Thailand forum

You will have a unique Experience in the rural Parts of Thailand - what you need to know:

Etiquette is very important to Thais, and though they might be more tolerant of foreigners visiting their country, knowing a few important dos and don’ts will certainly make it much easier during your stay in Thailand. Thai people are polite and non-aggressive by nature and expect the same of others - they will seldom display their displeasure with your rude behaviour, but you could be getting yourself into a troubled situation if you disrespect a few important aspects of their culture.
The Thai are a proud nation of people with a long history and complex hierarchal structure of status. Starting with the Royal family and percolating down, everyone in Thailand knows and respects their place in society. A polite Thai (which is most of them) will usually immediately identify whether another is of higher status than them (usually deemed by age or wealth) and initiate the wai - a submissive and graceful bringing together of the hands to the chest or beneath the nose (to show respect). Even on a social level, they will refer to their elders as pii (older sibling). In fact social grace is paramount and the formal suffix kha (female) and khrap (male) is added to the end of all sentences when addressing strangers, employers/employees or elders.

Hope this helps you a bit....