With criticism, both of the country and criticism of persons, one should be careful in Thailand. One may certainly moan about the heat, about the exhaust gas and flooding in Bangkok, and also about the police (but not towards a policeman).  Finally the Thais complain and moan also at each opportunity about all these unpleasant things. One must be carefully however, if one criticizes the social conditions in this country, which are certainly, for our own perception, in many ways still very underdeveloped. The Thais are most of all very sensitive concerning any criticism about the king and about everything which has to do with Buddhism. Thais have a very strong national pride.  Even the worker without any means, who hires himself for some years to work in Saudi Arabia, is proud to be born as a Thai, and looks down on the Arabs. Particularly touchy are the Thais against personal criticism. Thais do not express criticism directly against any other person.  If one criticizes a Thai, possibly in presence of other people, then he could lose his face, a very bad thing for a Thai. If that occurs, he might flip out and react completely excessive. 

 

In Thailand there are some things, which the Farang, used to certain rules necessary for the well-regulated society, cannot simply accept as folklore, but are worth being criticized. Particularly in the tourist centers, one will see totally unacceptable behaviors, which we estimate absolutely negatively if not disdainful, but which by the Thais are not seen as wrong or impudent, but as more or less normal behavior.

 

Beginning with the taxi driver, lying in wait for the visitor in the arrival-hall at the airport, and who - if the ignorant Farang accepts his offered services - requires for the travel to the hotel several times the normal price of transportation. That continues with the bellboy who drags his suit-case into the room. He takes his tip and then politely asks the man who is traveling alone, whether he wishes to have a young girl sent to his room for companionship. If the visitor then goes out of the hotel, to get a first impression of the country, he will be forced the walk on the street, risking being run over by a car, because the entire sidewalk area is occupied by hawkers.

 

If he begins his sightseeing program the next day, he will see, that anyplace where an entrance-fee is required, whether at the kings palace, or at the crocodile farm, different admission fees are indicated on the price board for Thais and for foreigners. The fleecing of foreigners is thus not limited to taxi-drivers and small street hawkers, but is generally applied in Thailand as natural behavior.  As a reason for this attitude with foreigners, Thais have often very strange explanations.  So e.g. that because one can get 50 Bath for a Euro, the Farang must have  50 times more moneys than the Thais, and it is thus only fair, if they have to pay the double or the triple of the normal price.

 

Behind this behavior is a good part of arrogance, if not even hostility against strangers.  Thais think themselves in principle better and more intelligent than foreigners, even if a hard fate has imposed the burden of poverty upon them.  One gladly takes their money, but does not respect the strangers or may even despise them, particularly if their behavior deviates strongly from Thai rules.  The economic crash in 1997, which gave the impact to the Asia crisis, was not to be blamed on incapable government officials and politicians, who ruthlessly plundered the treasury for their own advantage, or the Bankers who plundered their own institutions, filling their pockets with shady credits. In the opinion of many Thais, to blame for the misery, which caused many construction jobs to stop work, the closing down of factories, and thus unemployment, was the World Bank which saved Thailand after the self inflicted disaster, which caused the loss of billions of dollar, and nearly brought the country to bankruptcy.

If something particularly disturbs the stereotyped -picture of the country of smile, then it is the glaring contrast between the sound world shown on television, with politicians preaching moral and good behavior, and the open bars lining up along the roads in the tourist centers, with thousands of young girls offering their bodies publicly. Typically for the hypocrisy is e.g. that after a visit in Pattaya, the minister of health stated, that he could not see a trace of prostitution, where each tourist walking the bar streets, has to free himself again and again from the arms of young girls, who want to pull him by force into their bar. 

 

It is not always only the misery at home, which forces the girls to sell their body to nourish their families.  Whoever travels up-country, will find in each village one or several beautiful houses, built by the families of the girls, with the sin wages of their daughters;  not to mention the large television sets, motorcycles and pickups. It would be an error however, to judge from the willingness with which the girls at the bars offer their body, upon the sexual moral of the Thai women altogether. While Thai married men are unfaithful at each opportunity, it does practically not occur that a wife cheats on her husband.  If it happens that a woman leaves her husband, then he has her usually given ample reason for it, e.g. by having an other wife, or by not giving her money for the maintenance of the family, or if he beats her when drunk. 

 

The visitor will also be shocked by the drastic difference between the expenditure to strengthen the prestige of the royal family and the army, and the glaring poverty of the largest part of the population.  Anybody who will see on television one of the colorful and at immense expenses accomplished military parades for the birthday of the king, or for the day of the army, will gladly grant, that there is not such a magnificent show to be seen anywhere in the world, but will then ask himself, whether all this money, which is wasted here, would be not more reasonably used for the improvement of the standard of living of the broad population.