Reflections on Thailand

A land of contrasts – there's some amazing modern architecture and impressive sky scrappers in several places I visited, but also some abject squalor as was seen alongside river banks whether on water taxis or luxury cruises, the views were always comparable. Despite this everyone seemed to be happy and it certainly was The land of a thousand smiles. Ambitions did not seem particularly high – make 500 Baht a day and everyone is happy. 300 Baht for a 12 hr day is the legal minimum wage, but for many of the street sellers they are self employed so on a bad day they will not be protected by this law.

Street life is 100% ingrained in life style, all kinds of wares are sold from static stalls, hand carts, motorbikes with specially rigged side car structures, hand held baskets and frames, or traditional panniers balanced over one shoulder like a giant weighing scale. Popup bars and eateries materialise at dark fashioned out of any of these means. The food always looks good, and smells tasty and thousands of locals use them. However, I had 2 bouts of food poisoning in 3 weeks, only using the fruit sellers, so am dubious as to how clean some of these actually are. I then heard that Thai girls who go to Europe with their rich sugar daddies are often frightened of going to the loo as they have never passed a solid motion in their lives, and think they will tear themselves. Make your own mind up as to whether or not you would eat street food!

Because of the high temperatures during the day, dusk is when there is a flurry of activity on the streets. Its cooler, and more conducive to market shopping, hence the plethora of night street markets. There are thousands of them, and no one any less interesting to the westerner than the next. Bartering is not on the same level that one finds in Arab countries, but they do try to get s much for their goods as possible from visitors, so its worth trying to negotiate. For instance, I bought some pearls from beach seller in Jomtien. I was offered just a necklace for 500 Baht – actually a bargain for real pearls, but I didnt want to pay the first price offered. After a little to and fro I got a necklace and bracelet for 350 Baht. She had quickly dropped to 400 so I knew there was room for manoeuvre downwards, and at the end of the day (it was dusk) she would have been glad to take what mounted to a days wage in one sale. £7 for a real pearl necklace and bracelet – bargain! The next day Andy bartered for a hair clip for Ruby, his ability in Thai helped no end. We soon saw the sellers in 7 Eleven, and he said the reason we couldn’t get it any cheaper was obviously because they were thirsty, and wanted enough to buy a couple of drinks. Made me feel a bit guilty that I had bartered!

There's a pervasive smell of sewers everywhere, but the loos are by and large acceptable, although some public ones have signs telling you they are for urine only. I have met this in Turkey, where its obvious the plumbing just cant cope with bulk, but it was not so obvious in Thailand and I wonder whether its just a matter of cant be bothered to clean.

You cant reflect on Thailand without considering the sex industry. The mind set is different here. Westerners see the girls as being exploited by men, often older. However, a great many girls, especially from the country are brought up to expect not to work, as its a man's job to keep her, and in return she would pander to his every whim. She would learn to cook, massage, and to go to the beauty salon on a regular basis, and always wear smart new clothes that have been paid for by a man. Working in restaurants and bars is seen as a way to meet well off men. The population is 55% female and the birthrate seems to keep this a fairly static percentage. When you take out the gay and ladyboy percentage, this leaves a high deficit of local men, which is why Thai girls look elsewhere. It makes it hard to criticise the girls for allowing themselves to be exploited. Furthermore, they see it as the men being exploited as they are daft enough to to pay for what they see as very little effort. However, the hidden price is often high in the form of disease. Furthermore, the cheap and free clinics do not spell out exactly what the problem is when a girl presents with HIV or some other STD. She will be told she has a faulty immune system, or a virus or some similar bluff. As a consequence she will not know that she really must use condoms, and so the infection is spread.

At the same time, Thais are deeply spiritual and superstitious, believing in ghosts and lucky charms. They take fortune telling such as tarot very seriously, and believe every word. They are by and large devout Buddhists, with a keen sense of karma in both this and other lives. They honour spirits of place, who are often ancestors, and make sure there is always somewhere for them to reside in the form of spirit houses and or garlands of flowers, such are seen on the front of boats or hanging from rear view mirrors in vehicles.

There's a happy go lucky and can do attitude throughout society. Our health and safety nannies would have a field day here - who needs scaffolding when Don over there is happy with a rope ladder to take bricks up 15 floors?. Complain about pot holes in the road? You're having a laugh. Put up and shut up, and learn to drive round them. Be bothered that yobs will interfere with main elec supply when the cables are only at the level of the 2^nd floor of a house? Its an earthquake region so where else do we put them? And yob will only touch them once and word will soon get round that he fried himself. And if he decides that its the lower phone lines he will tamper with, then a Thai Jail will sort him out. A friend of Andy's recently found himself in jail – 150 to a cell with only a mat to sleep on, and a bowl of rice each day to eat, unless friends brought you more. When he got back to UK he went out for a drink to celebrate, his system didnt cope with alcohol after 6 weeks detention in Thailand, and he got picked up for being drunk and disorderly - thought he had died and gone to heaven with the luxury of the cell in the local nick!

There is also little social consciousness about plastic use.  The idea that you would reuse a carrier bag, or not need one it frowned on.  You  buy a bottle of  water, and you need a small bag and straw so you can hang it over your arm and drink from a straw, same for a can of coke, so you still have a hand free for whatever.   Rubbish was really noticeable on the island of Koh Lan - mountains dumped on a side road and occasionally burnt when the stench got high enough. The concern for public health is not part of national pride.  However, plastic bottles are recyclable, and some of the street dwellers go through bins collecting empty bottles which bring in an income of 1 Baht for 4 bottles.  At 50 Baht to the £1 this is hard work to earn a bag of groceries.

So is it with regret I leave Thailand? Hmm not sure. Mixed feelings really. I do have a further 5 days booked for March on the return leg of this odyssey. I will tell you then, but the fact I cant tolerate the food is a major sway against the country. (10 kgs lost in 3 weeks).