Thailand Travels

“Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.”

-Karl Lagerfeld

To start off my blog, I will be telling you about my trip to Thailand this past summer to work on an elephant conservation project. I started this adventure by hopping on the internet, and googling “teen abroad volunteer organizations”. I know, super safe right. Luckily, I found a legit website called ARCC, or Adventures Cross Country (to this day I still don’t know what the “R” stands for). When all of the papers were signed and the trip was paid for, I flew to San Francisco and met up with 11 other teenagers looking for adventure. 18 Hours and a stop in Singapore later, we had arrived in Thailand.

Now, fashion in other countries, I’ve come to realize over the years, is very different than it is in America. It is generally more fashion forward and thought through, rather than showing up places in sweatpants and a T-shirt. This realization continued in Thailand. As we stepped off of the plane, we immediately noticed how the men and women running around the airport were in suits, dresses, skirts, blouses, but never jeans or sweatpants (unless you were a travelling American teenager). As we went throughout the country, the traditional Thai clothing came more and more common to us and we began to dress like the Thai people to show respect to them. What I mean by that is we didn’t wear short-shorts, crop tops, or super short dresses.

As we were all becoming accustomed to the way we should dress in Thailand, other American and–sometimes–European tourists became more and more apparent. One particular noticeable group of tourists came upon us while we were visiting an elephant sanctuary for previously abused elephants. Sporting shorts that, really, should not be allowed to be called anything but underwear, crop tops, and about 50 layers of makeup, a group of American college-aged tourists were placed in our group. Now, at this point in time we’ve been here for about two weeks, and in case you haven’t pictured it already, 12 teenagers who have been backpacking across Thailand isn’t necessarily the best looking, most fashion-forward group of people. We are in baggy shirts and flowy pants and if we had hair past our shoulders, it was in a messy bun because of the scorching heat. But, despite all of that, we were actually showing respect to the native people of Thailand. It is considered inconsiderate if you are drawing attention to your body because in Thai tradition, your spirit, actions, and respect are the most important things to show off.

For special occasions, such as visiting a temple, you need even more respectful attire. They are very strict about dress codes in places with a considerable amount of holiness attached to them. Seriously if the people at the entrances of temples don’t like what you’re wearing they will make you rent a robe or pants to put on over your outfit.

Even while we were swimming or playing in the water with rescued elephants, we still wore shirts over our swimsuits to avoid causing anyone to be offended. Overall, people just dress in a nice and respectful manner when they go out in public.