ffhound and others,

I guess my objection is that you are determining a cities culture by it's majority or what you read in a tourist book. Again, cities are quite diverse especially these days. There are many cultures in a city which is why they are more tolerant of strange behavior than rural areas.

Now if I visit a particular religious venue, of course I respect that culture. But if I'm walking down Silom Road in BKK, I don't think there is a mandatory culture. The whole world is there. The same is true for many streets in Paris, London, Singapore, Buenos Aires, etc. Those cities used to have distinct cultures, but no longer. Cosmopolitan is the watch word.

America is regarded as the most open country in the world and many people say it has little culture in comparison to older countries. That's not true. America just has the MOST cultures and since the cultures are all packed together, people don't often see them. So American's at home generally do not respect all the cultures of their home town's or cities. Consequently most American's abroad do not respect other cultures at all.

While I actually do respect other cultures when travelling, I do not often dress the part. As soon as I open my mouth or perhaps show my face, they realize I'm a foreigner and do not expect me to follow their customs.

What is more important than dress (to me) is language. I do speak the basic tourist phrases in about 20 languages. Saying good morning in the local language brings about a smile quicker than a nice pair of pants. And sometimes is quite necessary to speak the local lingo when using a taxi.