[DavidShreder]

Maybe this swimming with clothes on happens more around areas where more Westerners see it. The village in which I spend mot of my time in Changwat Sra Keaow, guys go swimming/fishing in a variety of garb (rotund bodies or no!) from pakomas to western style shorts down to their underpants, the women/girls will go in fully clothed and change into sarongs. Most of us from the West (especially the North) don't seem to have the same affinity with water as many Asians do. We tend to 'change' our clothing to suit a particular need e.g. swimming= 'swimming clothes', tennis= 'tennis clothes'.
Thai 'modesty' and 'shyness' i believe are generally cultural phenomena and historically located. My experience through conversations with many 'chow ban' is that they re no less passionate or feeling than any of us.
Me? I'm a 60kg xylophone man wearing denim cut-offs that were jeans thirty-five years ago and can't do much to change the body I've got, clothes or no clothes, what the heck. You don'thave to be proud of your body, just don't be ashamed of it. It's the person inside that matters!