Travel Chapter 21 Thailand and Cambodia bis

Thinking about what I wrote yesterday in the previous chapter, I realize that it was factual with little personal input so I am adding a few anecdotes and thoughts to complete the picture

The infrastructure of Thailand

Coming straight from India to Thailand was a major shock. It is clear that Thailand has done everything that India has not done in the last 20 years. As opposed to India where roads date back to the time of the Britishers, poverty levels are everywhere to see; Thailand has obviously made the hard decisions and invested in its own future. Highways are as modern as anywhere in Europe or North America, Ports and airports, planes, busses, taxis, sewerage systems all have been updated and run smoothly. I am still very upset with India for not having made these investments and now finds itself almost overwhelmed and will probably never be able to catch up anymore. I find this totally irresponsible of the Government officials of the last 40 or 50 years. The cost of not having their infrastructure up to international standards will make India increasingly less able to compete on the international market precisely when its population is about to exceed that of China.

The temple of Angkor Wot and other Cambodian temples

The amazing Angkor Wot temple is a UNESCO world heritage site. The beauty of this temple is still visible despite the years of rot and ruin under which it lay for 400 years. Someone calculated that Angkor (meaning big in Khmer) is so large that it required more stones to build it than the pyramids in Egypt. Not only is it huge, but in the general area of this temple there are dozens of other strewn over the landscape. The dimensions vary but each is a huge work of art in its own right. Why Indians would have built so many temples is not clear but those who believe they built these temples base their view on the fact that the Indians were the only ones who had the technology to build such immense works at that time.
While we were waiting for our guide at our hotel in Siem Riep, I was introduced to an elderly Cambodian guide of about 70 years who spoke fluent French. We had a nice conversation and he informed me that he had worked with the French in discovering and clearing away the jungle from Angkor Wot. Interesting as we met in Xian China with the old farmer who first discovered the Terra Cotta warriors when were last there.

Chance meeting in Siem Riep

During the course of our visits of temples in Siem Riep we went into a nice restaurant down-town to have lunch. I went into bathroom and washed my hands. Five minutes later, I heard a loud voice of a man asking whether someone had left their sunglasses in the men’s’ bathroom. He held up the glasses and I recognized not only my glasses but a former colleague from the World Bank with whom I had worked some 20 years earlier. He was a South American and he also recognized me. In a very loud voice he said across the restaurant in Spanish: Alex, what are you doing her? We greeted each other like long lost brothers. He was on a consulting contract in Cambodia for 3 weeks. Small world.

Rice boat restaurants in Bangkok

On our last evening in Bangkok we were the guest of the wife of Ton de Wilde, a good friend from my time in Amsterdam. Ton was stuck in Jakarta but had insisted we dine with his Thai wife. We met that night on an old rice boat which was 70 years old. These boats were used to transport rice down the river. Many now served as floating restaurants.
Bangkok is beautifully lit up along the river at night so these boats float by the wonderful temples and building in a show which makes the city look so much nicer at night. There are huge dinner boats which are larger than the ones on the Seine in Paris.

Our boat was managed by a retired Irishman who had opted to run the restaurant after too many years as an international consultant. He was adamant that it had been the right decision but was very upset with the current political upheaval going on in Thailand currently. According to him tourism has dropped drastically in Thailand as a result of riots in the streets, the blocking of the airport back in December and the continuing bickering going on between parties supported by the King and others supported by the peasants. It is tragic for a country where tourism is a major source of revenue and where the season is bracketed by the end and beginning of the rainy seasons.

Enough for now.
Cheers