The Thai Hangover Factbook
In relation to the costs of other consumer activities, drinking is quite expensive.
The Thai government taxes alcoholic beverages with something like 50%.
A a large bottle(630ml) of beer easily costs more than the half of the minimum daily
wage of a Bangkok worker.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
Thailand is no.5 in worlds alcohol consumption, well ahead of France and Ireland.
Beers brewewd in Thailand:
Chang,Singha, Singha Gold, Amarit NB, Kloster, Carlsberg, Beer Chang, Heineken
Singha dominated the Thai beer market for ages, but Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi's Chang Beeris now the most common beer in Thailand with some like 60% of the market.
Major breweries :
Boon Rawd Breweries (Singha, Singha Gold)
Amarit (Amarit NB, Kloster)
Carlsberg (Carlsberg, Beer Chang)
Heinken (Heineken)
The Thai word for beer is bia. Draught beer is bia sot
Legal Spirits:
Mekong (rice whisky)
Sang Thip (shugar cane rum)
and other labels
The Thai government lifted the alcohol monopole. Now EVERYBODY in the realm can get a license to produce alcohol for as little as 2,50 USD a year.
That's a revolution.
More info you find at www.surachae.com ( you need thai browser)
Illegal Spirits(jungle liquor = YAA DONG):
between 10% and 95% ! of alcohol.
Available in smaller towns in almost every garage-type restaurant (not in Muslim restaurants) under the counter. (don't know if still illegal, but anyway, this law was never really enforced)
Yaa Dong is actually an old natural medicine ,roots and herbs are addeded to jungle liquor to enhance flavor and color. You can indulge it as a tea, but to soak the herbs in alcohol increases the fun factor and the blood circulation :-)). Don't worry, nobody will get busted for a normal Yaa Dong.
But I heard reports that some Yaa Dong bars tried to alter the buzz by adding one or the other special herb or mushroom. This might put a police ociffer *hicks* in action..
Wines:
Poor domestic production. Imported wines from France Australia or USA are available
in western restaurants and supermarkets.
Drugs:
marijuana, psilocybin, opium,heroin.
Opium, Heroin and Marijuana are widely used in Thailand,
but it is illegal to buy,sell,or posses these drugs in any quantity.
(To possess opium for consumption, not for sale, is legal among hill tribes in the northern provinces.)
But the average illicit drug among locals is MDA, (XTC) in Thai= Ya Baa.
It's usually imported from Birma, and than smuggled into the realm.
Too much money in that business that not everybody wants to have it's share.
Just keep your hands off, you are on a vacation not on an escape,... or, are you?
Especially on the islands psilocybin containig mushrooms
(buffalo-shit-mushrooms) are sometimes sold to, or gathered by westeners.
( eg. Full moon Parties, Had Rhin, Koh Pa Ngan)
The legal status of posessing these mushrooms is questionable.
Watch out, be carefull,
Never run after it, let it all come easy.
Why to try something for the first time, what you intend not to take a second time?
Never try to be smarter than the locals.
Penalties for drug offences are stiff, for using Marijuana
you might end up for one year in prison, while for using heroin,
the penalty can be up to 10 years imprisonment.
For smuggling any amount of heroin you will be sent for lifelong imprisonment.
For sumuggling heroin with the intention to sell you will be executed.
one man, one beer, no problem.
(fishermans proverb on Ko Thao)
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