ONE OF THE EARLIEST THINGS that I realised about Thai people is that they have difficulty saying no. Before I moved here, I asked the accountant at the office where I was to work if I could leave some cash in the office safe. "Of course," she replied graciously. But a day later, my boss called me to sternly reprimand me that the office safe was not for keeping personal money.

The accountant had simply not wanted to say 'no', so she'd said 'yes' - but then taken the matter to the top. The other reason why Thais have trouble saying 'no' is that there is no single word in Thai that translates to 'no'. The closest you get is 'mai', which translates as 'not'. The nearest equivalent to a 'no' is 'not possible', or in Thai, 'mai dai' - though in common speech you might hear 'mai' being used by itself.