My first glimpse of Thailand and its people at the Suvarnabhumi Airport made me wonder what we were doing in this country. Thais looked more Filipino than foreigners, except for their language. I look around and I see my classmates marching up for immigration as “diplomats and foreign ambassadors”. The consul looks shocked with so many people forming a line at her gate. My classmates whisper and comment on the leniency of security at the premier Thai airport. Upon finding our guide from the travel agency, we again, had to take pictures. We waited outside the airport for our ride, and I start feeling the heat as some of my classmates start complaining that Thailand feels a lot like Manila.
The ride to the hotel was a long one. During the trip, some of my classmates began pointing out places we passed which resembled some part of Manila, and I nod in agreement. We found the skyways and the sky train so much like EDSA, even Quezon City and Pasig to some. Ken, our guide, said that Thailand is a lot like Manila, with the traffic jams, and the same kind of crimes. He gave us a briefing on some information which will be useful in Thailand such as bargaining, not riding the taxi or their traditional mode of transport, the tuk-tuk in front of the hotel while he points out the names of several infrastructures we pass. He says that there is a lot of construction in Bangkok as more and more people are arriving daily. According to the Philippine Embassy representative, Bobby, there are around 3,000 tourists arriving daily in Thailand.
After settling in at the hotel, we paid a courtesy call to the Philippine Embassy where we were greeted by our Ambassador and Ms. Grace Banez. Our ambassador, whose name I already forgot, said that he's been in Thailand for five years now and that he does not want to get transferred to another country because life in Thailand is so easy - it has the conveniences of developed countries while the people maintains a simple way of living. He mentions that population growth in Thailand was one of the lowest in the world. When asked what kinds of policies he thinks are best copied n the Philippines to copy this seemingly prosperous country, he says that most of the members of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), our NEDA's counterpart, were educated in the Philippines and probably got their idea of development from our country. While they converse inside, I went outside to look around, and this was when I understood what the Ambassador was talking about. Outside of the walls of the Embassy was a big city, with the hassle and bustle of the big city, but still with fresh air and trees and plants growing in the streets. So many questions filled my mind and a certain envy towards Thais permeates my soul. I was thinking of the poor people back home, the dirty streets of Manila, and the intolerable heat of the city. Here I was in a country so much like the Philippines, and yet so unlike our country. My curiosity was awakened as I saw an elephant traveling in the sidewalk, and I vowed to myself, “I will find out how Bangkok, if not the whole Thailand got up from the slump of the Asian Financial Crisis”.
The next day, Ken toured us around the city and its temples to “give us good luck”. He says that this is almost like a custom for foreigners. He says that it is necessary for us to visit temples and pay our respect to their gods so that nothing bad will happen to us during our stay. After this, we went to the office of the Strategy and Evaluation department of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). This was when I found out a policy protecting the natural resources of Bangkok is already in effect. Garbage was collected at night and periodic cleanup of the main river, the Chao Praya and its tributaries were necessary so as to maintain the already depleted natural resource of the city. The CIA fact book on Thailand shows that Bangkok's water table is too low to support the 4.7 day population of the city. Aside from the many buildings, we see a lot of cars causing the building of skyways to alleviate this problem to no avail as the numbers of cars grow every year. BMA's figures show about 4 million cars in Bangkok during day time. In the 2007 budget appropriations of BMA, apart from the general administration expenses (comprised of salaries of employees, office supplies, etc.), public cleaning and orderliness got 17.81% of the 39 billion budget; with civil works and traffic system getting the next 16.19%. Public health and education has the lowest allocation at 11.69% and 10.84%, respectively. By these figures alone we see that the BMA was focusing on environmental protection (through cleanup drives and employment of local police officers who implements the environmental laws through fines) and the introduction of alternative ways of transport. The reason for this becomes apparent when the Office of the NESDB introduced to us the concept of the “sufficiency economy”.
