I think that it is good to talk about Thailand (The Land of Smiles) and giving information and security tips to anyone whos interested in traveling to Thailand so I created this interesting thread. Thailand is one of the world's best destination for vacation. I traveled to Bangkok, Thailand many times in my life for summer vacations. The most important thing that we foreigners should know is the Thai's Immigration Laws before we physically go there.

The Thai's Immigration Laws is a big concern to many people, whether they are Thais or foreigners because it disabled freedom of speech or freedom of expression (violation of first ammendment). Once landing in the Thailand International Airport, everyone should be aware that Thailand is much more an Absolute Monarchy country than it is Constitutional Monarchy country which made it a regime country that prohibited people to talk about Monarchy in anyways. I heard about many foreigners, making such comments about Thai Monarchy (journalists or ordinary foreigners) and were arrested and sent to jail and being deported back to their country. For the Thais, it would even be worse, Thais making comments about Monarchy could go to jail for years or getting death sentence or even being tortured. This Thai Immigration Policies really scared me and many foreigners who came to Thailand. Basically, there is no freedom of speech in Thailand because there are certain topics we could not discuss. Many people concluded that Thai government is one of the world's oldest form of government that had greater respect for the Monarchs and disabling their basic freedom of speech. It also controls Thai media in every aspect and brainwashing their people. For example: In the morning and in the afternoon of every single day, there is Thai National Anthem music and the Thai Monarchs on all Thai channels to promote the Monarchy. Another example is prohibition of talking about bar girls on the media by "Thai Rak Thai party" (Thais love Thai sub-government party). Thaivisa.com and Bearpit.net are good examples of Thai Forums owned by Thais and preventing threads about bar girls and Monarchy. Infact, many of these threads were deleted and some were closed. Their moderators and administrators were actually government puppets who monitors and controls these forums as well as banning their innocent members. This is also why Thaivisa.com and Bearpit.net(subforum of Thaivisa) were allowed to be broadcast in Thailand. Like in Burma, in Burma, Anti-Socialism websites is not allowed to be viewed in Burma and there are similar policies in Thailand. It is good to know this Thai immigration law because it could cause us to be in a Thai Immigration's Blacklist and we could not visit Thailand again!

Some foreigners are concerned with taboo cultures that still exist in Thailand which also prohibited free speech. Using or hearing bad words by Thais in Bangkok is not as common as in Europe or States. Ive also heard about this Thai culture about Saving Face. Saving Face is the culture that is used by Thais in their daily life for centuries. Thais said that to save our face is to look smart. They should even also know answers to all questions. When they don't know an answer to a simple question like "where is the restaurant or where is the bathroom" then they would certainly lie or giving false answers in order to save their face. I hate when that happens because now many Thais got a habit to lie to foreigners!

Beware also of high prize! The prize could be high for foreigners simply because we look like foreigners. Many Thais respected foreigners because they considered that most foreigners like Europeans are rich and they wanted our money! Ouch!

I was normally being called as "farang" by many Thais. I found out that it means "White People". The word originated from word "frank". It is actually a persian word which has been spreaded to the east which refered to Frankish traders. Some said that the Franks were the first Whites to arrive in Southeast Asia and the word "Frank" was pronounced wrong by the Thais and became "farang". Today, Thais called all Whites as farangs. I also found out that farang also means Guava fruit! Many foreigners were offended because we think that Thais did it on purpose to pronounce "Frank" in a wrong way since the Franks were enemies of Thais. Farang eating Farang (Guava fruit) is normally joked by many Thais and for me, that is not funny. However, it is a popular misconception by many Thais and it supports Xenophobic ways of thinking by Thais against White People. Thais also stereotyped/generalised Farangs for coming to Thailand and having a prostitutor as a girlfriend and most Thais normally asked about why foreigners like to have ugly, dark skinned girls as a girlfriend. Dark skinned Thais were normally being discriminated by other light skinned Thais which proved some kind of caste system in Thai society and they were considered to be farmers or prostitutors! Foreigners bringing darker skinned ladies into Thai hotels could be prohibited by hotel staffs and could be a never-finishing story! Interestingly, Thailand is the only independent country in Southeast Asia, free from European controls and hatred/xenophobia against foreigners as well as lack of understanding western cultures are still present. I also noticed that the foreign status was set to high when they are in Thailand but we could lose high status in only 15 seconds if the Thais found out that my salary wage is low or my social position is low or if I dress bad. It is hard to start from top to bottom for me and many other foreigners. Anyway, as a foreigner, I was dissapointed by these Thai Xenophobic Hysteria ways of thinking.

Despite Xenophobia of Thais, many Thais are very friendly to foreigners and still considered foreigners (especially Whites) as good quality people. The sad part is that many Thais looked down on themselves and disrespected their own kind which made me felt sad. The people in Thailand were not always being treated equally due to many reasons like Thai culture regulations, ie-(age acted as a barrier: respect for older people by younger ones, giving too much importance on race and skin color or money or social position). These are typical Thai feelings and mentality which also became part of Thai cultures which were practiced for centuries. They are not always open-minded people so I should becareful of how i talk... Many Thais could turn violent and aggressive, if they are offended by others. I learned that most Thais could be ten times easily offended than westerners! Staring at someone could be very dangerous in Bangkok because i heard of someone got shot simply because they stared at others! It is always important to keep this in mind and be fully alert when visiting these countries.

The Thai Metropolitan system was recently being used in Thailand and it was wonderful! The problem is that there is still lack of experience by the Thais who operate it and that is why there are still many reports of Subway system failures. The last subway crashed still scares me today. However, i enjoyed my first Metro rides with BTS (Bangkok Transit System) and MRTA/BMCL (Mass Rapid Transit Authority/Bangkok Metro Company Limited).

On last summer, i also visited Phuket and it still looks ok but the sad memory about tsunami that hitted Phuket on last year still makes me feel sad. The beach looks great and many tourists came back to Phuket to enjoy and to respect the victims of tsunami. Despite the tragedy, I still enjoyed alot on Phuket beach with my family. The sands of the beach is soft and the water is quite warm and the people are friendly. However, Phuket is what we could not really miss because it is a very beautiful place for vacation.

Anyway, Im not here to post everything about Thailand or giving full detail about that country but these are some good information to share to anyone who is interested about Thailand and concerned with security measure in Thailand. It is also very important to understand the Thai cultures and its laws. It is also the best place for vacation but there are still many security concerns to think about. I hope that the discussions on this thread would be fine and soft by anyone on this forum. Have fun!