For more Specific Area Information Please Visit the Sports Section in Each Thai City

Adventure Tours
The website www.wild-planet.co.th which covers rafting, mountain bike riding and other adventures. They also offer "team building" exercises, using facilitators, in custom tailored programs for corporate clients.

South East Asia LiveAboards (SEAL) in Phuket offers adventure cruises, diving, sailing, surfing and kayaking, at www.seal-asia.com

Bicycling
Mountain biking is popular in Thailand. You can rent or buy gear here. There are also some groups who do biking tours together. I haven't heard of many who are well organized or have an Internet presence, though. There's an established company, Bike & Travel, which organizes biking and canoe trips, a family business founded in 1995. www.CyclingThailand.com

Precious few people and crazy enough to try to get around on a bicycle in Bangkok, except within suburban housing villages where a bike ride is nice in mornings and evenings. Bangkok is flat and ordinary bikes are cheap.

Bowling
Bowling alleys are just like in the West, and are usually located in shopping malls. Bowling seems to be an exceptionally popular sport in Thailand. Here's the location of some:
Dusit Bowl, 424 Soi Prayadsap, Phahonyothin, Phaya Thai, Bangkok 10400, 02-271-3687

OK Bowl, Din Daeng, Bangkok, 10400, 02-641-0801-4

Ploenchit Bowl, 1037/1-2-4 Ploenchit, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, 02-251-2852

Sukhumvit Bowl, 320 Soi Panichanan, Sukhumvit 71, Khlong Toei, Bangkok 10110, 02-391-2148

Cricket
See www.southerners-bangkok.com for organized local games of rugby, cricket and touch. Lots of members, and besides playing they also get together at certain pub venues to watch games together. New players are welcome. They play Tuesday nights and Sunday afternoons.

Darts
Thailand has many pubs where darts are played, including some with small ad hoc teams. It also has a well organized Darts League, which has different levels of players. For more information on the latter, contact its President, Ken Ywin, at 01-826-1350 or leave him a fax message at 02-751-4446. Another angle is via the Lighthouse Club website which has a darts team.

Fitness
There are a large number of fitness places all over Bangkok, too numerous to list here.

A good personal fitness consultant and instructor in the Bangkok central business district is Daniel Remon, who operates FitCorp Asia. Daniel will come to your hotel, office, fitness club or wherever you are, at your convenience. You can reach Daniel at info@fitcorpasia.com or just call 02-652-0142.

Football (Soccer)
From what I can tell, there are three big leagues which have teams sponsored by companies as well as private groups, all covered by the website www.somtam.com

For more relaxed, leisurely games, the MBMG Casuals League (kindly sponsored by MBMG)

For serious, competitive players, the Santa Fe Farang League

For people over 35 years old wanting a less pressing pace, the Veterans 5-a-side League (kindly sponsored by FPD Savills)
There are, of course, pickup games with Thais all over, and you can often work your way in.

Flying
You can take flying lessons and get certification from the Thai Flying Club, located at the Bang Phra Airport in Sri Racha, a place in-between Pattaya and Bangkok. For more info, see www.ThaiFlyingClub.com

Ice Hockey
There's the well established Flying Farangs, who have a website at www.FlyingFarangs.com

Ice Skating
The World Trade Center has a large ice skating rink on the 8th floor. You can rent skates there. Avoid peak hours if you can.

Jogging, Running with the Hash House Harriers
With the difficult streets and vehicle pollution in central Bangkok, many people prefer to go to a park to jog.

For people in the Silom-Sathorn-Bangrak area, a favorite place is Lumpini Park (corner of Rama 4 Rd. and Wireless, near Silom, Ratchadamri skytrain station). This is a large and popular park.

On Sukhumvit, some people go to the lake and tobacco monopoly around the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center on Asoke (south of Sukhumvit), or else the park next to the Emporium which has a skytrain station.

In the suburbs, there are more joggable roads, plus there are more open areas such as universities and sports fields.

There are several chapters of the Hash House Harriers (HHH) in Bangkok alone, and chapters all over Thailand. I've run with them, and they turn out a large pack of people, often 40 or more, a fairly even mix of expats and Thais, both male and female. It's also a good way to see different parts of the city, especially the suburbs and a great variety of "nooks and crannies" with a pack of like-minded folks.

There was a Hash chapter doing regular runs in Vientiane, Laos, when I was there in 1994 and 1995, and now I hear there are two Hash chapters in Vientiane.

There aren't many "fun runs" or "road races" or marathons or mini-marathons or non-Hash running clubs in Thailand, unlike in the U.S.

Notably, the Thailand Guru was a marathoner as a teenager (2:26) and also ran with the Little Rock Hash House Harriers. I've run once with a Bangkok Hash chapter, and it's pretty much the same routine and ambiance as the Hash in and around Little Rock in the 1970s -- a bit of socializing as people gather, the system of the run, and the ice chests of beer and sodas afterwards (sometimes at a restaurant or pub here in Thailand). The only significant differences are the scenery and the international nature of the group.

Rugby and Touch
See www.southerners-bangkok.com for organized local games of rugby, cricket and touch. Lots of members, and besides playing they also get together at certain pub venues to watch games together. New players are welcome. They play Tuesday nights and Sunday afternoons.

Scuba Diving
See our scuba diving section click here!