{"id":133,"date":"2019-04-01T15:47:38","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T08:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/?p=133"},"modified":"2019-04-01T15:50:13","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T08:50:13","slug":"dos-and-donts-in-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/dos-and-donts-in-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"Do&#8217;s and Dont&#8217;s in Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Thailand received over 35 million visitors per year and in general Thais are quite generous when it comes to accepting &#8216;silly&#8217; mistake foreigners might make however follow the guidelines below and you can be sure you will impress your new Thai friends. Be absolutely cautious when discussing about<strong> Buddhism and the Thai Royal Family. <\/strong>One little advise from us here at UnionSPACE, be safe and avoid those topics all together<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Thailand Do\u2019s<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Do respect all Buddha images.<\/strong>\u00a0Buddha images are held sacred and sacrilegious acts are punishable by imprisonment even if committed by foreign visitors.<\/li><li><strong>Do dress properly<\/strong> when visiting a temple.<br><\/li><li><strong>Do remove your shoes<\/strong> before entering a temple, somebody\u2019s house and even some shops.<br><\/li><li><strong>Do treat monks\u00a0<\/strong>with the highest respect.<\/li><li><strong>Do try and keep calm<\/strong>\u00a0no matter what the problem or provocation may be.<\/li><li><strong>Do eat with a spoon.<\/strong> Use the fork to load food on to the spoon.<br><\/li><li><strong>Do lower your body slightly<\/strong>\u00a0when passing between or in front of people.<\/li><li><strong>Do try and learn<\/strong> a few basic phrases in Thai, like \u2018hello\u2019 and \u2018thank you\u2019.<br><\/li><li><strong>Do smile a lot.<\/strong><br><\/li><li><strong>Do enjoy yourself.<\/strong>\u00a0Thais like life to be\u00a0<strong><em>sanuk.<\/em><\/strong><br><\/li><li><strong>Do ensure that you have a visa<\/strong> if you need one.<br><\/li><li><strong>Do make sure you have adequate travel insurance.<\/strong><br><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Thailand Don\u2019ts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Don\u2019t show disrespect<\/strong>\u00a0towards the\u00a0<strong>Thai Royal Family<\/strong>. You might end up in prison for a long time.<br><\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t cross your legs<\/strong>\u00a0when you are in the presence of a monk. This applies whether you are sitting on the floor or in a chair.<\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t touch a Thai woman<\/strong>\u00a0without consent. Despite the image portrayed in some bars and clubs, the majority of Thai women are conservative.<\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t be overly affectionate in public.<\/strong>\u00a0This has changed in recent years and younger Thai couples can be seen holding hands, but snogging your boyfriend or girlfriend in the middle of the shopping mall won\u2019t win you too many friends. As with many things, Thais know that behaviour in the West is different to Thailand so you won\u2019t be chased out of town for holding hands with your partner, but resist the temptation to do so inside temple grounds.<\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t sunbathe nude.<\/strong>\u00a0This is offensive to most Thai people although nobody is likely to say anything to you if you do so.<\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t worry too much<\/strong>\u00a0about whether you should\u00a0<strong><em>wai<\/em><\/strong> or not.<br><\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t touch a Thai person\u2019s head or ruffle their hair.<\/strong>\u00a0Apologize if you accidentally touch somebody\u2019s head. There are exceptions to this standard of behaviour; for example, it doesn\u2019t apply to lovers in the privacy of their room. Thai people will also sometimes pat a child on the head, but as a Westerner it\u2019s best not to do this to any child to prevent any embarrassment.<\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t place your feet on the table<\/strong>\u00a0while sitting, don\u2019t point to anything with your feet and don\u2019t touch anybody with your feet.<\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t raise your voice<\/strong>\u00a0or lose your temper; try and be\u00a0<em>jai yen<\/em>.<br><\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t be offended by questions about age, marital status or what you do for a living.<\/strong>\u00a0These are subjects that will often come up in small-talk. Of course, you don\u2019t have to answer (especially the question about age), you can just smile and just say it\u2019s a secret or\u00a0<em><strong>\u2018mai bok\u2019<\/strong><\/em> (\u2018not telling\u2019).<br><\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t take Buddha images out of the country<\/strong>. Strictly speaking it is against the law to take or send Buddha images out of the country unless special permission has been granted. However, this doesn\u2019t mean that stores won\u2019t sell them to you. They\u00a0<strong>will<\/strong>\u00a0sell them to you, but\u00a0<strong>won\u2019t<\/strong>necessarily tell you about the regulations.<br><\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t overstay your visa<\/strong>.<br><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy your stay here in Thailand. Looking for a place to stay and mingle with other foreigner, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/digital-nomads-ekkamai-bangkok.php \">UnionSPACE Coworking + Coliving<\/a><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thailand received over 35 million visitors per year and in general Thais are quite generous when it comes to accepting &#8216;silly&#8217; mistake foreigners might make however follow the guidelines below &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[23,18,19,21,22,17,20],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-nomads-in-thailand","category-living-in-thailand-as-a-foreigner","tag-buddha","tag-do","tag-dont","tag-respect","tag-temple","tag-thailand","tag-tips"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134,"href":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionspace.co.th\/doing-business-living-bangkok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}