Understanding Thai Address-Hotels and Houses

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Mike

Soi Thanon Street Address

If you travel to Thailand for pleasure or business you may well stay in a hotel or private apartment, you may also want to find a specific address during your travels. The Thai address system for  hotels, houses and businesses can be confusing. Even when the address is in Roman script it can still take quite a bit of deciphering making understanding the Thai address system difficult for foreigners..

Take the address of this  popular hotel in the Sukumvit area of Bangkok for instance:

Ambassador Hotel
171 Sukhumvit
Soi 11-13
Bangkok
10110
Thailand

At first glance it appears that the hotel is located at 171 Sukhumvit, however if you look closer you will also see Soi 11-13.  Now the Thai word for a road is Thanon(when Romanised), however this could also mean avenue or street as well since the Thais do not differentiate, however smaller roads leading off a Thanon are often called soi,  while a trok is an alley. Even numbered soi’s are all on the same side of the main road while odd numbered soi’s are on the opposite side. A Soi may have a name or just a number, in big cities these are often displayed in Thai and English although Romanisation varies greatly.

So back to the Ambassador hotel, where is it exactly? Well its actually located between Soi 11 and 13 about 300 yards from Sukumvit Road in Bangkok. The front entrance is on Soi 11 and the rear entrance is on Soi 13. Confused? Me too the first time I stayed there.  So what about 171? Well it might be the number of the property on the Soi, but is that Soi 11 or Soi 13? In this case probably neither since it is more likely the original plot number for the hotel buildings.

OK this is not a major problem if you are seeking a hotel since they are usually fairly large and obvious, but what about a house on a Thanon or Soi? Take this address for example:

109/202 (Plot and house number)
Soi 134, (Street/Soi)
Moo 2, (Muban)
Khlong Wan (Tambon)
Muang Prachuap Khiri Khan, (Amphoe/Amphur)
Thailand
77101(Post Code)

So what you would actually be looking at here is house number 202 on Soi 134, in Muban 2(a village or area including small villages) which in the example is the village of Nong Hin, located in the Tambon(commune-collection of villages) of Khlong Wan in the Amphoe/Amphur(district) covered by Prachuap Khiri Khan city. The 109 is redundant in this case as it indicates the original plot number.

You might also come across another version of an address in Thailand, take this address for example:

50/1 (Plot and house number)
Moo 2 (Muban)
Khlong Wan (Tambon)
Muang Prachuap Khiri Khan(Amphoe/Amphur)
Thailand
77000(Post Code)

Similar to example 2 above but there is no apparent Soi name or number. This is quite true and the address refers to house number 1 on plot 50 in the village of Nong Hin etc.

In all of the above examples the five figure number at the end of the address is the post code issued to the area by Thailand Post.

Although most taxi drivers will of course know the main hotels in a large city and will probably understand the English pronunciation of its name the same cannot be said for private dwellings or indeed all properties outside the big conurbations.

For example if you wanted to visit the last address and arrived by train in Prachuap Khiri Khan, what would you tell the taxi driver? Even if you spoke good Thai, chances are he will not know the address, he will know the area(Muban) but try finding a house at 3am in the morning with hardly any street lighting and you may have a problem. Aggravated by the confusing house numbering system and lack of Romanisation in more rural areas.

Footnote:

Understanding Thai addresses is further compounded by the inconsistent way road, street and soi names are transliterated into Roman characters. Asking for an address using such transliterated words will often draw a blank look.   If at all possible get your destination written in Thai but as an alternative a printout of a Google map may help but remember  the transliterated words on the map will still not necessarily be understood. Fortunately there is usually some Thai script too. Take a close look at the map of Prachuap Khiri Khan to see what I mean.

Related posts:

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  3. Looking for the Thai Silk King
  4. Thai Names and Nicknames
  5. Annual Renewal Retirement Extension Thai Visa
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  • http://tambon.blogspot.com/ MaewNam

    Nice description of this awkward system, which makes it very difficult for anyone non-local to find anything just by the address. I often run into this when I try to locate any of the local administration offices, especially those of the TAO (Oh Bo To), which usually only have the last version. And as there's even no map on the internet showing the location of the Muban it's impossible to guess where that office is actually located.

    Such a system calls for a huge database translating at least plot numbers to geographical coordinates. But even Google's address parsing fails with the Thai addresses, for example the book venues in Bangkok at librarything are all quite off from the real location, because Google did just get the subdistrict (khwaeng) right. Whereas here in Germany the same is up to a few metres exact, as the houses are numbered in a much more logical and easier to parse order.

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Andy thank you. I have a question you may be able to answer.

    Given the last address example is my home, how does Thai Post know where to deliver?

    They found me with packages addressed in Roman script before we even put up the house number. I wonder do they have some sort of database that links to plot numbers?

    Of course given that many plots are still not supported by a Chanote I suppose this is unlikely, although the local land office must have maps indicating their surveys.

  • http://tambon.blogspot.com/ MaewNam

    I have no idea by what magic the Thai Post can find the houses. Of course the data is available at the Land Office, but if and how this data ever finds its way to other services is way beyond my knowledge. Maybe the answer is quite simple – the local post delivery guy knew that there's a Farang living in that house now, and guessed that a package with roman script and an hitherto unknown address must be for that new citizen.

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Andy you are probably right about the delivery, reckon I need to go and chat to Thai post in PKK perhaps they do have a system :-)

  • http://missus-emm.blogspot.com/ Emm

    This is really quite fascinating! I thought New York was confusing enough and asked a million question of my poor host before arriving! I think I've underestimated how hard it must be to visit off the beaten track in Thailand without a guide.

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Emm, funnily enough I didn't find NYC too confusing once I figured out the grid system, which is fine until you go to the village or downtown :-) Generally speaking the problem here is transliteration of Thai to English. If you speak and read Thai no real problem although the numbering system does confuse Thais too.

  • Camille

    Excellent post, especially considering that the post man stopped by our house today, trying to deliver a parcel addressed to 53/5 and we're 53/3.

    It's a very complicated system nad only locals have a vague idea where you may be!

  • http://missus-emm.blogspot.com/ Emm

    Oh, luckily enough, it was just me worrying beforehand. I was actually as right as rain when I actually arrived. Arriving in Serbia was also interesting with all the Cyrillic but and it took me a while to realise that they weren't using four languages, just two. (I can;t really explain why I thought they were repeating the same town names four times except to say that the town names were similar).

    How well do you read Thai?

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Camille, where I live I suppose its easier for the postie, but I still can't figure it out, glad he can!

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Mandy I don't read Thai! Well not quite true but my vocabulary is limited to money and temples :-) I actually think the Thai script is worse than Cyrillic which do look a bit like Roman characters.

  • http://missus-emm.blogspot.com/ Emm

    I agree! Cyrillic at least has one or two common letter with latin and you can sort of see where you are in the word. Thai looks wonderfully exotic and completely foreign to me!

  • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

    Emm Thai is so difficult words are not separated like in English which adds to the confusion.