Dressing Down On Holiday

The other night I had to wait around in the lobby of the Oriental Hotel for about an hour. During this time I had the opportunity to observe the various people who would come and go through the room on their way to their rooms, the restaurants, a wedding that was being held or out to the taxis up front.

In my opinion the Oriental is a fine hotel and I respected the fact that they have tried to maintain their standards of decorum in the face of the global trend toward more casual attire. For many years they enforced a dress code in their lobby that forbade short pants and flip-flops. While I think that this is not longer strictly enforced it is still an elegant place to sit and people watch.

What struck me is that for the most part the Thai people who were in the lobby - but were not staff - were dressed rather nicely (granted some were obviously going to a hi-so wedding party) in either formal or semi-formal outfits. On the other hand many of the westerners and non-Thai Asians who looked like guests of the hotel were mostly dressed in very casual attire - some looked like they would be more at home on Khao San Road. The thing is many of these people were middle age or older and I doubt they dress like this at home.

Thus, the question is - do we behave very differently when we are visiting a different country then we do at home. And if so, do we behave better or worse when we are on the road. In my opinion many people seem to feel that when they visit Thailand, they can at in ways that they would never act at home. This seems to be true even when they are staying at one of the most expensive hotels in Thailand (if not the region).