on cultural authenticity

There's a saying that you're never more than three feet from a spider, something like that.

After a decade in Idaho, I had the same feeling for LDS missionaries: unless you're in Antarctica, there's at least one pair in your neighborhood.

And now the nearest Mormons are most of a thousand kliks north in BKK or an eight-hour van ride south across a foreign border I can only cross once without incurring a many-thousand Baht fee for a multiple entry visa.

Let me repeat that: the nearest Mormons, as far as I can gather, are in Bangkok.

Such was my shock that I called the church office. Welcome to Thailand: "Sawatdee babbledi Thai." Uh, [hesitant and unduly accented Thai] does anyone speak English? "BabblediThai NO" *click*

Here's the question: is it a traveller's beacon, the sign of a true, off-the-beaten, authentically local culture when not even Mormons have penetrated it, or is it a flashing warning: "stay the hell away, white boy"?