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Purpose: This page covers mainly phone numbers that are used most frequently. If you want a phone number but it isn't listed in this section, try a subsection of ThailandGuru.com which covers your topic. For example, if looking for the phone number of the train station, try the transport section.
For help in dialing, getting a phone, using a public phone, etc., you may also want to check out the telephone subsection of the Infrastructure and General Info section
Tips: Be prepared to reach telephone numbers that ring but don't answer. Quasi-government agencies tend to change telephone numbers suddenly (why?) without leaving any recorded message, just an old phone number that rings with no answer. But sometimes they are just understaffed with careless employees and managers who might answer on the 12th ring... or just might not answer. This includes expensive new infrastructure projects (with alleged big-money corruption kickbacks to big wheels who are now proudly associated with understaffed, careless, underpaid and disillusioned employees, yet throw big money around everyday on personal things). This is what you have secretaries for: to spend an hour just contacting one information source, and speaking Thai.
Notably, the American Embassy in Thailand also slid into the Thai way by changing its main phone number and letting the previous one just ring out. You're advised to keep checking your emergency phone numbers, and we can't guarantee that all of the following emergency phone numbers will continue to work. This is Thailand. Longtime ex-pats often lose their standards of quality, too, not just government fatcats.
We recommend that you write down on a piece of paper and tape onto your telephones selected phone numbers below. This should include a local hospital's ambulance service, and preferably the local district phone number of the police and fire stations in addition to the central number, though the central phone number may speak better English and be better able to communicate with the district outlet. The tourist police is best for English and in some situations for service. Your embassy's main number should also be kept. If you have maids, then you should write down the phone numbers in both English and Thai.
The 3-digit and 4-digit emergency numbers are usually free calls from any phone, including pay phones so that you don't have to dig for coins in order to make an emergency call.
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General Emergency |
191 or |
Police, Ambulance, Fire |
Use simple English, speak slowly, and good luck... |
|
Police |
|||
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Police - General |
191 or 123 |
Emergency 24-hour |
|
|
Police - Tourist |
1155 |
Emergency |
English, French, German OK |
|
Police - Tourist |
678-6800 |
Headquarters |
|
|
Police - Highway |
193 |
Highway Patrol |
|
|
Police - Crime |
195 or |
Crime Suppression Bureau |
|
|
Fire |
199 or 191 |
The central number |
|
|
Ambulance |
310-3456 |
Bangkok General Hospital |
New Petchburi Rd., |
|
Ambulance |
632-0582-6 |
Bangkok Nursing Home (BNH) |
Convent Rd., |
|
Ambulance |
667-2999 |
Bumrungrad Hospital |
Sukhumvit Rd., |
|
Ambulance |
392-0011 |
Samitivej Hospital |
Sukhumvit Rd., |
|
Ambulance |
675-5000 |
St. Louis Hospital |
215 Sathorn South Rd. |
|
Ambulance |
361-2712-61 |
Thai Nakharin Hospital |
345 Bang Na Trat Rd. |
|
Ambulance |
731-7000 |
Samitivej Sri Nakharin Hosp. |
Sri Nakharin Rd. |
|
Rabies |
252-0161 |
Rabies Unit, Thai |
Saovabha Institute, |
|
Hospital - |
310-3001 |
Bangkok General Hospital |
New Petchburi Rd., |
|
Hospital - |
667-1000 |
Bumrungrad Hospital |
Sukhumvit soi 3 |
|
Hospital - |
256-4124 or |
Chulalongkorn Hospital |
Rama 4 Rd. & Rajdamri Rd |
|
Hospital - |
252-2171-5 |
Police Hospital |
often for accidents |
|
Hospital - |
392-0010-9 |
Samitivej Hospital |
Sukhumvit soi 49 |
|
Phone book |
299-5000 |
Shinawatra Direc- |
See explanation below, have |
|
Directory |
13 |
Within Bangkok |
Bangkok Metropolitan Area, |
|
Directory |
183 |
Provincial numbers |
Provinces outside Bangkok, |
|
Directory |
100 |
International numbers |
|
|
Telephone line |
TBD |
Telephone Organization |
The government phone company for |
|
Telephone line |
TBD |
Telecom Asia (TA) |
Part private sector provider |
|
Telephone problems |
17-[xxx] |
For [xxx], put in the first three |
|
|
Telephone complaints |
189 |
Telephone Complaint Center |
|
|
Water |
125 |
Bangkok Water Works |
Emergency number |
|
Water |
223-0041 |
Bangkok Water Works |
Head office |
|
Electricity |
314-0024 |
EGAT - Electricity Generating |
|
|
Taxi pick-up |
319-9911 |
24-hour service, add 20 baht or more to fare |
|
|
MasterCard |
260-8572 |
Lost/stolen credit card |
|
|
Visa |
273-1199 |
Lost/stolen credit card |
|
|
American Express |
273-0022 |
Lost/stolen credit card |
|
|
Diner's Club |
238-3660 |
Lost/stolen credit card |
|
|
Western Union |
254-9121 |
Wired emergency cash |
In all Thai telephone directories, Thais are listed in alphabetical order by first name, whereas foreigners are listed by last name.
Everyone who uses a phone often should have yellow pages.
The phone book is published in both English and Thai. You get one free copy per phone line of both white and yellow pages, and can purchase more copies. The official source is Shinawatra Directories Co., Ltd.
One branch is located on Phloenchit at the telephone office midway between Chidlom and the World Trade Center, in the building at the very back.
Another place, in Dusit, is:
Shinawatra Directories Co., Ltd.
1376/1 Ratchawat Building
Nakorn Chaisri Rd.
Dusit, Bangkok 10310
Tel: 243-9009, 241-1118
Fax: 241-4204
The Ratchawat Building is located on the corner of Nakorn Chaisri Rd. and Rama 5 Rd.
Click here for a printable map which you can hand to the taxi, or contact us to do everything for you for a fee.
However, before going there on your own, you should call the above phone number. They will ask you for your phone number and check whether you can get a free phone book from them. They've referred some people to the Telephone Organization of Thailand office on Phloenchit Rd. instead, telephone 257-1560, for purchase of a phone book.
For other Shinawatra Directories matters (e.g., getting your own listing), you can call:
Shinawatra Directories Co., Ltd.
Shinawatra Tower, Floor 25
500 Pahonyothin Rd.
Bangkok
There are three mobile phone companies which can operate in Thailand (i.e., have been granted a "concession" by the Communications Authority of Thailand):
Which one's better? Well, AIS gives better English support. DTAC is a little bit cheaper.
Due to DTAC's valid complaints about government favoritism towards AIS (a company of the Prime Minister), if quality of service were the same then I'd recommend DTAC. However, my recommendation is towards the company which offers better quality of service, which is AIS.
You can send messages to mobile handphones. Here are some websites:
Pagers are a cheap way of reaching multiple employees for low monthly overhead cost. Low initial outlay, low monthly cost. You can get about 3 pagers for the cost of 1 mobile, i.e., if it's important to just be able to reach 3 employees for a basic message than it is to have the full convenience of a mobile phone with 1, then consider pagers.
Otherwise, pagers are most popular with people who are on a tight budget and/or those who don't really need or want a mobile phone, e.g., students, delivery people and young professionals. Students can also get quiet pager messages while in class, but cannot talk on a mobile phone.
When my mobile phone has started ringing too often, I've considered getting a pager in addition to a mobile phone, and possibly recommending the same for others, because pagers allow you to receive (or send) short messages without getting interrupted (or interrupting people). While SMS on a mobile does the same thing, many people aren't disciplined in using it, and it's best if they just don't know your mobile number. (As some say, especially girlfriends.) The show stopper has been the poor English of the pager company operators.
Farangs will find the Internet messaging easier and more accurate than calling the pager operator ... when you have an Internet connection. When I make a voice call to the pager operator and try to send a message in English, I usually get put on hold until I'm transferred to an English speaking operator, and then their English is often poor. In case of poor English, I have to repeat myself slowly, spell, respell (M is heard as N, S as F, and worse), etc. Even then, they often don't get it right.
You can send messages to the following pagers via the web:
There are cute universal paging websites which offer a one-stop-website for all pagers. There are two problems with these websites: Some don't work (English error messages), and some others put out only response messages in Thai so you won't know if it worked or not unless you can read Thai or have a Thai there to read it. For example, you can try www.pager.thaicast.com or thaiicq.com/pager/ or www.siampage.com/pager . All too often, there's a good idea and sometimes great artwork, but too bad it doesn't work technically and it appears to have been abandoned, the same old web page.
If you ever try to use the voice call-in service and speak English, sometime look at the page that comes out the other end. After spending 10 minutes painstakingly trying to get a simple message out, they often don't get it right. Often, the spelling is meaningless, i.e., does not convey anything near the word you spoke, and they won't tell you that they don't know what English word you said, but just type and parrot back the same sound in writing. If you skip spelling, then sometimes it's a real word but not the right one, and thus can be misleading, e.g., "at 2:15" came out "at to 15:00". Thus, use Internet paging whenever you can.
If you telephone the pager operators, be careful about some kinds of joking messages, too. For example, I was once braving Friday evening traffic going to pick up someone from a big university, who would study in the library until I arrived and paged. Upon arrival, I called the paging company to tell her I had arrived. The short message, which was repeated back to me, was "I have arrived. Hurry, I see many lovely ladies." After waiting a long time whereby she didn't walk out, I sent another message, leaving off the joke at the end. That worked. When she arrived, I looked at the previous message quoted above. It said "I'm lovely. - Milk" Maybe the pager operator had just lost her boyfriend to a lovely lady or something like that, and was out for revenge against men, another case of displaced aggression. However, there are many cases where they really misunderstand the message and leave it up to their imagination and/or what little English they understand. It should be standard procedure to have them repeat the message back to you.
ThailandGuru.com > Infrastructure, General > Telephones, mobiles > ...
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