We lived in Thailand so we learned a lot about them and I must say that you are pretty spot on. We loved how warm, friendly and accepting they were. It was wonderful to see the male students at school embracing the lady boys as friends, when you knew in other countries they would be beaten.
Thai’s will always laugh when something embarrassing happens to you, this is their way of saving face, and helping you to feel better and not be embarrassed.
We never noticed that the food portion thing was deliberate, but Craig would often complain when we received our meals. He would look at mine and then at the size of his and say “I ordered the wrong thing again.” How funny to find out this was intentional.
We had many Thai friends, and we found they could not do enough for you. Our one friend would invite us around for dinner and absolutely cook a feast. We could not believe the amount of food she would cook, and it was all for us. We always felt so bad because we could never eat it. They love to give, but they hate receiving. When we would buy them gifts they would quickly put it away and pay it no attention. It was really strange at first for us to understand this, but we learned that they just don’t feel comfortable about it.