Ranong province
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" align="right"\n! colspan="2" align=center bgcolor="#DEFFAD"|Statistics\n|-\n||Capital:||Ranong\n|-\n||Area:||valign=top|3,298.0
km²Ranked 59th\n|-\n||Inhabitants:||valign=top|161,210
(2000)Ranked 59th\n|-\n||
Pop. density:||valign=top|49 inh./km²
Ranked 71st\n|-\n||
ISO 3166-2:||TH-85\n|-\n!colspan="2" align=center bgcolor="#DEFFAD"|Map\n|-\n|colspan="2" align=center|
\n|}\n
Ranong (
Thai ระนอง) is one of the southern
provinces (
changwat) of
Thailand, at the shore to the
Andaman Sea. It is the province with the fewest citizens. Neighboring provinces are (from north clockwise)
Chumphon,
Surat Thani and
Phang Nga. To the west it also borders
Myanmar.
Geography
\nRanong is located on the Kra Isthmus, the narrow strip that connects mainland Thailand with the Malay Peninsula, on the west side of the Phuket mountain range. It has a long coast on the Andaman Sea. The province is known for having the most rainfall of all Thailand, the rainy season lasting for about 8 months. In 1955 the annual rainfall reached 6699.5 mm, compared to about 1200 in central Thailand. This led to the pun that the name Ranong is in fact taken from the English rain on.
\nSymbols
\n{|\n| valign=top|
\n| valign=top|The seal of the province shows a castle on top of a hill, to remember that King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) once visited Ranong and stayed at the Ratana Rangsan Castle on top of the Niveskiri Hill.
The provincial tree is the Banaba (Lagerstroemia speciosa), and the provincial flower is the orchid Dendrobium formosum.\n|}\nAdministrative divisions
\nRanong is subdivided into 4 districts (Amphoe) and one minor district (King Amphoe). These are further subdivided into 30 communes (tambon) and 167 villages (mubaan).\n{|\n!|Amphoe\n!|King Amphoe\n|---\n| valign=top|\n#Mueang Ranong\n#La-un\n#Kapoe\n#Kra Buri\n| valign=top|\n#Suk Samran\n|}\nExternal links
\n*Province page from the Tourist Authority of Thailand\n*Golden Jubilee Network province guide
