There was a bit of bad news from Thailand a few weeks ago following its announcement of a change of entry rules. Its popular 60-day visa-free scheme for 93 countries was cancelled, and I can only imagine how that must have upset a lot of Indian tourists who have treated Bangkok and Pattaya as weekend destinations in recent years. I have no doubt that they will soon rally and sail forth again as they usually do, but that change in policy did prompt a bit of soul-searching on my part.

The official reason put forth by the Thai government was safety. Apparently, tourists from some countries weren’t behaving in a respectful manner, and they wanted to have more control over who was allowed to come in and stay. It felt like a reasonable explanation, until it was countered by several unofficial reasons from Indian travellers, many of whom maintain that their countrymen are among the worst behaved tourists abroad. There were complaints about Indian families being loud at restaurants, of being uncouth on airplanes, lacking basic respect at sacred sites, and exhibiting an overwhelming sense of entitlement that compelled them to treat other Asians as lesser beings. All of this sounded familiar enough, because I have had the misfortune of seeing many examples over the years. And yet, it felt as if something was merely lost in translation here.