The Reality Behind...

She was very articulate, as she needed to be, for a her job as a tour guide. Caught in a traffic jam on our way back from the canal tour we had a chance to talk. Hers is a common story. She's from northern Thailand and is in Bkk working to support her twelve year old daughter and eighty year old widowed father who live together in the north. Her room costs (I've converted to $$ equivalents in this blog) $70. per month without a/c and sometimes she barely makes that. On a good month she might make $150. and then she can send money home. Seldom does she get home because the bus fare is more than she can afford. The conversation began around a discussion of Thai massage and her saying she couldn't afford it($9.). Poor Thai...and comparatively she's not poor...are being squeezed hard by the rise in energy prices. For those living on the edge any increase can mean disaster. The man who wants me to teach English in Burma next year told of an orphanage there where the children were sickly because there was no money for a $10. per month water filter. Bkk gives a glimpse of how hard many people work to eke out a bare existence...if one's eyes are open. People collect cardboard, paper, cans, plastic bags and bottles and some beg. Imagine making a living selling brooms (name almost any item) on the street.
The noodle stand across the street is called, "Cheers". Often there are mid-day noodle stands which give way to evening stands that occupy the same spot. There is a street near here that turns into a night market. About 4:30 the traffic stops and out come the crews complete with fork lifts to transform the four block section into five rows of stalls selling mostly to tourists.