Life in Thailand

Yes, I get letters, or more precisely, emails from some of you who visit my travel guides. Sometimes people have some good information to share. Sometimes they just want to offer a complement (always appreciated). But there are those who write to complain. If they’ve found an error on the site, that’s all well and good, and appreciated as well. Then there are those who simply seem to need to whine about something.

Earlier this week, someone using the apparently fake - but rather appropriate - address of birk_192@hotmail.com dropped me a line to complain about having to pay 70 Baht to use the tram to the top of Suthep Temple in Chiang Mai, when Thais only have to pay 20 Baht. I usually don’t bother even answering such silliness, but I was in a bit of a mood when the mail arrived, so I replied. That’s when I found out the return address was fake. I was still in a mood, and it’s been a while since I discussed the whole “dual pricing” issue here, so I thought I’d post my reply here.

Birk_192’s comment was:

The fare to go up to the temple at Doi Suthep is 20 baht for Thais and 70 baht for farangs. Is this the buddist way or have we a temple who are out of tune with the teachings of the lord buddha.

Let’s not dwell on this guy’s lack of spelling and punctuation skills. He obviously has enough problems. In answer to his comments, I would point out a couple of things:

Firstly, the tram was built by the Thai government, which means it was paid for by the Thai taxpayers. Why shouldn’t Thais get to use the tram for a lower price than tourists, who contributed nothing to its construction cost?

Secondly, you only have to pay to use the tram. If the writer of this message had even the faintest clue about Buddhism, he would know that the ‘Buddhist way’ is to use the stairs rather than the tram. The path to enlightenment is difficult, and you must show that you are willing to make the effort.

The Buddhist teachings about money are pretty much the same as the Buddhist teachings about everything else - money is an attachment that we need to give up if we are to escape the never-ending cycle of life and death. I don’t think Buddha had anything to say about dual pricing, but it seems to me that the rate at which you’re “detached” from your money is hardly of any importance.

Some of you may have noticed that I don't say much about politics in the "Life in Thailand" section of my journal.  That's partly because, even after nearly 20 years, I can't say I understand the complex structures of money and patronage that seems to run this country, and partly because it generally has nothing to do with travel, tourism or understanding the rest of Thailand.  Like just about everywhere else, politicians are a different breed of people, practically a different species.

But I can't let the events of Tuesday night go by without saying anything.  First and foremost, if you had plans to visit Thailand in the near future, there is absolutely no reason to cancel them.  Things are already pretty much back to normal, and there is no reason they won't be completely back to the way they were within a week or two.  People generally seem to be relieved that "something" has finally given and are happily trying to get on with their lives.

Why did it happen?  Well, that's complicated and I can't say I know for certain.  In a very general sense, while Thais sort of expect their politicians to be greedy and corrupt, they also expect a certain amount of "equality" about it all.  While it's "natural" for rich people to lie, cheat and steal to get even richer, they shouldn't prevent other people from doing the same thing.  It seems that the former prime minister got a little too greedy, and then comitted the ultimate sin of trying to mess with the balance of power in the military.

So, the army did what it's done for the last 75 years and stepped in to restore the balance of power.  It's the way they do things here, and "Life in Thailand" goes on with barely a notice.

Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure to listen to a talk by Bill Heinecke reflecting on his long years of doing business in Thailand. You may not know Bill’s name, but if you’ve visited Thailand, you’ve most likely either stayed in one of his hotels or eaten in one of his restaurant. Heinecke is the founder of the Minor Group, one of Thailand’s largest companies and the largest hospitality group in Asia. Minor Group’s hotel interests include the Bangkok and Pattaya Marriotts, the JW Marriott in Phuket, all of the Four Seasons hotels in Thailand as well as their own Anantara resorts. Restaurants include the Pizza Company, Swensens, Sizzler, Dairy Queen and many more. They also distribute consumer products such as Esprit and Red Earth.

It’s always nice to hear Bill talk about his experiences. Although he is very active in the communities where he does business, he rarely puts himself in the spotlight. So, as he is perhaps Thailand’s most successful entrepreneur, I always take advantage of any opportunity to hear him talk. There are a couple of stories I thought worth jotting down here:

In what I thought was perhaps one of his most heartwarming stories, he recounted the deep depression he went through during the 1997 economic crisis. Like most people, he lost millions when the Thai Baht lost half it’s value. He was literally bankrupt, and he recalled how, one weekend at his Four Seasons Resort in Chiang Mai, his wife asked him why he was so depressed.

Bill tried to explain to his wife the complex economics of exchange rates, and how almost everything they had worked for was now gone. His wife still didn’t understand why he was depressed, so he told her, “Honey, we’re as broke as we were 30 years ago when we got married.”

To which his wife replied, “Well, that may be true, but 30 years ago we weren’t spending our weekends at the Four Seasons.”

See? It’s all about context.

The other story speaks a bit to the divide between east and west. In Heinecke’s early days, he once headed up the local office of Oglivy & Mather, which is still one of the world’s premiere advertising companies. At the time, in the 1970s, Ogilvy still ran the company himself and Bill had the job of organizing the boss’s first trip to Thailand to see his operation. Apparently, Ogilvy didn’t like to fly, or rather, he didn’t like turbulence so he avoided flying unless it was by Concorde. Accordingly, he planned to fly the supersonic jet to Australia, make his way to Singapore by boat and then travel up to Bangkok by train. This was long before the Eastern Oriental Express came to Asia, so Heinecke had to try and explain his VIP guest’s requirements to the State Railways of Thailand.

After a long explanation to the good gentlemen at Hualompong Station (which Bill says hasn’t changed at all in 30 years) regarding his boss’s requirements for which cabin was acceptable and even which scotch whiskey had to be available on the train, the ticket agents had only one question: “If this guy is so important, why is he coming by train?”

I’m not sure why, but it seems that I’ve been involved in quite a number of conversations about brands in the last few weeks. Marketing is a big part of what I do, including writing a web site, and there’s almost nothing more important to a marketing professional than branding. Many marketing people spend a lot of time thinking about branding and brand loyalty. It’s one thing to get people to buy a product once, the big challenge is making sure that when it comes to buying something to drink, a watch, clothes or whatever, your brand is the one the consumer wants.

The same is true all over the world, but I’ve long noticed that Thais can be real slaves to brands. Creating brand loyalty usually takes more than just a lot of advertising, but for Thais it often seems that “as seen on TV” is good enough. Quality, taste, reliability, cost, fit-for-purpose, none of that seems to matter very much to Thais.

In some cases, it’s just about what the advertising says the brand is supposed to represent. Nothing says you’re rich - and clueless - quite like a Rolex on the wrist. It doesn’t matter that there are lots of other watch brands that are just as good, if not better. There are brands that are even more expensive, but Thais wear a Rolex because everybody knows that you must be rich if you own one.

Thais’ brand loyalty is less understandable when it comes to commodity products where brand has very little to do with quality. Take personal computers for example. Thais will choose a name brand like IBM, even though it’s more expensive than a no-name PC, because it must be “better”. It makes me wonder what Lenovo is going to do once they have to stop using the IBM name. I bet if you had the exact same computer with two different brand names, Lenovo and IBM, most Thais would choose the IBM computer, even it it was more expensive, because “it must be better” if it has the IBM badge on it.

Something most guidebooks to Southeast Asian destinations don’t mention is rudeness. While many countries in Southeast Asia rely heavily on tourism, sometimes their ideas of what’s polite and what’s not is at odds with many Western ideas. Some are even at odds with common sense

This occurred to me as I was having a stroll through Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I couldn’t help noticing that cyclo and motorcycle drivers were much less obnoxious that they were the first time I visited the city some three years ago. Back then, you couldn’t walk the tree-lined boulevards without the constant accompaniment of a motorcycle or cyclo trying to sell you their tour. They could be quite aggressive, to the point that one guy even got off his ride and stood right in front of me as I tried to take a picture of some sight. Did the man really think blocking my shot would make me more likely to utilize his services?

This time around, the motorcycle taxis are still around, but they’re much less aggressive. I think that it’s down to the fact that metered car taxis are now so common. A tourist would have to be a little nuts to use a motorcycle, so the drivers are just going through the motions on the off chance that you might be a crazy Westerner that could easily be relieved of a lot of cash

It’s not like Vietnam has any corner on the rude route, either. From Bali to Bangkok, I often hear the same refrain should I be careless enough to walk by a t-shirt stall: “Hey mister, we have big size for fat guy like you.” Such comments are common throughout Southeast Asia, and they really make you wonder if people think before they open their mouths

Big Budget Rudeness

In the case of Thailand, the answer to the question, “What were they thinking?” Is often “They didn’t think.” It’s taken me many years to understand this, but it just isn’t part of Thai culture to consider someone’s feelings or reaction before opening your mouth. This results in a lot of behavior that at best can be described as politically incorrect, at worst it would be outright sexual harassment anywhere in the West. In Thailand, it’s quite common for the boss to poke fun at his staff, to their face, even if it often involves demeaning comments about where they came from.

Such comments are made without any thought about how it might make the other person feel. This cavalier attitude extends right through society. In my work with Thai companies, I’ve had to help clean up some major faux pas by my Thai masters.  But rather than air any dirty laundry in public, there are a couple of other major boo-boos in the news lately. Both involve movies made in Thailand by Thai companies.

The first film to hit the headlines was a horror flick with a plot line involving a reality show where contestants had to stay in a ‘haunted’ prison where some atrocities had taken place. The trouble was, the prison and the atrocities bore a strong resemblance to a particularly well known place in Phenom Penh during the Pol Pot genocide era. The makers of the filmed were shocked to learn that many Cambodians objected to a particularly painful episode in their past being used as the theme for popular entertainment.

The second movie was a comedy featuring an unlikely Laotian football (’soccer’ to Americans) team that beats the odds to get to the World Cup. I’ve seen trailers for this film, which in themselves were quite funny, but I can just imagine the jokes that the full picture may have made. For most Thais, Laos is synonymous with poor and backward. If someone doesn’t speak Thai properly, they’re accused of speaking Laotian. If they’re unfamiliar with the trappings of the big city, they must be from Laos. Such jokes generally aren’t at all mean-spirited, but there’s never any thought given to how they may make the person on the receiving end feel, and the makers of this movie apparently never thought about how the Laotians may react to their jokes.

Both movies have had their release dates postponed indefinitely, while the producers no doubt try to figure out how to salvage their investment. I’m sure that there are those who are arguing that Laos and Cambodia “just don’t understand” the movie, or perhaps they’re just thinking that these countries don’t have a sense of humor. That’s often the accusation made at individuals who take offense at Thai attempts to be funny, and why, at the end of the day, I don’t think anything will change. It’s much easier to blame the other guy than it is to take responsibility for your actions.