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I had an experience regarding Thai respect for royalty on my last visit.
I was having a tiff with my gf. whom I've known for 2 years.
She took some baht notes out of her purse to give to me and I knocked them out of her hand onto the floor. Her reaction was the first time in 2 years that she has shown any anger or even annoyance with me.
Later when we were discussing the incident she explained to me that I'd done a very bad thing by knocking a picture of the king to the ground and that she'd been really upset by it.
She is very tolerant towards my lack of understanding of cultural issues and when I make a gaff concerning this will always wait until we are alone to explain to me. Concerning the face issue, she takes this very seriously and it affects everything she does. She always refers to the issue of her losing face as being "shy".
By the way she is from the boonies down south and is relatively uneducated..
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