I have a bit of a dilemma: a young Thai student I’ve been mentoring is about to graduate, and he wants to follow up with a six month stay in Australia to improve his English skills.

I’m all in favor of this, since Thailand’s biggest challenge in the new world order is the people’s extremely poor grasp of basic English. The dilemma involves whether or not to try and suggest to my young friend that he may want to alter his behavior a bit, to better fit in with western society.

You see, like most young Thais - like most young people everywhere - my friend is extremely self absorbed, and practically obsessed with his looks. Among the many contradictions of Thai culture is that they can be amazingly accepting of people that don’t conform to western ideals of beauty (I’m adequate proof of that), while at the same time being amazingly vain about their own appearance.

I’ve been around my friend enough to observe that he cannot pass a mirror, or even a darkened window, without checking his hair or his face. He is not at all unique in this trait. Keep your eye on a mirror in any public place in Bangkok, and you’ll notice a fair percentage of the people under the age of 30 who pass by will check themselves out, and it’s mostly guys who do this. That may be just because women have mirrors in their purses to do this more discretely.

I’ve been in Thailand since the early 90’s, so I pretty much missed the whole metrosexual thing, but I’m still relatively sure that vanity is still considered a bad thing in western society. Last I heard, it was still one of the seven deadly sins for Catholics.

Part of the dilemma is exactly how to explain this particular concept. There are certain things about western culture that Thais just don’t get, and one of them is the issue of vanity. Thais are often amazed when I show up at a tourist site with a camera, and politely refuse to have them take my picture. To them it often seems as the whole point of visiting any place is to have their picture taken. The old stereotype of Asians and cameras is, I’m afraid, largely true. So, I’m just not sure my friend will understand the concept that people may not look favorably on his spending so much time in front of the mirror.

The 19 January edition of the Bangkok Post contained an interesting 'flip side' to the whole dual pricing issue.

The main topic of the article was the largely unacknowledged part that the internet now plays in delivering billions of Bahts worth of tourism business to Thailand. Web sites such as our own partner Precision Reservations sell discount hotel rooms worth, according to the article, at least five billion Baht (US$125 Million) per year.

What does this have to do with dual pricing? Well, it seems that while these sites are able to offer the best rates on hotel rooms, clauses in the contracts prevent the sites from selling the rooms to Thais. It seems that; “Hotels always want Thai travellers to pay a higher rate.” That's a direct quote from the article. So, while some foreign tourists whine on and on about paying an extra 50 cents or a dollar to get into a national park, pitty the poor Thai who has to pay double for his hotel room.

I've hear rumors of this practice for years, but this is the first time I've seen it confirmed in print. The article didn't give any explainations for the policy, but excuses I've heard in the past include the idea that Thais don't use other hotel services, especially restaurants (what experienced traveller does?) or that Thais tend to make their plans at the last minute. Neither of these excuses, nor any of the others I've ever heard, actually makes sense, especially when it comes to internet bookings. It seems that, as is the case with so many businesses these days, the people who run them don't really understand the internet, and how it's affecting their business.

Mark your calendars! According to today's Bangkok Post, a Royal Barge procession will be held on June 12th and 13th this year to celebrate His Majesty the King's 60th year on the throne. The king ascended to the throne of the Kingdom of Thailand in June 1946, making him the world's longest serving monarch.

The royal barge procession is one of the most spectacular — and rare — cultural displays Thailand has to offer. The last procession was held for the APEC summit meeting in 2003. As with the APEC meeting, this procession will be held at night. A flotilla of 52 barges holding more than 2,000 oarsmen will glide past the Grand Palace on the Chaophraya River.

VIP guests, which are expected to include several other heads of state from around the world, will view the procession from the Navy Auditorium, across the river from the grand palace. The rest of us will have to make do with grandstands set up along the river. These will probably sell out quickly, so you'll need to act fast to get them once they go on sale. There's no indication of when that will be, as yet.

In a more or less predictable quarterly cycle, there was yet another letter in the Bangkok Post from some visitor whining about dual pricing. I frankly have never quite understood these people, who generally have paid thousands of dollars to get here, yet only grudgingly part with an extra 50 cents to get into a national monument.

For the uninitiated, ‘dual pricing’ is the practice of charging foreigners (especially westerners) a different, usually higher, price than that charged to locals. It does happen in Thailand, there’s no doubt about that, and before I go too far into this, let me just say that, on the whole, I do think Thailand would be better off if this practice didn’t happen.

The thing I’ve never understood is why people seem to get so upset about this — and I mean really upset. I’ve heard some real tirades from people who seemed to find it totally reprehensible that they should have to pay 75 cents to get into a place in Ayutthaya when Thais only have to pay 25 cents. They take it as a huge insult.

This particular practice at national monuments is government policy. Justifications for it include the fact that Thais pay taxes to support these places, while tourists don’t, and the belief that historic places are part of Thais’ national heritage, and access to them needs to be as free as possible. My own reaction to the whiners is basically, “It’s 50 cents, for crying out loud!!!”

The other place where people run into dual pricing is Bangkok’s Grand Palace, where Thais get in free while foriegners have to pay about US$6 to get in. Again, this really riles a lot of people. What the complainers don’t seem to get is that the Grand Palace is a religeous place for Thais, where they go to pray in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It’s also the most important cultural place in Bangkok. Frankly, many of these morons should be grateful the Thais let them in — I see some shocking behaviour and pure ignorance on almost every visit to the temple.

One of the arguments against dual pricing is that it’s racist. Well, I guess everyone wants to play the race card these days. I can’t easily argue it isn’t, but just because Thais are one color of skin and most tourists are another doesn’t necessarily make something racist, or wrong.

Lastly, the whiners like to point out that “this kind of thing doesn’t happen where they come from.” Oh really? If they’re from the US, I suggest they visit Hawaii some time and ask locals what they pay at restaurants and other places that usually cater to tourists. Europeans aren’t safe either. Venetians don’t pay the same rates for water taxis that tourists do. The practice is actually quite common in heavily touristed areas all over the world, so deal with it!

When-ever I visit Singapore, I’m reminded of what they used to say in the USA about New York: “A nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.”

Singapore is definitely a drastic change from my home base of Bangkok, and I suspect a lot more people say the same thing about Bangkok. It’s sometimes strange to think that in just a couple hours’ flying time, you can go from the barely functioning chaos of Bangkok to the orderly rush of Singapore. I’m not sure living in Singapore would be such a bad thing, but I think I would miss the “rush” of making it through another day - it just wouldn’t be as challenging.

With its status as a more or less fully developed country, not much changes in Singapore. Most of the old places are still there from year to year, and there isn’t much new. I did notice that Clarke Quay had sprouted a new roof over the old streets. It looks a bit as if some alien life form has sprouted up in the area. The new roof is a free-standing contraption of metal and glass that extends up and over the old buildings. I’m sure it was meant to “preserve the architectural integrity” of the old buildings, or what little of it they had left, but from a distance, it does look a little odd. I’ll have to find time next time I’m there to have a wander around Clarke Quay to see what it feels like inside.

Other than that, the Singapore Management University is nearing completion in the lower Orchard Road area, having replaced the large open spaces around the Dhoby Gaut MRT station. However, the new Circle Line is still not finished, and still has streets around the Singapore Art Museum completely blocked off. Given that this is an election year in Singapore, one suspects that we may begin to see a bit more alacrity in completing this project.

Also taking shape is the new Terminal 3 at Changi Airport. The new terminal is designed with the budget airlines in mind, and there are a number of them calling on Singapore these days — Tiger Air, Jet Star Asia, ValuAir, Air Asia and a host of others. Even now, Changi remains one of the best airports in Asia, if not the world. One new thing I noticed on this trip is that there are now a large number of free internet access points all around Terminal 1. So many, in fact, that getting access to one is quite easy, as there were no long queues, in fact no waiting at all to use a computer. This service complements the long available free Wi-Fi access.