Valentine's Day in Thailand

Today is both Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day. Here in Thailand Valentine’s Day is celebrated but it’s not really a Thai holiday. Much like other consumer oriented holidays advertisers have sold the concept here but it has no real roots in Thai culture or tradition. Christmas is much the same. All the malls are decorated up in festive displays and people wear their little santa caps and such but most have no idea what the holiday is really supposed to be about. Marketers have just sold the concept that it’s a sanook (fun) holiday and the Thais have adopted it which drives more sales.

Anyway, the real reason for the post was that last week I organized a little photo shoot event on ThailandFriends.com and we struck out into Chinatown and the Klong Toei market looking for photo opportunities. I thought I would share some of the results.