Registering with your country’s embassy in Thailand

While visiting the Land Of Smiles for quite a long stay, it would be a great idea to register yourself with the consular section of your respective country’s embassy. It will not only enable them to locate you in case of a family emergency, but also keep them better informed of the number and location of citizens from your country in the event of a large-scale emergency.

There are 61 foreign embassies in Bangkok. These include countries like India, USA, China, Australia etc. while some are located in sub urban areas of Bangkok, others are also found in the Chiang Mai and Phuket districts. Most embassies are required by law to keep any information you give them completely confidential, and will release it only when authorized by you to do so.

There are various ways of locating and registering yourself with the Thai Embassies.  Firstly you can look for the Thailand Yellow Pages of the Official Thailand Survival Guide, Pattaya Edition to find the location of your embassy. Once you find your country’s embassy office, you can call them and ask them to fax you a registration form which you complete and fax back. If that sounds tedious, you can even search on the web and click on “online registration form” and follow the directions. You will be registered electronically with the consular section. Registering at the Consular Section will facilitate things in the following cases:

* loss or theft of Passport
* loss of airline ticket
* any sudden death of a tourist
* imprisonment of a tourist

The embassies of Bangkok are usually working between Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. — 11:00 a.m., or 1:00 p.m. — 3:00 p.m. (except holidays of your country and Thai holidays).

South Thailand under bomb attacks!

Various shops and restaurants located in the southern parts of Thailand’s tourist hubs were severely targeted with as many as seven small bomb explosions! Two bombs hit Hat Yai and five exploded in Songkhla Town within hours of each other late on Saturday the 2nd of August. While two people were killed in separate attacks, two women aged 16 and 18 were also hit by shrapnel but are expected to recover from their injuries soon.

At about 9:00pm (1400 GMT), the first blasts were heard by the locals. The attacks have affected 7-Eleven convenience stores, a restaurant, a tea shop and a police checkpoint.

Hat Yai is the main tourist hub in the southern region and is particularly popular with Malaysian and Singaporean tourists. It has been a soft target of sporadic bombings over the last 2 years. Since then it has been struggling to fight back. Songkhla province borders Pattani and Yala, two of three southern Muslim-majority provinces. The unrest here has killed more than 3000 people since 2004!

Who could possibly be connected to these blasts is yet to be figured out though Songkhla’s police chief, Major General Viroon Aiempaijit, said police were collecting evidences to zero down on the guilty.