When in Siam… | Bangkok Post: feature

FEATURE

As the old saying goes, "When in Thailand, do as the Thais do"; but with a million different guidebooks and angry expats all telling you how to navigate Thainess - and even the locals giving contradicting accounts of what Thai culture really is - it's easy to get confused.

In an effort to better market Thailand to the world, tourism officials have changed the country's slogan to "Miracle Thailand" (from "Amazing Thailand"), which will hopefully attract 30 million visitors in 2015, up from 19 million in 2011. (Although this seems to indicate that we need a miracle to attract more tourists rather than merely relying on our amazingness.)

In the heat of this kind of confusion even the most dedicated cultural explorer can be forced to retreat to the nearest Irish Pub, so it's obviously high time that someone got to grips with this issue and gave a holistic and ultimately conclusive guide to navigating Thailand. The ministry didn't have to look any further than the Guru office for the answer, and, obviously as the upstanding warriors of truth that we are, we answered the call.