Up Close & Personal With Thai Culture: The National Museum Volunteers [Season 4, Episode 32]

You know how foreigners aren't allowed to be tour guides in
Thailand? Well guess what - there's an interesting little
loophole to that, and it's a great opportunity to get to know
Thai culture in a very real way.


Greg interviews Dr. Peter Hufschmid-Hirschbuehl
(hereinafter referred to as 'Dr. Peter' for obvious reasons), the
President of the National Museum Volunteers, the only museum that
allows foreigners to train and work as tour guides. The training
program provides a quite extensive background in Thai culture,
and many go through the program just for the education. Once
finished, graduates lead tours in English, German, Japanese and
French. 


Dr. Peter goes into detail on the National Museum,
highlighting both its positives and negatives, and relates
insights into its collection and what it says about the Thai
culture, and the artistic and creative things that it's produced
over the millenia. 


Dr. Peter then explains the training program, which
involves quite a few hours of work, and has a nuanced focus
depending on where the tour groups are coming from (for 
example, the French have a very different history in Southeast
Asia than the British or the Germans or the
Japanese). 


All in all, the National Museum should be on the itinerary
of any tourist to Thailand, and the guide program should be on
the list of any expat with an interest in Thai
culture. 


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