The Thai government has been working overtime in the wake of all the red shirt mayhem that went down a few months ago to reassure everyone that all is well and things are back to normal. Of course, looking at the big picture and the deep social scarring left from the protests it might be a bit of a misnomer to say things are ‘back to normal’, but on the surface (where most tourists reside), things look pretty regular. However, businesses are still hurting, so to help drum up interest in the Ratchprasong area (where most of the fires and shootings took place), the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) organized a special press tour of the affected area, which I was lucky enough to be invited to.
To be honest, the TAT isn’t viewed as the most on-the-ball organization in the Thai government machine. Bloggers and journalists alike (including me) complain that the ‘leave a message/call-back’ ratio is about 20-1, and the awesome Not The Nation pretty accurately lampooned the TAT mindset here. And let’s not get started on their clumsy new slogan, ‘Amazing Thailand, Always Amazes You’.
However, their job is certainly not enviable and I don’t mean to belittle their efforts. When tourism is a major part of your economy and tourists are scared to visit your country, you have to do something. So, part of that something was to invite bloggers and writers to the Ratchprasong area for the Smile@Ratchprason event to showcase the shops and businesses in the area and see some of the people and sites close up.
The first part of the day was a walking tour of Ratchprasong organized by my good friends at Smiling Albino. Along for the ride were Richard, Tony, Jack, Trevor, Michael and John. Dan and Bank from Smiling Albino had organized a route that took us past some of the shopkeeps and residents affected by the protests. We stopped at a food stall where I tried my hand at making some type of waffle/hot dog concoction. Despite the crowds of Thais watching the odd sight of a foreigner cooking food and my clear lack of culinary skills, my creations were surprisingly edible.
It looks like its slathered with mustard, but it’s actually spiderwebs of pancake-batter TLC, baby!
After that we talked to some locals who have been squatting on a construction site for years and whose community was used as a major thoroughfare for soldiers and red shirts alike during the protests (no one could seem to give a definitive answer as to why it wasn’t closed off by either side). One woman we talked to told us that only during the last few days, when snipers were shooting anything that moved, did the community evacuate to a safe location. Apparently the torching of a major structure right next to their location didn’t worry anyone. These squatters are badass!
“And over there is where I snapped a guy in half like a toothpick. No one burns down my shantytown!”
A quick ride on the Khlong San Saeb canal boat, a peek into the house of a woman who lives at one of the piers and makes a living selling snacks, and we were back in Siam Square, where we were annoyed by the screeching of yet another huge television screen showing stupid commercials at top volume. Hey TAT – these things will drive tourists away, not impress them. More volume =/= more revenue.
Next we walked to a temple that I’m ashamed to say I’d never been to before, Wat Pathum Wanaram, squeezed into the space between Paragon and Central World as they stare down upon it. It’s a famous temple, built in 1857 by King Rama IV, and is seen as one of the last elegant bastions of ancient Thailand even as the shadows of surrounding commercial real estate get increasingly longer. Unfortunately, this was the area where many protesters were shot during the protests while taking shelter from the chaos outside.
A bullet hole in the wall of Wat Pahtum Wanaram.
Behind the main ubosot (ordination hall) is a stunning forest oasis that most people, I’d wager, don’t know anything about – it’s like a mini-rainforest. We made a donation to the temple, were blessed by a monk, and got permission from the temple’s abbot to take pictures of some of the off-limits areas. It was a really beautiful temple and I’ll definitely have to make it a point to return.
The scene behind Wat Pathum Wanaram.
After that it was lunchtime. In an effort to get an idea of what bloggers and social media nerds people with an active online presence think about how to promote Thailand, we were joined by Khun Suraphon Svetasreni, Governor of the TAT, Khun Prakit Piriyakiet, Deputy Governor for Marketing, Khun Thapanee Kiatphaibool, Director of Marketing, and various others whose business cards I didn’t get. The TAT often get a lot of flack and it’s easy to criticize a government agency as faceless bureaucrats, but I was pleasantly surprised at how seriously they seemed to take it. Everyone from the TAT was very nice and seemed to really know their stuff, and we had what I thought was a pretty productive conversation.
Lunch with the TAT.
About halfway through lunch a tweet started making the rounds that Facebook for mobile apps had been blocked by AIS. I brought it up and said basically ‘This lunch and your initiative is all well and good, but if the government starts arbitrarily blocking Facebook, none of it means anything to anyone, and Thailand will look even more foolish.’ They were surprised at the news and took my comment constructively (which is how I meant it) and even made a joke, something to the effect of ‘The government won’t block Facebook, they need it to get them out of shit.’
At any rate, it was a good day and good to see some of the people that were affected by the protests on the road to recovery. As I said, it’s easy to play armchair quarterback and say ‘They should do this, they should do that’. The Smile@Ratchprasong event may not be the most original or groundbreaking PR event in history, but at least they’re doing something constructive and reaching out to people and listening to the online chatter.
The monk we made our offering to. He seemed pretty calm… I think I could do it if I had uncensored high speed internet access.
Now if only they’d do away with all the damn televisions and screeching fruit-bat pretty girls selling makeup.
I loved the dig at social media nerds. I call them ‘Twatters’, but then hypocritically go and visit my own tweet deck. Just kidding… I don’t have a tweet deck nor do I know what it is. It just sounds cheesy. Keep these posts coming… I thoroughly enjoy your perspective.
Thanks Jodi. I think I took a break in the middle of writing that sentence to check Tweetdeck as well, so I understand 😀
It would probably help if the problems were solved rather than being brushed under an emergency carpet while telling the rest of hte world that everything is OK. The symptoms might be masked by the social ills have not been fixed by a long shot.
Though I do believe the current Govt is doing a better job than some past governments and is making good headway, the economy is ridiculously strong in spite of everything for example, and the plight of hte rural workers seems to being taken notice of.
Still I like it here better than the over regulated nanny states we all fled from back ‘home’.