PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN — One cop sits, Princess Jasmine-style, on a flying carpet. Another poses in an upside-down house with some plaster cows. And a whole group of officers pose with Santa to greet the internet.
Far from more sordid beats on the Gulf coast, tourist police in the quiet enclave of Hua Hin are bringing A-game charm to a social media feed that challenges the idea the bureaucracy online must be unintelligible, unfriendly and archaic.
They’ve gotten notice for trading tough-guy grimaces and posturing for disarming and self-deprecating humor in years of photos promoting local tourist destinations. Senior Sgt. Maj. Yuwaret Khunnasak spoke to Khaosod English about their social media mojo.
“All of us are froong-fring,” she said, using a slang term for all that is effusively girly and glittery.
Yuwaret said her commanders wanted to promote local tourism spots and gave the job to two policewomen and two policemen who have “absolutely no problem” making thumbs-up gestures next to plates of krapao.
“We want to present tourist spots like cafes, restaurants and so on. There’s so many places in Hua Hin, we haven’t even presented them all yet,” Yuwaret said. “We think really hard about the places we want to promote.”
But enough cop talk. Here are our favorite pics posted by the Hua Hin Tourist Police.
