Hi, I am traveling to Thailand soon, and I do not want to look too much like a tourist. Some internet sources say that Thai men generally wear long sleeves and long pants. Is this the same thing as the shirt+tie+pants office worker combination in North America, except without the tie? The sources say that temples generally request this kind of clothing. How about more casual areas, like the area around our hotel, the Siam Square area? Is it also true that Thais swim in the ocean with their shirts on?

Thanks!

If you are leisure as the main concern in this travelling
Just relax and in wearing of causual dress code is OK :) where you are around at major spots here ( business and entertainment venue )

Exception in visiting to Grand Palace and Royal's feature temple are there is requiring in more formal, ( no hot pants and singlet together with slipper/sandals )

My idea of casual is: t-shirt+shorts+sandals. Supposedly that combination does not go well in Europe. I just hope to do what the Romans do in Rome. From what I've read, Thailand is a conservative country when it comes to public dress and behavior, and I wonder if their idea of casual dress is different.

don't lie to the poor guy!

http://www.explorationsinc.com/PhotoGallery/amazon-tours-people/YAGUA-chief.JPG

this is what we wear

My idea of casual is: t-shirt+shorts+sandals.

Don't be over anxious :)
This causual dressing is also resemble to the local too ;)
( jeans, slipper and sport shoes :D are we preferred )

you can be going to or enjoying here for general purpose, dining, shopping as well as travelling even in your stay hotel and banking etc.


Just bear in mind that High Class entertainment outlets and related to the Royal venue are need to be discreet

Thailand is a conservative country when it comes to public dress and behavior

Thailand is a freindly country that we are pious buddha BUT modern and western mind are becoming more in adopted to our country especially at the metropolis and major big cities during on the past decade

Just reminding that do't to touch with Thais's head and tiptoe are never lead out while you are seated in front of any body

Have a nice and pleasure trip to the land of Smile

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v171/chady/veranda/Alucon/DSC04009.jpg

heres a nice example. one of Chad's picture.

and unless you're asian, you can't avoid looking like a tourist :D

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/3648/bangkok1696qg.jpg

here too

Young Thais Up-date (http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=172710)

http://tinypic.com/ae3bdw.jpg

don't lie to the poor guy!

http://www.explorationsinc.com/PhotoGallery/amazon-tours-people/YAGUA-chief.JPG

this is what we wear

:hilarious Could you imagine if he got one? :lol:

Here for men and women.....

what we wear..:)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v171/chady/London/f2.jpg



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v171/chady/London/f1.jpg

are those really women? They're so tall and they sure like opening their legs and some of them look like men :D

How you think they are :D

http://tinypic.com/ae8lzn.jpg

they are male right?!? :)

well i can tell you one thing 4 sure.............
"use a speedstick(roll on) and were something lite"..........
cos its quite warm here.........
by lite i dont mean like sleveless just something loose and well ventilated..............

they are male right?!? :)

if theyre not they're really ugly women...............

LOL interesting!

Thailand is a conservative country when it comes to public dress and behavior

New Trend ~~ New Mind ~~ New Think

It is Bangkok

:cheer: :cheer: :cheer: ^^ ^^ ^^ :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cucumber: :cucumber: :cucumber: :drunk: :drunk: :drunk:

http://tinypic.com/afc67p.jpg

I do not want to look too much like a tourist. !

I think, you eventually still look like a tourist by your appearance :)
But don't be worry about that, thai people already feel familiar to western tourist as millions of them are visiting here every year, especially tourist cities like BKK, phuket, pattaya and chiang mai :)

they are male right?!? :)

Bingo :drunk:

i'd say same style as Americans;)...in Summer time i guess (oh with a little more cloth though:))

Yep, Kiku is right. A little more fashionable than The States but less than Japanese. I'd rather say same to those European countries (in Summer ofcouse) :)

New Trend ~~ New Mind ~~ New Think

It is Bangkok

:cheer: :cheer: :cheer: ^^ ^^ ^^ :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cucumber: :cucumber: :cucumber: :drunk: :drunk: :drunk:

http://tinypic.com/afc67p.jpg

They belong in that new BKK Aquarium

i'd say same style as Americans;)...in Summer time i guess (oh with a little more cloth though:))

Precisely :)
http://tinypic.com/afhahd.jpg

http://tinypic.com/afhcm8.jpg

The people in Thailand dress similarly to the people here. Except they don't wear shorts, right? How about backpacks? In the picture, there were more messenger bags.

Note: I'm Asian, so maybe if I keep my mouth shut, people won't know I'm a tourist.

Backpack, just ankind....normal stuff they sell at evermalls.

Note : There is nothing wrong being a tourist or look like tourist, I think u would even gets more help from people around here than local..;)

exactly what Chad and everyone said Strawhat, just relax and enjoy yourself and don't worry too much about what you are going to be wearing. If you worry about that then you won't enjoy your trip!

Thai fashions

http://eden.rutgers.edu/~punsit/Pictures/Thai%20Pics/clubza1.jpg

wow love that denim jacket!!

That that girl is wearing?...or the darkgreen one :D

That that girl is wearing?...or the darkgreen one :D

oh i like both actually ;)
nahhh j/k lah!!! of course the blue one!! da green one is colduroy not denim?

whats that symbol anyway? with the yellow shirtted guy... I've seen it some place before

we'll may b u should check out our fashion week and see what we wear....................
u might might need to make it more fashionable cos BKK is becomin a fashion city u know??.............. ;)

OK, I guess it's not going to be that hard to look Thai. Maybe the haircut is different, but oh well.

One more question: where in Bangkok can we buy Spanish-Thai, Vietnamese-Thai, and Chinese-Thai dictionaries? I can't find them here.

Go to Pantip shopping mall
Can find easily for such translation software

Hi Strawhat, thanx for visiting the Thai forum.

for the dictionaries you are looking for, im sure you can find them in BKK. Kinokuniya Bookstore prolly should have them all.

here's the address and the tels..

KINOKUNIYA BOOK STORES OF THAILAND CO., LTD.

* Bangkok Store 6th Floor Isetan Dept. Store World Trade Center 4/1-2 Rajadamri Road, Pathumwan Bangkok 10330, Thailand 2-255-9834

* Sukhumvit Store 3rd Floor, Room 301-3 Emporium Shopping Complex, 622 Sukhumvit 24 Road, Klongton, Klongtoey, Bangkok 10110, Thailand 662-664-8554

------------------------------------------------------------

i don't know what r u trying to do? r u trying to communicate with thai ppl? if u r, i think u don't need the whole dictionary for that. Maybe just pick up one of those Lonely planet guide books, they usually have the daily/mostly-used Thai phrases, even how to order a meal.

Travelling in Thailand is very easy, since most of the ppl there already know the routines of tourism and all, so don't worry too much. I know the language barrier does exist but thai ppl will go out of their way trying to assist you. So just Relax and enjoy.

Hope this helps and welcome to the Land of smiles :)

The people in Thailand dress similarly to the people here. Except they don't wear shorts, right? How about backpacks? In the picture, there were more messenger bags.


http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/4071/dscf60400324el.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

OK, I guess it's not going to be that hard to look Thai. Maybe the haircut is different, but oh well.


http://tinypic.com/6dtxkk.jpg

Note: I'm Asian, so maybe if I keep my mouth shut, people won't know I'm a tourist.

Tourist look are part of the Thai's Life ;)

http://tinypic.com/amp4df.jpg

http://tinypic.com/amp5a8.jpg

i don't know what r u trying to do? r u trying to communicate with thai ppl? if u r, i think u don't need the whole dictionary for that. Maybe just pick up one of those Lonely planet guide books, they usually have the daily/mostly-used Thai phrases, even how to order a meal.
Thanks for the addresses. I asked for the dictionaries because Thai is a tonal language, and I don't want to have really bad pronunciation. English is not phonetic, but Spanish and Vietnamese are. Vietnamese is tonal as well. My traveling companions understand Spanish, Vietnamese, and some Chinese. I thought that perhaps it would be easier to go from the other languages to Thai, rather than from English. Perhaps the dictionaries have the Thai words written out in Spanish or Vietnamese so the words can be sounded out.

My Vietnamese friend keeps telling me that I mispronounce many of their words, even though his "correct" pronunciation sounds the same to me. :bash: Maybe a Vietnamese speaker will have better luck than an English speaker.

Note: I just remembered that Chinese isn't phonetic. :(


Travelling in Thailand is very easy, since most of the ppl there already know the routines of tourism and all, so don't worry too much. I know the language barrier does exist but thai ppl will go out of their way trying to assist you. So just Relax and enjoy.

Hope this helps and welcome to the Land of smiles :)
Part of the reason why I wanted to look Thai was because I have read many reports about people who approach the obvious tourist and then try to scam them. If I make it less obvious, maybe fewer "touts" will try to approach us.

We are still debating on going to Laos and Myanmar, and from what I've heard it is more difficult to meld in over there. However, I've also read that they are less accustomed to tourists, so they might not approach us as much.

Note: I just remembered that Chinese isn't phonetic. :(

Can U enlighten more in detail :?

Gotcha, so u actually wanna learn how to speak thai correctly. I'm glad you care.

I also agree that Thai tone is similar to Vietnamese. But if you stay in the commercial area. English is widely used and understood.

To avoid touts, just say "Mai Ow" which means, "No, Thank you" it should work most of the time, and they will leave u alone.

To make it more polite but not required, add "Krub"(for male) or "Kha (for female)" at the end of the sentence like Mai-Ow Krub or Mai-Ow Kha.

Do not buy any gem stones, if you are not or with an expert. it is very likely u will be scammed (http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/Scams/Sapphire.shtml). :)

Can U enlighten more in detail :?
You can't sound out the characters. I'm guessing that you are Chinese yourself, so I would think that you know how to explain it better. Uh, kind of how a written Chinese word can be spoken in many different ways (dialects and how they say that word). In Spanish, each letter or set of letters has a sound. Combine the sounds and you can pronounce the word.

Actually Chinese dialogue would be written as same as what we are sound and used to be strictly and single meaning of vocable by Mandarin ( National Language ) but in exception to Cantonese ( second in current used ) or any endemic dialects of various places where they are spoken

Also, enunciation for each chinese word could be carrying out from different form of vocalic, subject to each circumstances being applied

Besides, are you coming from SE Asia ? or where else

Actually Chinese dialogue would be written as same as what we are sound and used to be strictly and single meaning of vocable by Mandarin ( National Language ) but in exception to Cantonese ( second in current used ) or any endemic dialects of various places where they are spoken

Also, enunciation for each chinese word could be carrying out from different form of vocalic, subject to each circumstances being applied

Besides, are you coming from SE Asia ? or where else
Ah I see. Most of the people I know are Cantonese or Taiwanese.

Where I'm coming from? *Points to the banner on top of the page* I'm from around there.

Long Beach??

http://www.geocities.com/chulahealthcity/002_resize.jpg

Shorts now!

Long Beach??

is it the Long Beach in Los Angeles?

I'd think so, but he didn't say for sure. That was what I saw when I scrolled up as he suggested.

yea... I am not sure either cause I don't go to Long Beach often or seen it from that angle.

The LA forum mentioned the Long Beach banner on that day. I didn't check to see if it was the same one though.

The banner I saw had the word 'Long Beach' at the bottom. I couldn't tell for certain if the picture is of Long Beach, Calfornia or not. I've only been once myself. Can't say that I know what the city looks like.

To avoid touts, just say "Mai Ow" which means, "No, Thank you" it should work most of the time, and they will leave u alone.

Well, more correctly, it really means I do not want. 'Ow' ('Ao') is the verb "want" and the 'Mai' before it makes it negative... but who's being picky here? ;)

As for the thread opening question regarding Thais swimming in the ocean with their shirts on, it is true. Thai adults are generally very conservative about their bodies, and I see them swimming in blue jeans and t-shirts all the time. You can always tell the farangs apart because they all wear speedos... quite opposite ends of the modesty spectrum.