The incident happened at 11am when a tall, blonde haired tourist walked into Wat Chalong wearing a see-through kaftan usually worn on the beach. She went inside the temple with other tourists to worship Buddhist images without any concern of people staring at or taking pictures of her.
Residents who were also at the temple took photos of the tourist and sent them to local officials in the hope they would make tourists understand Thai culture and respect sacred places by dressing appropriately.
Yesterday evening, Phuket Tourist Police gave a press release to media to inform them that officers led by Col Srisak Kampheepan and Maj Naruewat Phutawiro had asked the tourist involved in the incident, along with a tour guide, representative from the tour company which had taken the tourist to the temple and Wat Chalong spokesman Chaiwat Chatwetwaiyawatkorn to attend the Tourist Police Station at 9pm.
During their meeting, Tourist Police explained to them about Thai culture and manners, and discussed with them how a tourist should behave to be considered appropriate and accepted in Thai culture, especially when he or she enters a place of worship.
Police also told them that what happened what not right and it should not happened again.
The tourist, who police did not want to name, apologised for her actions and told Mr Chaiwat that she was very sorry about the incident. She also asked for Thai people to forgive her and said she did not know any better. She had no intention of disrespecting a place of worship for Thais and Phuketians.
Tourist Police also stressed the issue to the tour guide and tour company and told them they must inform their tour groups of how to act and dress while visiting a place of worship.
They also told Mr Chaiwat to take this incident as a lesson and make it more clear at the temple with regards to its rules and regulations to prevent such incidents happening again.