Asia Travel Guide

Tourist literature has so successfully marketed Thailand as the “Land of Smiles” that a lot of tourists arrive in the country expecting to be forgiven any outrageous behaviour. This is just not the case: there are some things so universally sacred in Thailand that even a hint of disrespect will cause deep offence. The worst thing you can possibly do is to bad-mouth the universally revered royal family. Thais very rarely shake hands , using the wai, a prayer-like gesture made with raised hands, to greet and say goodbye and to acknowledge respect, gratitude or apology. The wai changes according to the relative status of the two people involved: as a farang (foreigner) your safest bet is to go for the “stranger’s” wai, raising your hands close to your chest and placing your fingertips just below your chin.

Thailand shares the same attitudes to dress and social taboos as other Southeast Asian cultures.

The most spectacular religious festivals include Songkhran (usually April 13-15), when the Thai New Year is welcomed in with massive public waterfights in the street (most exuberant in Chiang Mai); the Rocket Festival in Yasothon (weekend in mid-May), when painted wooden rockets are paraded and fired to ensure plentiful rains; the Candle Festival in Ubon Ratchathani (July, three days around the full moon), when enormous wax sculptures are paraded to mark the beginning of the annual Buddhist retreat period; the Vegetarian Festival in Phuket and Trang (Oct), when Chinese devotees become vegetarian for a nine-day period and then parade through town performing acts of self-mortification; and Loy Krathong (late Oct or early Nov), when baskets of flowers and lighted candles are floated on rivers, canals and ponds nationwide (best in Sukhothai and Chiang Mai) to celebrate the end of the rainy season.

The two main tourist-oriented festivals are the Surin Elephant roundup (third weekend of Nov), when two hundred elephants play team games, and parade in battle dress; and the River Kwai Bridge festival in Kanchanaburi (last week of Nov and first week of Dec), which includes a spectacular son et lumière at the infamous bridge.