This Week In Thailand

คิดเงิน

khit ngoen·The bill, please.

literally: calculate the money

Three competing phrases do this job and all three are correct. Khit ngoen is the plainest and works everywhere from a plastic-stool noodle shop to a hotel restaurant. Kep ngoen ("collect the money") is equally common, and check bin — borrowed from English, then reimported as a Thai phrase — is what most people say in Bangkok. Add duay and a particle, as in khit ngoen duay khrap, and you are indistinguishable from a regular.

7.9 million tonnes

Thai rice exported in 2025

Thailand shipped 7.9 million tonnes in 2025, beating its own 7.5 million tonne target, worth about ฿148 billion. It is nonetheless a story of decline in relative terms: Thailand was the world's largest rice exporter for decades and now sits third behind India and Vietnam, squeezed on price by both. White rice made up 45.82% of the total, and a strong baht is the recurring complaint of the export trade.

What to do when the anthem plays at 08:00 and 18:00

Twice a day the national anthem is broadcast in public spaces — rail stations, parks, schools, government buildings, many markets — and people stop where they are and stand still until it finishes, about a minute. It is a civic rather than a religious observance, tied to the raising and lowering of the flag, and a separate royal anthem is played before films in cinemas, for which audiences also stand. Compliance is not uniformly rigorous in a busy Bangkok mall, but on a BTS platform or in a provincial town it is near-universal, and a foreigner walking on through it is very visible. There is a legal basis for the expectation, though prosecutions are not a feature of ordinary life.

When everyone around you stops moving at 08:00 or 18:00, stop too, stand still, and wait it out.