I’m sitting in a hotel room, taking a break from the bustle of the streets outside. Thailand’s changed significantly over the last twenty years - the Bangkok of today is almost more Singaporean than Singapore.
Shopping malls, acres of food courts, trendy clothes - it’s all here. The only things that remind you you’re in Siam are the occasional Soi dog and the billboards. And even then, it comes as shock when you see them. We’re in Chiang Mai at the moment, a small city to the north of Bangkok. Once upon a time, this was a city of farmers and the hill tribes. Now it’s a city of stalls and night markets, one that only really wakes up in the late afternoon. At times it seems there are more foreigners here than Thais - our taxi ride back from Central shopping centre saw us pick up some Japanese tourists, on their way to the “best massage in Thailand”. A worthy goal. The industrialisation that’s happened over the last few decades doesn’t seem to have left the Thai spirit behind. Unlike other countries where Westernisation has gradually consumed their culture, the Thais happily catch the sky train down Sukhumvhit road to the weekend markets at Chatuchak without a second thought. You step out from a station bombarded with advertising on LCDs and large-scale micro-LED screens and wander into the same markets that have existed since the 50’s. Paintings, toys, food, dogs, chickens, knives, clothes - it’s all still here. Everything’s still for sale, given the right price.
Walking down the major shopping stretch from Mahbunkrong to Soi 15 on Sukumvhit has become an almost pleasant experience. The newly constructed sky train creates much needed shade from the sun, to the point where it’s almost cold. Twenty years ago, walking that stretch was a task conducted by only the truly poor or insane. Now, it’s almost enjoyable. Singapore went down, underground, in building their city, looking inwards for space as they modernised. Thailand has gone up, expanding out. It’s an interesting cultural contrast, and says worlds about the Thai psyche.
Suvarnabhumi airport on the other hand, to be blunt, is a complete and total cock-up. It doesn’t matter how you cut it - the place is a failure. Cracked runways, links to cronyism, power failures, you name it. Coming through the International terminal is like coming through the bowels of an industrial facility. Not all the lights works, there’s a strong industrial chic thing happening everywhere, and you periodically have to step over puddles of water dripping from the roof. They’re even talking about temporarily closing their brand new massive airport for “refurbishment”. Not a success, really. Globalisation has really killed the international shopping trip. There once was a time when we’d deliberately buy all our computer goods in Thailand. We’d easily save hundreds of dollars compared to buying them in Australia. Now, the price is almost at parity, even after bargaining. Retail in Australia is still stupidly expensive, but effective use of the tax system combined with shopping around has led to an almost elimination of arbitrage on electronic goods.
Apparently the big thing in Bangkok at the moment is mobile phones - everywhere we’ve looked, we’ve seen mobile phone stalls. The entire fifth floor of Mahbunkrong seems to be devoted to mobile phones. It also appears that the next big thing to hit Australia is likely to be hand-held Mpeg4 movie players. Everyone was hawking them. Seems some manufacturer in China has hit onto a good idea - build a camera, an MP3 player, an Mpeg4 player (with screen), and a book reader into a single device and sell it for under $200. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be able to play DivX or read directories, so they’re largely useless as far as I’m concerned. Very good idea though - I’m looking forward to seeing the second generation devices shortly. The trip has been excellent so far. We had dinner at the Vertigo restaurant, the highest open air restaurant in the world. There’s nothing more than a single bar at waist height between you and 61 stories of free fall. The view and the food were sublime. We’re in Chiang Mai for another two days and then off to Tokyo. I think this is the first trip I’ve taken to Thailand where I haven’t bought anything. I picked up a pair of active noise cancellation headphones, but not because I was in Thailand specifically. I simply couldn’t stand the airline noise anymore, and I was worried about getting hearing damage from listening to music at far too high volumes. I think that I haven’t bought anything in itself shows how much smaller the world has become.