Is Thailand Vegan-Friendly? Everything You Need to Know

A helpful guide for vegans coming to the Kingdom.

A vegan laab mushroom dish from May Veggie Home in Bangkok. | All photos are by the author.

If you’re vegan and visiting Thailand for the first time, or just not sure about how easy it is to be vegan in this corner of the planet, here are answers to some commonly asked questions that will help you get a clear sense of the vegan situation in the Kingdom.

1. Is Thailand vegan-friendly?

Yes! Because most Thai people are Buddhist, Thailand is very vegan-friendly. There are lots of vegan restaurants all over the country, especially in areas with a lot of travelers and expats like Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Koh Phangan.

Even in smaller towns, there’s at least one all-vegetarian (mostly vegan) restaurant. Thai people often eat vegan meals, even if they aren’t entirely vegan or plant-based because they want to make merit, are trying to eat healthier, or just enjoy the taste.

A typical je food stall that sells vegan and vegetarian food.

2. How can I find vegan restaurants near me while I travel around Thailand?

Happy Cow has a list of all the vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants in Thailand. It’s very accurate and useful.

3. How do I order vegan options in non-vegan restaurants?

I don’t recommend eating at non-vegan restaurants in Thailand. Restaurants often use the same pans and utensils for both plant-based and animal-based foods without washing them in between.

A lot of food in Thailand contains either fish or oyster sauce, even if it’s just a vegetable stir-fry dish that doesn’t have meat.

Many restaurants pre-season their veggies with either fish or oyster sauce and will just add soy sauce or MSG when you try to order a vegan dish. They won’t tell you that the veggies already have animal products on them.

Unless you have no other option, or you can get the cook to either wash the pans and utensils in front of you, or show you that they’re already clean, and they can chop and prepare fresh veggies in front of you, stick to vegan and vegetarian restaurants.

4. What are some useful vegan phrases in Thai?

“Mai ow nam pla,” translates to, “I don’t want fish sauce.”

“Gin jay,” means “I eat vegan” but it also means you follow a Jain diet, which includes abstaining from eating pungent vegetables like garlic and onions. This is the most understood phrase though. You can just clarify that you are ok with garlic and onions. The restaurant will usually ask you to confirm.

“Wegan” is the Thai word for vegan.

Thai is a tonal language, so if you can’t hit the tone, Thai people will not understand you. It’s best to watch this video of useful vegan phrases from Learn Thai With Oar to hear the tones.

5. Can you get by with just speaking English?

If you’re going to areas with a lot of tourists and expats, then you will easily find Thai people who can speak English. Most Thai people cannot speak English though, so just use Google Translate if you’re trying to communicate but the person you’re speaking to has no idea what you’re saying.

Vegan Basket is an all-vegan market in Bangkok.

6. Can I find vegan products at Thai supermarkets and convenience stores?

Yes! The supermarkets in Thailand have a lot of vegan milk options as well as frozen plant-based meat options. Villa and Gourmet Market have the most vegan options but they can be pricy, especially if they’re imported.

Convenience stores like 7–11 and Family Mart sell a variety of vegan milk and also have a good selection of snacks.

The vegan milk section at Gourmet Market in Bangkok. There are so many vegan milk options in Bangkok with new products popping up all the time.

Bangkok also has a vegan market called Vegan Basket located in the Icon Siam Mall and a plant-based mall called EKM6!

Look for the vegan label, which will be bright yellow with red Thai or Chinese characters, on the front or back of packages to make sure they’re vegan. The labels look like this:

Variations of the “je” symbol that you can find on vegan food products in Thailand.

Just be careful because a lot of products with the vegan label still have palm oil. Palm oil is destructive and kills orangutans. I don’t trust “ethical” palm oil since it’s very easy for companies to lie and bribe the right people to say their products come from an ethical source when they don’t. You can read more about that here.

7. What Thai dishes should I try?

Khao soi, somtam, Tom Yum soup, banana blossom salad, and pad see ew are some of my favorite Thai dishes. I also compiled a list of 10 Thai dishes you should try.

8. How can I see elephants ethically in Thailand?

There are more fake elephant sanctuaries here than real ones. There is no vetting process or special certification. Anyone can claim their business is a sanctuary.

As long as you have a permit to own an elephant, which is sadly very easy to get, you can call your business whatever you want.

Fake elephant sanctuaries get their elephants from the same cruel elephant torture camps that elephant-riding camps do. Even the places that claim to have saved elephants from abuse allow visitors to touch the elephants.

Baby elephants, like the one in this video, are stolen from their mothers and relentlessly tortured in the cruel “training” process to break their spirit. It is so upsetting and heartbreaking.

Real sanctuaries do not let visitors touch or bathe wild animals, otherwise, they’re just a petting zoo. Touching the animals stresses them out and is exploitative. It doesn’t benefit them in any way.

The only way to ethically see elephants is in the wild. Khao Yai National Park and Kuiburi National have wild elephants and options to hire trained guides to help you see them respectfully and safely.

Of course, since they are wild, there is no guarantee you will see elephants during your visit, but you will still experience beautiful Thai nature and see other cute wild animals like tropical birds, lizards, and maybe even monkeys.

A macaque is forced to pick coconuts in Koh Phangan, Thailand.

9. Are monkeys still forced to pick coconuts in Thailand?

Yes, unfortunately, they are. I wrote an article about monkey slavery in the coconut industry which you can read here. Not every single coconut product in Thailand comes from monkey slavery, but because companies get their coconuts from multiple sources, there is a chance some of the coconuts used in their products were picked by slave monkeys.

Nature’s Charm and Merit Foods are two Thai coconut milk companies that source their coconuts ethically. You can find their products at Gourmet Market and Villa Market or order them online.

Food stalls at the mall sell vegan food during the je festival in Hua Hin.

10. Are there any special vegan festivals or events in Thailand?

Yes, every year in the fall, there’s a 10-day vegan festival called the “Je Festival” or “Vegetarian Festival.” This spiritual festival originated in the popular tourist island of Phuket and has Taoist origins.

Markets, convenience stores, malls, restaurants, and food stalls serve special vegan food during je fest. A lot of vegan and plant-based companies also tend to launch new products during this time. It’s the best time of year to visit Thailand.

It’s easy to tell which establishments are serving vegan food because their stores will be decorated with bright yellow flags with the word “je” written in Thai or Chinese.

Do you have any other questions about being vegan in Thailand? Let me know in the comments!

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(This article was originally posted on Substack.)