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THAILAND
Opening Hours
& Festivals
Most shops open at least Monday to Saturday from about 8am to 8pm,
while department stores operate daily from around 10am to 9pm. Private
office hours are generally Monday to Friday 8am-5pm and Saturday
8am-noon, though in tourist areas these hours are longer, with weekends
worked like any other day. Government offices work Monday to Friday
8.30am-noon and 1-4.30pm, and national museums tend to stick to
these hours, too, but some close on Mondays and Tuesdays rather
than at weekends. Most shops and tourist-oriented businesses, including
TAT, stay open on national holidays.
Thais use both the Western Gregorian calendar and a Buddhist calendar
- the Buddha is said to have died (or entered Nirvana) in the year
543 BC, so Thai dates start from that point: thus 2000 AD becomes
2543 BE (Buddhist Era). Dates for religious festivals are often
set by the lunar calendar, so check specifics with TAT.
The most spectacular religious festivals include Songkhran (usually
April 13-15), when the Thai New Year is welcomed in with massive
public waterfights in the street (most exuberant in Chiang Mai);
the Rocket Festival in Yasothon (weekend in mid-May), when painted
wooden rockets are paraded and fired to ensure plentiful rains;
the Candle Festival in Ubon Ratchathani (July, three days around
the full moon), when enormous wax sculptures are paraded to mark
the beginning of the annual Buddhist retreat period; the Vegetarian
Festival in Phuket and Trang (Oct), when Chinese devotees become
vegetarian for a nine-day period and then parade through town performing
acts of self-mortification; and Loy Krathong (late Oct or early
Nov), when baskets of flowers and lighted candles are floated on
rivers, canals and ponds nationwide (best in Sukhothai and Chiang
Mai) to celebrate the end of the rainy season. The two main tourist-oriented
festivals are the Surin Elephant roundup (third weekend of Nov),
when two hundred elephants play team games, and parade in battle
dress; and the River Kwai Bridge festival in Kanchanaburi (last
week of Nov and first week of Dec), which includes a spectacular
son et lumière at the infamous bridge. |
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