 

 Taiwanese Embassy – Representative Office of Taiwan – 20th Floor, Empire Tower, 195 South Sathorn Road, Yannawa, Bangkok 10120 Phone: (+66) (2) 670-0200 – 9 Fax: (+66) (2) 670-0220 Email: tecoinfo@ji-net.com,tecocomu@ji-net.com

 Ukrainian Embassy – Embassy of Ukraine 87 All Seasons Place, CRC Tower, 33rd Floor, Wireless Road Lumpini, Phatumwan, Bangkok Phone: +66-26853215 Fax: +66-26853217 Website: http://www.ukraineinfo.gov.ua/main

 Emirati Embassy – Embassy of United Arab Emirates – CRC Tower, 29th Floor, All Seasons Place, 87/2 Wireless Road (Thanon Witthayu), Lumpini, Phatumwan, Bangkok 10330 Phone: (+66) 2 402 4000 Fax: (+66) 2 402 4005 Email: info@uaeembassy.or.th

 Vietnamese Embassy – Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam 83/1 Wireless Road, Lumpini,, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Tailand Phone: 0-2251-5836 – 8 Fax: 0-2251-7203 Website: http://www.vietnamembassy-thailand.org Email: vnemb.th@mofa.gov.vn Office Hours: Monday – Friday 08.00 – 11.30 and 13.30 – 16.30 Hrs.

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