tongueThaied

Nov 19 2011

The Dark Side of the Flood

Sometimes I feel so happy,
Sometimes I feel so sad.
Sometimes I feel so happy,
But mostly you just make me mad.
Baby, you just make me mad.

Pale Blue Eyes – VU

It makes me sad. A bit surprised as well. At least at first. But, thinking about it, maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised.

As a former tourist to the Land of Smiles (LOS) and now a long time resident in the Land of Lost Smiles (LOLS), I’ve had my share of double pricing and farang pricing.

To be honest though, I’ve been treated good by Thailand. Doublepriced at times, but not really scammed, not in any major way. Mostly small things and mostly in the early days when I was young and ignorant.

We all know about the corruption in Thailand. I see this farang pricing habit as small-scale corruption at the grass root level. They have had good teachers, the small people. Politicians have ruled by the old tradition of “kin muang” also after the absolute monarchy changed into what they like to call democracy. It’s like the main reason to become a politician in Thailand is to be able to enrich yourself from the state coffer.

Just a few days ago, on November 11, they caught some thieves that had (allegedly) stolen some 200 million baht, out of a stash of up to one billion, from the home of Supoj Saplom, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Transport. Of course he denies it.

We also know about the jet ski scams and the like going on in Phuket and Pattaya. Tourists wanting to have some fun on the waves ends up having to pay huge sums for alleged damages to the rented jet skis.

It’s always been like that in Thailand. Try to get the most out of every tourist, no matter how you do it. They are walking ATMs that should be emptied before the leave the country. But it’s getting worse by the day. As I said in the beginning, it existed when I first came to Thailand as a tourist too, but then it was small money. I had to pay 15 baht instead of 13 for cigarettes, maybe 10 baht more for a T-Shirt. Small things that I could live with.

Now it’s big business, on all levels. Do it with a smile and hope to get away with it.

Now, with the flood disaster in Thailand, they show their real faces? The greed, the total lack of morality.

We can read in the news about how some people take advantage of the disaster, of other people’s pain. It started with hoarding of food, mostly drinking water, resold at exorbitant prices. As that is not bad enough, later on there where outright sabotage in order to make money. Metal spikes, placed under water, at flooded streets, to destroy free truck services and food deliveries for the affected people just so the boat drivers and sellers of basic necessities could make some extra bucks.

This is not the old story of screwing the farang, this is Thai against Thai. Where’s the moral, where’s the affection for your fellow country men when you do something like that?

Thailand is morally corrupt. The small people have had good teachers for many years. This is learning by example as good as any. If the politicians can rob the country every day, if the police invent crimes to be able to collect bribes, why couldn’t ordinary people do the same?

Please shape up Thailand. You are a beautiful country, but you are ruining it. Please shape up.

No matter what happened in Thailand before, it just bounced back as if nothing had happened at all. Be it tsunamis or military coups, the tourists just keeps coming back. But I feel the collective karma is about to strike back now. When you turn on your own, it will break, sooner or later.

Please shape up, Thailand.

Posted from a Galaxy Tab not too far away

Tagged corruption, los, lost, scam, thai flood

Nov 11 2011

Yes, we have no bananas

As you probably already know, Thailand is experiencing one of the worst floods in modern history at this very moment. The northern parts are already drying up and they are starting the clean up. But the central plains are still under water and people are fleeing Bangkok ahead of the inundation that now seems inevitable, and in many parts already started.

Here in Hua Hin we are spared from the disaster, but still, we are affected in many ways. We are virtually flooded too, not by water, but by Bangkokians.

As said, the Bangkokians are fleeing the capital and many of them end up here in Hua Hin. Not that we are not used to Bangkok people invading our small town. They come in droves every long weekend, but now, with the flooding going on, it’s an exodus, they are everywhere.

Phetkasem road is coming to a standstill, looking more like Sukhumwit at rush hour.

The big problem though, is that in Bangkok it works driving like a Bangkokian. In Hua Hin it doesn’t. They, the Bangkokians, break all the rules the wrong way. When in Hua Hin you have to break the rules as they are supposed to be broken, not in a Bangkok way of rule breaking.

This creates chaos on the streets of Hua Hin. The local people break the traffic rules in a familiar way, so no harm done, but the Bangkok people break the rules in a strange Bangkokian way. That doesn’t work. CHAOS.

So, please all you people from Bangkok, please break the traffic rules in a correct wrong way. Otherwise we can’t co-exist on the streets.

But, it really doesn’t bother me that much, I used to live in Bangkok for 8 years, so I am kind of used to this traffic situation already and I don’t really have to expose myself to this mess very much.

Another problem is that they, the Bangkokians, buy all our bottled water. The other day one woman, from Bangkok, bought every single bottle of water at my favorite 7-Eleven, totally ignorant of the little boy that wanted to buy just one bottle. She left with the whole car full, he left empty handed.

But, I can live with that as well, I don’t have to buy drinking water, I have my own supply at home.

It is almost impossible to eat our nowadays. Every restaurant is full. With Bangkokians of course. They are rude and loud and demand instant service. OK, not all of them are rude, but some of them.

Even if you manage to get a table at a restaurant, and are lucky enough to get what you order, and that is not guaranteed, that you get what you order. The other day a Bangkok lady who was a Very Important Person, at least she thought so, simply grabbed MY fish because she said her kids where hungry, after waiting for 10 minutes for the order.

She couldn’t care less that my kid also was hungry, after waiting for 20 minutes.

Even IF you get what you ordered, you will lose your appetite anyway because of the loud and rude Bangkokians.

Not that I care that much, we can cook at home. We have a supply of rice that will last for months and we have our way to find meat and other essentials.

I have one problem though with this flood, partially caused, I assume, by the invading Bangkokians. The Snickers stock is running low, very low. The big ones are a fading memory, the middle sized ones went out of stock last week. Now there’s only the tiny ones, for 12 baht each, available. And not many. Today there where only 4 left after I bought my daily supply of 2.

How will I survive without Snickers? I need my daily afternoon Snicker to live through to the end of the working day.

I say, to paraphrase Dave in 2001: A Space Oddysey;

“Open the flood gates, pal”.

Just get it over with. The water has to pass Bangkok on its way to the sea sooner or later. The later this happens, the more suffering for the people affected. Just let it flow.

Now, don’t misunderstand me, I feel for the people, both the ones already under water, and the ones under threat of getting their properties flooded. It’s a tragedy, but the water must get out to the sea. Let it go.

And, I might as well be directly affected by the flood. I have a house at Rama 2 Rd., in Bang Khun Thian. I understand that if they open the gates and let the water lose, my house will get flooded. But I rather take a few days under water than letting millions of people living on their roofs for months, just to save central Bangkok.