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>>I'd heard about the sole of the foot thing but not the table approach. Once made a faux pas when visiting a wat. A friendly young bhuddist monk approached un and chatted to us just as you'd expect a young polite educated man to do so. We had a nice long talk and at least twice I patted his arm in a friendly gesture. I didn't know at the time that you're not supposed to touch them. He never flinched or showed any sign that that was tabu though.
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>>Maybe he had to go off and birch himself and ritually cleanse himself for a week after though! :-)
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>That's Buddhist for you. They don't tend to take offense when other people from other cultures don't play by the rules. Tend to look a little more at what they perceive to be in one's heart and cut you a lot of slack. They have visceral reactions, of course, but they also place a great premium on jai yen - a cool heart.

That's what I figured.