In 2014, Thai state-run newspapers printed warnings from police authorities cautioning citizens against eating sandwiches in public. The decree was part of a slew of measures aimed at curtailing dissent (in this case, political assemblies in the form of so-called ‘sandwich gatherings’) and it highlighted the paradoxes of what is often regarded as the region’s most laid-back nation, the ‘Land of Smiles’.
Thailand, whose name means ‘Land of the Free,’ was the only country in Southeast Asia to escape colonial rule. The modern state was previously constituted by a variety of, often rival, territories and kingdoms, united in the 18th century as the Kingdom of Siam.
