Info about Thailand

If you're interested, here's more info about Thailand and it's culture, shamelessly plagiarized from Lonely Planet and another blog I found. That being said, we've seen all the customs in person and are trying to eat with spoons exclusively 😊

• Feet are seen as the dirtiest part of the body and you should never point them at someone, or put them on a chair or table or step over someone. Shoes must always be taken off before entering a house, building or even a shop. It is illegal to step on money as it has the king’s face on it!
• All male Thai’s are expected to spend at least 3 months in their lives as a monk. Women must not touch or sit next to a monk. Roughly 95% of Thai’s practice Buddhism. Even in prime real estate in Bangkok, the space is left for spirit houses.
• Thai’s eat using their spoons as a form and their forks as their knives. They find it very unusual when foreigners put forks in their mouths.
• Thailand, amongst many other Asian countries, find public displays of affection between as man and women as offensive. They also ask for foreigners to not wear skimpy clothing. Generally shoulders and knees should be covered, especially in temples. (But it’s so hot, how do they cope?!!!)
• It is believed that the first Thai’s migrated south west from China. The settled around the river forming farming communities that eventually fell under the empire of present day Cambodia. What is now Southern Thailand, they were under the sway of the Srivijaya empire based in Sumatra.
• By the 14^th century the first Thai Kingdom named Sukhothai (meaning Rising Happiness) emerged. The third king is credited for developing a Thai writing system and for building Angkor inspired temples. Eventually the Prince of Ayuthaya came to power this Kingdom ruled until the Burmese destroyed the city. Previous to this they had managed to thwart foreign take overs, including an attempt by a Greek man hoping to advance French interests. The capital is now in Bangkok with the Chakri dynasty still occupying the throne. Between 1851 – 1910 the kings steered the country towards modern western style clothing and schooling and forging trade agreements. In return for the country’s independence the King ceded huge portions of land to French controlled Indochina.
• There has been great political unrest in Thailand for many years. In 1932 a peaceful coup converted the country into a constitutional monarchy, loosely based on the British model. Since then there has been a power struggle between 3 groups – the military leaders, elected government and the monarchy backed by the aristocrats. In the 70’s the threat of communism arose but didn’t come to fruition. The most recent coup was only in 2006 when the prime minister got ousted. There were massive political protests in 2008 which even shut down both of Bangkok’s airports for a week. In 2009 there were violent street protests.
• There is a structure to one’s place in Thai society governed by conventions of social rank defined by age, wealth, status and personal & political power. The elder always picks up the tab, the junior does the menial chores. Young Thais from poor families are expected to support the family by working long hours doing side jobs such as selling sweets or juice to tourists.
• Thailand has a split personality – the highly westernized urban city Thai’s and the rural farming communities who still follow the old values.
• Thai’s rarely sweat or stink. They generally bathe up to 3 times a day.
• 75% of the population are ethnic Thai’s. People of Chinese ancestry make up 14%. Other large minority’s include the Malays and the Khmers.
• The country has dense mountain jungles in the north to tropical rainforests in the south. There are mainly 3 seasons. July – November is the wet season, December to March is the cold season (really more like "cool/pleasant" unless you're on top of one of the mountains where you may see frost) and the hot season April – July when temperatures soar to the unbearable and all the lovely green turns to dry brown (yup that's now, HOT). 
• In the middle of last century, 70% of Thailand was forest. Now it is less than 20%. Native tigers and elephants are becoming endangered species.