Mmmm, what a week.
Shortly after preparing last week’s review of the Thai’s wrangling to define their democracy in Bangkok, I went off looking for that 10,000-person protest that was supposed to take place on the city’s streets June 16. As predicted, I failed miserably. Several centuries ago, the original Thai capital was sacked by the Burmese army. Fearing a complete loss of the Thai kingdom, the royalty fled south to present-day Bangkok.
“Here,” they declared, “we shall build a maze of streets so complex and infuriating that should the Burmese Army get this far, they’ll starve to the last man as they try to find even the simplest of locations!”
Indeed. Foiled by truly zany city planning and the beautiful-but-impossible Thai script, I took a night train north with a Canadian student whom I met in Bangkok.
The train, contrary to a number of beliefs about “substandard” developing-world trains, was excellent. Granted, it takes a certain brand of openness to board a midnight train at 3 a.m., curl oneself awkwardly between wooden benches, and fall asleep to an arbitrary cacophony of bells, whistles and vendors singing (in Thai, at 3 a.m.) about candy, soda and god knows what else.
Then again, at only three hours late, the State Railway of Thailand still beat the logistical pants off Amtrak.
Once one leaves Bangkok, it becomes clear how 60% of this country’s wealth is concentrated in the city. Agriculture dominates the landscape more and more as you move north. Surprising indeed was the sheer magnitude of “postcard” Asian images - rice paddies, bamboo shacks and water buffalo where we’re used to cattle.
At the same time, Thailand isn’t the edge of the earth. Most multinational corporations (especially, for whatever reason, 7-Eleven) make noticeable appearances on city streets. An incredible number of Thais speak English and there’s a pervasive feeling (in the media and on the streets) that Thailand defines a modern Southeast Asia for less-developed neighbors Laos, Cambodia and Burma.
I’ve been in the northern city of Chiang Mai for several days with Lawrence (the original Canadian gentleman) and a second Canadian whom we met on the train. Stories of tourism aside, it’s worth noting that we had a motorbike stolen yesterday.
If streets are arteries in this place, motorbikes are the blood cells; people, trucks and whatever else ends up in the road are undesirable cholesterol. It seemed to us that renting three motorbikes would serve both as transportion and unyielding fun - and we were right.
And then some jerk stole one of them as we slept, damning the lot of us to spend five hours at a local police station and, ultimately, costing a significant deal of money in insurance deductible payments.
Aside from this, the Thai people have been nothing but welcoming, smiling and helpful. Tomorrow it’s off again, ultimately for the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Closing thoughts:
- In a comment to a recent post, it was asked whether the unrest in Bangkok is due to fighting between government forces and rebels in the south or whether it was due to unhappiness at the continuing lack of democracy in Thailand (a military government continues to rule following the 2006 coup d’etat). I’m no expert, but all of the media that I saw in Bangkok focused on the situation with former prime minister Thaksin; it seems as if the fighting in the south is a far lesser priority for those in, and north of, Bangkok.
- Holy mass media! Al-Jazeera broadcasts, in English, all over Southeast Asia. It’s surprisingly similar to CNN, CBC, BBC, MSNBC and every other news network that isn’t FOX.
- And, thanks to Al-Jazeera, I finally found out about the Bangkok protest - when I saw it on the news. Apparently I was a week early.
- Coming soon: Cambodia.
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