Living & Moving — Bangkok addressesIllustrated Guide: How to Read and Write a Thai Address, for Arrival Cards, Hotel Bookings, and International Mail
Ever stalled at a Thai address field? On an arrival card, a hotel booking, an online shopping delivery form, or the front of an international parcel, the snag is the same. Using a Bangkok address written in the Latin alphabet as the example, the diagrams below split it into 7 parts and show what each part means, which box on a form it goes in, and what order it takes on an envelope. They also explain what a soi is.
Reading a Thai address: the reverse of the Japanese order
The example is this Bangkok address, used for illustration: 123/45 Soi Sukhumvit 11, Sukhumvit Rd., Khlong Toei Nuea, Watthana, Bangkok 10110. It breaks down into 7 parts.
Bangkok order versus Japanese order
Top and bottom are the same address. Tags with the same number are joined by a line. The tags run 1 to 7 in the Japanese order
01Top: how it is written in Bangkok. Bottom: the same address reordered the Japanese way. Lines join the matching parts. Read the top row from the end and it becomes the bottom row.
So where does it differ from Japan? A Japanese address starts with the widest unit and narrows down, as in Tokyo, Shibuya Ward, Dogenzaka 1-chome. A Thai address starts with the house number, the narrowest unit. From there each unit is wider than the last: house number, lane, road, sub-district, district, city, with the postal code at the very end.
Once the 7 parts are clear, no field is a puzzle
From here the parts come in the Japanese order, widest unit first, taken in turn. The matching form-field name (Province for the prefecture level, District for the ward level, Sub-district for the neighborhood level) appears in each section. The 1 to 7 in the headings are the tag numbers on the bottom row of the diagram above.
1The postal code has 5 digits, and the first 2 name the province
First, the postal code. It has 5 digits, and the first 2 say which province (Bangkok counts as a province here).
10 at the start means Bangkok or Samut Prakan, the province just east of it. The lease or booking confirmation settles which: the word before the postal code reads either Bangkok or Samut Prakan.
So where is 10110? Watthana and Khlong Toei, the district just south of it, share the same number. The postal code alone does not settle the district.
2Bangkok ranks as a province, so City and Province both take Bangkok
Bangkok is the counterpart of Tokyo, the metropolis that stands where a prefecture would. Thailand has 76 provinces, and Bangkok belongs to none of them: it is a special city ranked as a province. In an address, Bangkok sits where the province name would go.
What about a form with both a City field and a Province field? Province is the province; City is a town inside it. In Bangkok the province-level unit is the city itself, so Bangkok goes in both fields.
| Province field | City field (example) |
|---|---|
| Chiang Mai | Chiang Mai |
| Phuket | Phuket |
| Chon Buri | Pattaya |
| Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya | Ayutthaya |
3The district name goes in the District field
Next, the district. Watthana is a district in the sense of a Tokyo ward, like Shibuya. Bangkok has 50 districts.
On the map
Left: all of Bangkok. Right: a close-up of the square on the left. Pink on the left is the district in the example; pink on the right is the sub-district
02Left: the pink area is the district in the example address, Watthana. Right: a close-up of that district, with the pink area the sub-district in the example, Khlong Toei Nuea. The thick line along the southern edge of Watthana is the road in the example, Sukhumvit Rd., and the short line branching north from it is the lane, Soi 11. Boundaries and road shapes from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors).
The map on the right is a close-up of the square on the left. On a form, the district name goes in the District field.
4The sub-district name goes in the Sub-district field
A district splits further into sub-districts. Khlong Toei Nuea is one of the 3 sub-districts inside Watthana, the level of a neighborhood name in a Japanese address.
Watthana's other two sub-districts are Khlong Tan Nuea and Phra Khanong Nuea, both on the map above. Khlong Toei Nuea shares most of its name with Khlong Toei, the district to the south, but it is a different place. That is why the sub-district name goes together with the district name.
5The road name. Rd. means Road, and lanes borrow the road's name
Sukhumvit Rd. is Sukhumvit Road. Rd. is short for Road, the equivalent of -dori, the Japanese word for a named street.
On the map above, the thick line along the southern edge of Watthana is this road. It runs east from central Bangkok, and the lane in the example address, Soi 11, branches off it.
6What a soi is: the 11 is a side-street number, not a house number
So what is a soi? A soi is a side street off a main road, named by the road plus a number. Soi Sukhumvit 11 means side street number 11 off Sukhumvit Road; the 11 is the name of the side street, not a house number.
The numbering follows a rule. Along Sukhumvit Road the numbers grow from west to east, odd on the north side, even on the south. Since the road in the example address is Sukhumvit Road, the map below is drawn along Sukhumvit Road too.
Sukhumvit Road, Soi 1 to Soi 63
The map is rotated so the road runs horizontally. Pink is Soi 11
03Walking east along Sukhumvit Road, the odd-numbered sois come up on the left and the even-numbered ones on the right, in order. Pink is Soi 11, the lane in the example address. Road shapes from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors).
7House number and room number: the building name goes before the house number
Last, the house number. 123/45 is the plot number and the number of a house or unit within that plot, joined by a slash. What the part after the slash refers to differs from building to building, so the lease or booking confirmation is copied exactly as written.
123/45: before and after the slash
One plot, with the houses and units lined up inside it
04The dotted frame is a single plot. The plot number is 123, and the houses and units inside it are numbered 123/1, 123/2, and so on. Pink is 123/45, the example address.
For anyone living in a condominium, the room number and the condominium (building) name go before the house number, in the order Room 1203, ABC Condo, 123/45 Soi Sukhumvit 11, and so on. Mail and couriers rely on that room number and building name to deliver.
The 7 parts and their form fields
Here are all 7 parts in one table. From left: the name of the part, how it appears in the example address, its counterpart in a Japanese address, and the form field it goes in.
| Part | In the example | Japanese counterpart | Form field |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Postal code | 10110 | Postal code (7 digits in Japan, 5 in Thailand) | Postal code |
| 2 City | Bangkok | The metropolis level, like Tokyo. Ranked as a province | City and Province |
| 3 District | Watthana | A ward, like Shibuya in Tokyo | District |
| 4 Sub-district | Khlong Toei Nuea | A neighborhood within the district | Sub-district |
| 5 Road | Sukhumvit Rd. | A named street (-dori in Japanese) | Road |
| 6 Lane | Soi Sukhumvit 11 | A side street off the road. The 11 names that side street | Soi |
| 7 House number | 123/45 | Plot number and the house or unit within it | House No. |
The right-hand column of the table above (Form field) lists the names to look for on a form, and the same row shows what goes in each one, following the example.
Where Japanese habits trip up
Applied straight to a Thai address, Japanese habits stumble at these 5 points.
- The 11 in Soi Sukhumvit 11 is the side street's name, not a house number. The house number is 123/45.
- Khlong Toei Nuea (a sub-district) and Khlong Toei (a district) are different places. The sub-district lies inside Watthana; Khlong Toei district lies just south of Watthana, across Sukhumvit Rd.
- Postal code 10110 alone does not settle the district. Watthana and Khlong Toei are both 10110.
- The part after the slash in 123/45 is not necessarily a room number. It can be a separate house on the same plot.
- When a form has both City and Province fields, both are Bangkok, because Bangkok is a city ranked as a province.
Filling in an address form: 6-field and 4-field examples
Now for a real form. Field names differ from form to form, but what goes in them is the same 7 parts as above.
The same address on two forms
Left: the form with more fields. Right: the form with fewer
05Left: a form with 6 fields. Right: a form with 4. The shorter form has nowhere for the sub-district and district, so they are left out. House number, lane, and road share one field, as on the left.
On the 6-field form, Address line 1 takes the house number, lane, and road, and Address line 2 the sub-district and district, in the same order as the example address. City and Province take Bangkok, Postal code the 5-digit postal code, and Country Thailand.
On the 4-field form (Street address, City, Postal code, Country), there is no field for the sub-district and district, so they are left out.
Addressing international mail and EMS: the order when sending from Japan
A letter or parcel sent from Japan to Thailand by international mail or EMS (Express Mail Service) carries its address in the Latin alphabet and numerals. The order runs: the recipient's name, room number and building name, house number, lane, and road, sub-district and district, city and postal code, and the country name last.
The order on an envelope or shipping label
Top to bottom, one line per item, in this order
06The name on line 1 is an example. A house with no room number or building name skips line 2. The country goes on the last line in capitals, THAILAND.
This is the same order Japan Post gives for addressing international mail: name, building name and room number, house number, municipality, prefecture, postal code, country, written in the Latin alphabet and numerals. In a Thai address, the sub-district and district stand in for the municipality, and Bangkok for the prefecture.
