Thailand is famously known as the "land of smiles", and often portrayed as some kind of tropical heaven on earth. Thailand has certainly given me countless wonderful experiences, but after living here for nearly a year I'm realising that there might be a bit more behind the smiles. Namely, that life for many Thais in this country is very hard.
Obviously tourists visiting any country tend to see the best side of things and when you factor in the "rich" effect of how much the average Western currency can buy in Thailand its easy to see why the country is a "paradise" for tourists. But many Thais seem to have the same attitude, happily telling you that everything is wonderful in their country and being very reluctant to discuss or even accept that there are any problems here. I'm often chastised by my friends for being "too serious". Certainly one of the charming things about the Thai people is the way that they don't complain and shout about things, but it amazes me that these things aren't at least discussed a bit more.
I have to admit that what I am about to write has to be placed firmly under the category of "allegedly" or "apparently". I haven't researched these issues or looked at them in any objective manner. The following are simply my opinions based on what I have observed and been told by friends in my time here. Inevitably friends' comments may have been exaggerated or misunderstood.
I don't know what the official poverty line is in Thailand but I can start from what I spend and count back. My average expenditure for a month – including rent, bills, transport, food and everything else is around 25,000 baht. With an exchange rate of around 70 baht to the pound this is equivalent to around £350 but with this money I can live a very comfortable life, living in my own apartment, eating out every day and going shopping, to the cinema and for drinks in the evening with much more freedom than in London where I can to count every penny.
As a "farang" living by myself I doubtless spend a lot more than the average Thai, who might save money for example by sharing a room with 2 or 3 people, using buses instead of the sky train and being rather more sparing with the air conditioning. At a rough guess I would imagine that 10,000 to 15,000 baht a month would provide a fairly comfortable lifestyle, albeit without some of the luxuries I have got used to. Anything less than that I imagine would be tough to survive on, certainly in Bangkok.
Prices in Bangkok don't compare easily to those in the UK, with some items much cheaper and others much more expensive. A studio flat will cost 3000 – 5000 baht in the less central areas of Bangkok, travel on the sky train is 15 – 45 baht depending on the length of journey, while the bus is cheaper at 6 – 15 baht. Eating out is cheap, 20 – 30 baht for a standard rice or noodle dish on the street while a big dinner at a good quality restaurant with a group of friends might come to 200 baht a head. Drink is more expensive with a bottle of beer at the pub usually hitting the 100 baht mark.
Thailand has a significant minority who are conspicuously very rich, driving massive 4 by 4s and shopping at the exclusive Paragon department store. Unfortunately this small section of Thai society seem to distorted how many westerners in Bangkok view the Thai people in general, leading to the kinds of ridiculous complaints and prejudices I encountered in my previous job. Thailand also has a culture of keeping up appearances and not "losing face" so while people may project an image of being wealthy the reality may be rather different.
The majority of Thais that I know however, work very long hours for very little money. I don't like asking friends about their salaries too much but it seems that well qualified people with degrees or masters are lucky to earn 20,000 to 25,000 baht even with a several years of experience. The experiences recounted to me by friends about part time and less qualified jobs are quite shocking. One friend told me that he worked at a bakery for 100 baht a DAY (that is less that £1.50), while another friend was working full time hours as a chef for about 6000 – 7000 baht a month. Certainly I have seen full time jobs advertised for around that mark on the doors of restaurants and shops in the mall.
Full time work in Thailand generally means long hours, the minimum for a regular job would be Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm (an extra hour on the UK). However people working in jobs like the bakery described above inevitably end up working many more hours in order to earn a useful about of money. Certainly working 6 day or 7 day weeks is not unusual and I've seen the same girl in my local 7-11 store at 7am on my way into work and again at 1am when I've got back from a nightclub on the same day! The people who run the food stalls on the streets also normally work 12 hour days 7 days a week, maybe closing once a month.
One of my friends, who studied for a masters degree abroad currently works for a company who have won the franchise for visa processing for the British Embassy. March is apparently a busy month and staff are expected to complete the processing of all applications on any given day, no matter how long it takes. So my friend has been working until 9pm, midnight, even 2am on one occasion, and is expected back at work at 8am the next day as usual. This extra work incidentally does not earn him any overtime payments.
Most of my friends are fairly well educated, but for those that aren't life is rather more difficult. Officially education is free for all in Thailand, but students are expected to pay for uniforms, books and other materials, which can prove a real barrier for poorer families. In other situations children are required to work, supporting the family business. For people with a lack of education or any other barrier to work, life truly is a struggle. You see so many reminders of this in Bangkok that you almost become desensitised to it.
People don't recycle their own rubbish in Thailand. They throw everything away and then other people empty the bins and pick out any plastic and metal items they can sell to a recycling plant. I've seen people wading and swimming through the foul Bangkok canals to collect rubbish for this reason. The other constant in any market or main shopping area is the beggars. Disabled people with missing limbs dragging themselves along the gutter, blind people stumbling along busy roads wailing karaoke songs into a microphone and perhaps the saddest of all incredibly young children left by their families on the streets to beg.
This piece is not intended to be a criticism of the Thai people. I have an enormous respect for the way that they do "get on with things" without complaint and with their trademark smiles. Indeed I think one of the reasons I feel more comfortable in Bangkok than London is the fact that people are not so driven here. By describing the problems I've seen I'm really aiming to highlight the obscene hypocrisy and lack of understanding of many of the foreigners who live in Bangkok exhibit and just why it makes me so angry to hear them talk in such an selfish and uninformed manner.
When I see all these things it makes me realise how incredibly lucky I am to have been born in a rich country into a family who have loved and supported me and encouraged me in everything I've done. It is also this which makes me so angry when I see people in the UK not making the best of their lives and not taking advantage of the amazing opportunities they have been given.
In my new job I'll be earning what seems like an obscene amount of money considering what many hard working people survive on in this country. As such I am determined to give something back, be it donations to charity or when I'm settled into my new job volunteering my time to support one of the community projects I've read about. I just wish more tourists and expats would open their eyes and do something to help less advantaged people in this "tropical paradise" they so much enjoy.
