Respect is a two-way process 

As a tourist here I can very well live through a day of tropical heat without a beer, but I don’t like others to dictate this, certainly not on the grounds of a religion that I respect but is not mine.
On Tuesday the Buddhist Thai had an important religious day and there was not a drop of alcohol for sale anywhere. Bravo, but why impose your belief on others? On other believers (which is weird, in my view) and, even worse, on non-followers, on visiting foreign vacationers whose only belief is in the Thailand they see promoted in their home countries – including a nice cool beer over a sunset on a tropical beach.
When we recently visited Nan province for the advertised peace and calm of the northern countryside, the authorities deprived us, respectful tourists, from sleeping for weeks on end by allowing temple feasts and Buddhist festivals to produce a thumping boom-boom every night. We politely and respectfully wrote to the governor of Nan, to the tourist police, to the local police in Phu Phiang and to the Tourist Authority of Thailand. None of these fine authorities ever showed even the respect of answering us.
For us visitors, who come here in appreciation of Thai people, whatever their religion, this disco terror and Tuesday’s beer ban put a new perspective on the signs warning tourists to respect the Buddha.
The right to personal freedom stops where it imposes limitations on the freedom of others. And respect will only be earned if it is reciprocated.
Joe Argusoog