Culture Shock! Thailand

This book helped my whole family. We read it before arrival but are still using it for reference. It gave us useful leads to international schools, places of worship and hospitals when out of Bangkok. A mixture of the very practical: opening bank accounts, finding your way, doing business, and so on, and a comprehensive guide to Thai culture, with convenient sectionalisation, excellent explanations and situationist in that it places the non-Thai reader into the Thai world and helps him or her stay afloat. Excellent value. Up to date. Hard to think of anything it misses. Very lively. Well written. And makes learning culture fun. Can't ask for more than that.

Culture Shock Thailand, the updated 2005 version, is simply the best guide to contemporary Thai culture available today. It is also a one-stop shop for the expat in Thailand, or prospective expat, covering everything from health and education (with annotated listings of hospitals and schools in all main towns), opening bank accounts, getting married, and so on. The index could be expanded, but the well set out presentation of sectional text makes it easy to find what you are looking for -- and it is almost certainly there. This guide is also very well written and in a style that is both easy to read and funny. I enjoyed learning. Many books are now available on Thai culture, doing business, settling in, etc. This is simply the best.

Excellent and bang up to date. This book has been regularly updated and readers should beware of old copies floating around. Latest update and substantial expantion is October 2005. The new addition includes very useful sections on schooling and medical facilities for foreigners, making this book a one-stop shop for any long term residents.

I recently went to Thailand and bought 4 books and Nancy Chandler's map of Bangkok. Of those four books (and the map) this was the most helpful on my trip. It gave me something no other guidebook ever has given me: an inside look at Thai culture and an understanding of my own reactions as a transplant into a totally foreign environment. If you want to go to Thailand and see the tourist attractions, then almost any guidebook will do. But if you want to experience the tradition with an understanding of the history and meaning behind it, or get to know the people on a level closer than just a touristing "farang" [foreigner], this book will open your eyes to the uniquely beautiful ways of the Thais. This is more than just a guidebook, this is an inside look at Thailand you won't find anywhere else.

This is one of the funniest and nicest books I read when I prepared myself four years ago to go to live in Thailand.Thailand is a very special country. It has never been for a long time conquered by alien powers and therefore has developed a unique, own culture. This book gives you a good insight and, much more, it wets your appetite. Going to live in Thailand, with the family, is a big shock in many ways. This book guides you nice and gently and with a lot of humor through your first embarrassing days. I have re-read the book , after four years, whilst now feeling complete at ease in this, indeed sometimes strange society. I still smiled a lot because I recognised so many situations.The information is certainly not out dated as some reviews suggest. It should be more treated as reflection on the culture as taken too literally. Indeed, if you drive your car into some one else his Mercedes ( I've done it twice)the chances are that the gentleman stepping out his car will be extremely cross with you and express himself in that way instead of smiling at you and making the wai... However, in general people are much, much less aggressive and I have learned to be more relaxed even in situations like an accident as well.Some things you will never get used to. When you fall flat on your face ( as happende to me in front of a lot of subordinates) everybody is roaring for laughter. And then you thank your little "Culture shock" for explaining to you these four years ago that they are not poking fun at you, but hiding their extreme embarrassment.Read it.. It will prevent you from doing very stupid things and it will enrichen your stay in Thailand!