Welcome

Because of the very polite and delightful way of being welcomed and hailed in Thailand, the greeting is usually the first thing you learn.... you press your palms together in a christian prayer-like fashion and give a slight bow while saying "sawatdee" adding ‘khrab’ if your a man (pronounced kind of like crap) and ‘kaa’ if your a woman.

But friends, delightful as the greeting is, you have probably been reading the regular or wrong guide books. The first thing to learn is actually ‘mai bpen rai, mai mee bpunhaa’ roughly translated as a combination of "it doesn't matter", and "no problem." which basically means ‘Don’t Panic’ ....the all important first words of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy... so when you bump into something annoying or alien ‘mai bpen rai, mai mee bpunhaa’ or if you loose your camera ‘mai bpen rai, mai mee bpunhaa.’ or if you see an elephant careening down the street ‘mai bpen rai, mai mee bpunhaa’ or if your hair is on fire ‘mai bpen rai, mai mee bpunhaa’.... This message is important everywhere in the galaxy but I think it was originally coined in Thailand as ‘don’t panic’ is way more typical of the Thai approach to life than the English.