Category — Thai Customs

If you’ve lived in Thailand for any amount of time you know that Thai people in general have a deep belief in ghosts.  This may be an Asian thing in general, but I’m speaking here on first hand experience and that is with Thais.

I’ve been warned by villagers when visiting the rice paddies of Isan (northeastern Thailand) that I was crazy for going on a midnight ride to a sala in the middle of the paddies by myself.  At first I was told because the local boys are out looking for trouble and a farang walking around in the middle of nowhere by himself is glutton for punishment.  Makes sense but I don’t see any menacing looking folks around so I went anyway.

When I returned the villagers couldn’t believe it.  They asked if I saw any ghosts.  I told them, “Of course not!”.  They looked like they had just seen a ghost themselves at my nonchalant return from the fields.  They proceeded to tell me of all the ghosts that wander the rice fields at night and I’m lucky I didn’t run into any!  Hey, everyone has their beliefs so I just smiled and moved on to a new subject.

Another example.  Our previous apartment was in a very high end building with both very affluent Thais and foreigners residing there.

One day I went down through the lobby and saw the security guards and staff hanging a string that wrapped around the entire perimeter of the building.  When I inquired what it was all about I was told it was some ghost/spirit protection for the building.  Wow.  Very well then.

My most recent experience with the Thai fascination with ghosts was on a trip to Baan Tawai in Chiang Mai.  While my wife and I walked around shopping we noticed our SUV with the back hatch opened and the driver sitting there eating.  We walked over to grab some more water and my wife pointed out a spoonful of this guy’s rice on the floor by the tree.  She asked him what it was and he told her, very seriously, that it was for the ghosts so they leave him and the vehicle alone.  Again, wow.

I felt like I had let Tupac Shakur and B.I.G. down for not pouring some water or beer onto the ground for my “homies who couldn’t be here today”.

To wrap this up while it may seem silly to people like me, it’s part of their Thai-Asian culture and it’s something to be understood if not embraced by you.  Thailand is a wonderful place to visit and live and there’s always something about their culture to experience and learn.  Ask questions, ask why about everything and you’ll soon get a deeper glimpse into the real Thailand and its people.

These are the basic no-no’s while you’re in the Kingdom of Thailand.  Don’t take them lightly.

• Never talk bad about or disrespect the King or the Royal Family.  This also goes for objects that bear their seal or likeness such as money.  If you drop a baht note, do NOT step on it.  It’s like stepping on the King’s face.  If you don’t get beaten or even killed by the Thai mob that heard you say/do it, you’ll end up in prison on charges of Lese Majeste.   Suffice to say you won’t be winning any popularity contests while staying in ‘The Bangkok Hilton”.
• Never talk bad about or disrespect Buddha or the Buddhist religion.  Case in point;  A mentally disturbed Thai man started hacking up a famous Buddhist pagoda type statue called the Erawan one morning with a hammer.  A mob killed him within minutes.  Literally.  Don’t mess around with their religion or royals, period.
• Do not point at things with your feet.  Feet are the ‘lowest’ part of your body and using them to point at things is a sign of great disrespect.  Especially NEVER use it to point at a Buddha statue or image of the King or Royal Family member’s likeness.
• Do not touch Thai people on their head.  It is the highest part of your body and it’s to be treated with respect.  Hats go on your head, that’s about it.  NEVER touch something like a hat, with your foot.
• Do not get caught with drugs of any kind here, you’ll go to jail for a long time or end up on death row.  Seriously.
• Don’t be loud, obnoxious or lose your temper.  In Thailand it’s considered a weakness for someone to have to raise their voice or cause a scene to get their point across and you’ll be looked down upon.
• Do not get in a fight with a Thai person.  Not only will the police more than likely see it his way, but every Thai man within a 10 mile radius will come over to join in on your beating.  I’ve seen it happen a few times, thankfully not to me.

If you can heed these basic warnings you’ll be safe.  These are the big no-no’s.  Yes there’s tons of other things you should not do in Thai culture, but the big ones are covered here.  Thailand is a wonderful place where most people are smiling and happy to Westerners or farangs.  Just use some common sense and heed the above rules and you’ll get along just fine.  Explore Thailand, it truly is amazing!

This site will encompass all things related to travelling in Thailand.  We will give first hand reviews of hotels, resorts, limo and taxi transportation services and the like here.  If we’re giving a secondhand review, we’ll tell you so.

We once came to Thailand for our first time also, and since then (10 years ago) we’ve learned alot, met alot of really nice people in the hospitality industry all the way from 5 star resort CEO’s down to the humble taxi or tuk-tuk drivers in all of the popular tourist destinations and even further into to great unknown parts of this wonderful Kingdom.

Rest assured the information on this site is tried and true and if you have any questions which are not already covered here, feel free to post a comment or reach us via the contact page.

Happy holidaying from all of us at Thailand Travel Depot!