BG "Bracelets"......
The reason you could receive the bracelet directly from the monk, but the girl couldn't has nothing to do with you being a foreigner. In LOS, a woman can never touch a monk, nor can a monk touch anything directly from a woman, so she can not hand anything to a monk, but must give it to a man to give to the monk; the monk must give the bracelet to a man to give to her.
It has nothing to do with the woman's status which (in their religion) is not lower than a man's. It has everything to do with respect for the monk. It is not easy to be a monk, and it would be considered rude to put temptation in his path.
Monks can eat only twice a day, and both meals must come between 6:00 AM and Noon. For eighteen hours they can have nothing but water. Therefore, to eat food in front of a monk is the height of rudeness and it disrespects him, since he has the hard life every day of fasting from noon til dawn. How cruel it is for someone to put temptation before him.
So it is the same idea with women. The touch of a woman can be very sensual. If you can shake hands, then is a pat on the back OK? Then what about a hug? Easier to have no contact. Why make it harder than it already is? If a woman can not hand something to a monk, or receive something from his hand, then no chance to "accidentally" break the rule!
So this rule in no way reflects on the worthiness of a woman. In LOS, many of the statues and pictures of Buddha show him with the face of a woman. This is because women are considered to be born with a more spiritually advanced disposition than men. Bhudda resembles a woman because he became very spiritually advanced, and therefore his features and expressions show the kindness, compassion, and placid nature which are more like the way women are than men typically are. Of course, I guess they never met a modern farang woman.
JayBee