Clothes-Free Travel

Naked on the Beach. Offending the Locals… or the Tourists?

And which one matters the most?

At the end of the day, naturists are a valuable commodity!

A few days ago, I wrote a piece about all the places you can go on nakation in Thailand. Many are surprised to learn that there are several options, though all but one are completely landlocked into smallish resorts inconspicuously nestled behind walls, amidst urban sprawl.

The lovely thing about the Orient Beach Village, where we’re staying as I write this, it that it’s situated right on the beach. There’s one resort in Bali that’s adjacent to the beach, but the website makes it clear that you dare not venture into the surf without your swim trunks on. [We have yet to check that place out.]

And to be fair, most of the resorts on Phuket organize day-long boat trips where they take you to a secluded out of the way beach far from the madding crowds so you can work on your all-over tan within earshot of the hypnotic rhythm of the lapping waves.

Oriental Beach Village is the only resort in Asia where you can legally be naked on the beach — sort of.

Rumor has it that Paolo, the resort owner, has “made a deal” with the local authorities so they’ll turn their head the other way when people are naked on the beach in front of his resort.

Beyond that, the directive is to cover up.

I should mention that we are on an incredibly secluded islet. There are a few resorts to the south of us, but only two to the north, and once you pass the second one you can easily walk an hour without encountering another human being, local or otherwise.

We usually set out early in the morning to enjoy the sunrise reflecting off the waves. With pareos in hand, it’s easy enough to wrap up if we see a human in the distance. [SEE: Nude at 100 Paces]

Sometimes it’s a couple of locals busy at work, pulling in their nets with the catch of the day. More often than not, it’s another tourist from a different resort. Pretty much guaranteed to be a Westerner. Most likely from someplace in Europe.

I find myself wondering, as we go through this recurring dance of wrapping and unwrapping various parts of our bodies, exactly who are we trying to protect from the potentially offensive glimpse of very specific parts of our anatomy?

Here are four scenarios:

1. We encounter a local fisherman on the beach. He’s busy with his work, see’s people walk by in skimpy bikinis all the time, but finds it insulting to his culture to have naked people in his sight-line. Possible.
2. Same fisherman, but as far as he’s concerned, bikini? Bare butt? Both are beyond his cultural norms, but in the end, all the pale westerners are bringing money into the local economy and providing jobs for the his family — including the naked people. Sometimes, especially the naked people.
3. We encounter a naked 50-something European couple out for their morning walk. He has long swim trunks on. She’s in an awkward fitting Lycra thing that hardly seems immodest, but makes her feel comfortable on the beach. Chances are they’ve encountered beach nudity before in Europe, and they don’t even give it a second thought. They might even stop a ways down the beach and remove their swimsuits.
4. Same couple, staying at another resort, maybe even from the United States with all the attitudes about nudity that tend to come with. They’re offended, tell the manager of their resort, and consider not returning to said resort if they’re likely to encounter naked people on the beach next time around. Now, we may well be harming the local economy if local resort owners risk losing repeat clients.

Ugh!

Going back to the Nude at 100 Paces argument, I find it difficult to fathom how complicated this actually is. We know the Thai people have long been accustomed to European women being topless and have largely made that concession simply in the name of tourism and the money that follows the tourist.

So what’s really on trial here are bare butts, and perhaps a glimpse at the pubic region. From 100 meters or more.

I realize it’s the principal of the thing more than anything else.

And if I personally have a singular concern, it’s that I’m a guest in this country and I don’t want to do anything even remotely offensive to the people who call this their home. Even if the offense turns out to be discouraging other tourists from returning to support the local economy.

But with all that said, as world-traveling naturists, we would have never found our way to this corner of the universe had it not been for the opportunity for a nakation in the middle of January. And I dare say, we’ve pumped a good bit of cash into the local economy — just in daily massages alone.

[Also worth another post! Heaven!!]

I know what some of you are thinking.

Keep you damn swimsuit on and enjoy the Pad Thai.

And when in doubt, that’s exactly what we do.

But we’ve also learned from some of the naturist resort owners that they are successful in maintaining high occupancy rates year round when a lot of the other resorts are struggling to make a go of it. At the end of the day, naturists are a valuable commodity!

We will always error on the side of caution. But sometimes I wonder as I scurry to wrap up at the sight on a shadowy figure in the distance —

Is this really necessary?

Funny post script: Yesterday, we saw someone with a strange saunter coming down the beach and went about censoring ourselves.

Turns out it was a lone cow, wandering the beach. She didn’t seem the least bit concerned.

In fact, come to think of it, she was naked, too.

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