Dining in Thailand is usually a positive experience, but misunderstandings can arise. In large hotels and international restaurants the service is predictably good, but elsewhere it might not be. When ordering your food, ask the waiter to write down and repeat the order. Couples/groups ordering individual dishes should request that everyone’s food arrive at the same time. Orders sometimes disappear between the table and the kitchen, so if you feel something is amiss, tell the staff sooner rather than later.

Looking for the best time to go to Thailand? Wherever you travel in the world, it is important to get the timing right. As far as Thailand is concerned, there are no absolute extremes. If you can avoid the rainy season (July to October), it would probably be best, but if you can't, the rain isn't permanent - it comes in bursts and cools things down after it has gone!

Sadly, Thailand falls short on facilities for the disabled. Footpaths are often cluttered and/or in disrepair, and motorcyclists commandeer them at will. Upscale hotels cater better for wheelchair users, but smaller places are ill equipped. City buses are impossible, as the drivers barely give able-bodied people time to board and alight safely, let alone the disabled.

One of the main reasons people travel is to explore other cultures and establish how other countries and cultures do things. It is then quite remarkable then to see people wandering around the kingdom imposing their cultural approach on the situations and events they encounter. Often these leads to confusion, worse, it sometimes leads to ugly scenes that are entirely avoidable with a modicum on insight on how things are done in Thailand. What follows then is a list of Dos and Don’ts for when you are in the kingdom: