Friday, May 1, 2009

Tambon websites with English sections

As I am often checking Google for the keyword "tambon", and thanks to the "search wiki" easily filtering out all those Wikipedia clones and hotel adverts, at about 40th position the first websites of Tambon administrative organizations (TAO) and subdistrict municipalities (thesaban tambon) show up. The current top ten (searching in English) are
  • Suthep (เทศบาลตำบลสุเทพ), Mueang Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai
  • Yang Noeng (เทศบาลตำบลยางเนิ้ง), Saraphi, Chiang Mai
  • San Klang (องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบลสันกลาง), San Pa Tong, Chiang Mai
  • San Pu Loei (เทศบาลตําบลสันปูเลย), Doi Saket, Chiang Mai
  • Mae Hoi Ngoen (องค์การบริหารส่วนตําบลแม่ฮ้อยเงิน), Doi Saket, Chiang Mai
  • Ban Thi (เทศบาลตำบลบ้านธิ), Ban Thi, Lamphun
  • Mae La Noi (องค์การบริหารส่วนตําบลแม่ลาน้อย), Mae La Noi, Mae Hong Son
  • Talat Yai (องค์การบริหารส่วนตําบลตลาดใหญ่), Doi Saket, Chiang Mai
  • Mae Khue (องค์การบริหารส่วนตําบลแม่คือ), Doi Saket, Chiang Mai
  • Makhun Wan (องค์การบริหารส่วนตําบลมะขุนหวาน), San Pa Tong, Chiang Mai
There are two things which are notable on this list. The first thing is quite obvious - most of these websites are within the province Chiang Mai. When looking at the websites themselves, for most the basic design is very similar, only the photos and the textual content exchanged. And the English is also quite good. As most show in the footer "Designed and developed by www.click2solutions.com I suppose all these websites were created as a joint effort, all these local governments jointly hiring the web design company, who also did the translations. And good to see that at least for Chiang Mai they recognized that English text is also a valuable extension, especially for tourists who want to know more about the places they are about to visit. And of course also for me who still has a hard time reading the Thai only websites.

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