ThailandBangkok gives directions by soi
Much of Bangkok hangs off a few long main roads, and the smaller streets branching from them are sois, numbered along the way — Sukhumvit Soi 11, Soi 24 — with odd numbers on one side of the main road and even on the other. That sounds tidy until the soi with the next number turns out to be across a busy main road, or a narrow lane has sub-sois of its own, or the entrance you need is at the far end of a building. Ride-hailing apps sidestep the whole system: you drop a pin, the fare is quoted before the car sets off, and the in-app chat, often with translation built in, lets the driver ask which gate. Pick a motorbike instead of a car at rush hour and the same pin gets you there while the traffic stands still.
The monsoon writes the island timetable
Thailand's islands sit on two coasts with different weather. The Andaman side — Phuket, Krabi, Phi Phi, Lanta — takes the southwest monsoon from roughly May to October, when seas turn rough and some boat routes thin out or pause until the dry season. The Gulf islands of Samui, Phangan and Tao have their own wetter stretch later in the year. Reaching either usually means a combined ticket: a van to the pier, a speedboat or ferry across, a pickup at the other end, and when one leg slips, the others need to hear about it. Keep the booking reference and the operator's contact details on the phone, not on a printout the spray will find first.
The QR code on the noodle cart
Across Thailand, a laminated QR code taped to a food cart or a market stall is as familiar as the banknotes changing hands next to it. That code belongs to the country's national instant-payment scheme, and it is built first for Thai bank apps. A growing number of foreign banking apps and wallets can now pay it, and plenty still cannot, so find out whether yours does before an evening at a night market depends on it. Keep baht on you regardless: a scan that fails, or an app that turns out not to support the code, still leaves you holding the noodles.
Every business has a LINE account
Thailand's everyday messaging app is LINE, not the one most visitors arrive using. Hotels, dive centres, tailors, laundries and cooking schools print a LINE ID on the sign or tape a code by the till, and that is where bookings get confirmed, fittings get moved and photos of tomorrow's boat get sent. You can usually add a business by scanning its code on the spot. Having LINE installed and signed in before you land saves a surprising amount of pointing, and the conversation carries on after you have walked away.
