Bangkok, yeah still!

Report 1:

One of those common sentences you hear when people return from holidays is:
"it's more expensive than we thought" or "the prices are like back home" or not as bad "it's getting more expensive all the time!". I had heard the latter about Thailand from various people who seemed to come here quite regularly, so I was a bit apprehensive about my budget when I arrived here...
4 days later and I am laughing so much I could burst a lung.

For the uninitiated:
1 beer in a bar (the most important item of course): 1 Euro 20
So you are saying already, wow , dirt cheap! Indeed, but the hillarious thing is that beer is very expensive here due to high taxes. Now for the funny stuff...
1 bottle of water: 10 cents
Any delicious dinner from a street vendor: 20 - 50 cents
Taxi across Bangkok (about 8 KM): 1 Euro
Entrance to museum etc.: 40 Cents

It just goes on... I've been to "cheap" places before (Portugal (back then), Morocco, Turkey etc.), but I have never seen such a quantum price change before. So a day going to some temples (with a taxi), drinking water, having two meals and rounding the night off with 3 beers will set you back about 7 Euros.

The Thais are changing, becoming dare I say it "westernised", with the old favourites like McDonalds, KFC and Burger King are already here. Even the new guard of Dunkin' donuts, Starbucks and Haagen Dazs are turning up. Sure great, you can't stop globalisation, but the weird thing is that they have western prices - 1 single scoop of Haagen Dazs ice cream costs 2 Euros! Without any toppings !! Your choice: 10 plates of rocking Thai food or a sloppy scoop of Macadamia Nut Brittle. Even a Big Mac costs about a Euro (i've been doing my research :) ). The big problem, like any aspiring culture, is that it is COOL to eat at McDs or been seen at Starbucks so the kids are all hanging out like good teenagers around the world eating fries etc. rather than getting some good Pad Thai and a whole coconut to drink (10 cents). As a result people will have to earn more to pay for these western luxuries. ergo prices will rise etc. etc. I think that is called economics or something... Am I getting too deep? Stop me if I am.

The other side effect of eating fries & coke rather than vegetable curry & freshly squeezed pineapple juice is that future Thai generations will probably gain weight like grizzlys in salmon season. As they are, they must be the most perfectly proportioned race on the planet. Not quite European height, but they are taller than the Japanese and since I arrived I have seen a total of about 5 fat (not obese) Thais. The rest (especially the women) all look like they regularly go to the gym without looking muscular... Sorry must calm down...

Story so far:
King's temple, Wat Pho (40 meter long reclining gold buddah), Skytrain, Siam Square, Thanon Silom (Patpong is overrated), Jim Thompson's house, Thai boxing match and one of the highlights was taking public transport, ok it was a canal boat and it had a motor the size of a bathroom (half the size of the boat) and it went down this tiny canal at a speed that would ban it for under 13s at Disneyland. All that fun for 10 cents. They only stop for about 10 seconds at each stop / port so you have to be ready to jump or you will be drinking tasty brown canal water very quickly.

Spent this afternoon chilling with some beers at the hotel pool. Two middle-aged Scottish ladies discussing the meaning of life slightly soured the otherwise blissful experience.

Off to Chiang Mai tomorrow evening.