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GDP: US$166 billion
GDP per head: US$2740
Annual growth: -8.5%
Inflation: 5.6%
Major products: Computers, garments, integrated circuits, gems, jewellery
Major trading partners: ASEAN, USA, European Union

Many festivals are linked to Buddhist or Brahman rituals and follow a lunar calendar. New Year, Songkran, is celebrated in mid-April by 'bathing' Buddha images, paying respects to monks and elders by sprinkling water over their hands, and generally tossing a lot of the H2O in the air for fun. Expect to be soaked unless you want to party-poop in your room. The sowing and harvesting of rice has given rise to a cycle of festivals. To kick off the official rice-planting season in early May, the king participates in an ancient Brahman ritual in a large field in central Bangkok. A Rocket Festival is held in May in the country's north-east, using a volatile mixture of bamboo and gunpowder to convince the sky to send rain for the new rice season. The rice harvest from September through to May leads to joyous local celebrations throughout Thailand. The Vegetarian Festival in Phuket and Trang, during which devout Chinese Buddhists eat only vegetarian food, runs for nine days from late-September to early-October. Merit-making processions are the most visible expression of this festival, but there are also ceremonies at Chinese temples. The Elephant Roundup in Surin in November is an elephantine festival popular with the kind of people who enjoy watching pachyderms play soccer.

Visas: Most visitors can stay for 30 days without a visa
Health risks: AIDS, cholera, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, malaria, rabies
Time: UTC plus seven hours
Electricity: 220V, 50 Hz
Weights & measures: Metric with local variations
Tourism: 6.7 million visitors in 1995

The best overall time for visiting most of Thailand vis a vis climate is between November and February - during these months it rains least and is not too hot. The south is best visited when the rest of Thailand is miserably hot (March to May), and the north is best from mid-November to early December or when it starts warming up again in February. If you're spending time in Bangkok, be prepared to roast in April and do some wading in October - probably the worst two months, weather-wise, in the capital. The peak tourist months are December and August, and the least crowded months are May, June and September.