Bangkok — agtawaf

Bangkok is the best kind of city - crowded, chaotic, pungent, messy - and alive.

Or, as the gentleman with whom I had a business school interview in the city's financial district put it (the photo above is the view from his office), "Bangkok has soul."

That soul is palpable, in the form of humid 90-degree November weather. The kind of weather that makes one acutely aware that they are overdressed when they come off a plane from Tokyo. The kind of weather that spontaneously soaks prospective business school admits in downpours on their way to interviews, so much that they have to spend 5 minutes using the hand dryer in the lobby restroom to look reasonably dry.

The city of Bangkok is actively mourning the recently deceased King of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Banners, billboards, and public televisions throughout the city alert locals and visitors to this, and the residents wear black almost exclusively for the year-long memorial. Unlike the formality and pomp that might accompany similar ceremonies in other countries, the air of mourning feels very genuine here. Periodically throughout the day, residents will stop what they are doing and stand to attention as the king's motorcade passes through in remembrance. Walking to the Grand Palace in Old Town Bangkok, two hundred thousand mourners in black line the streets and crowd the sidewalks to pay their respects.

Working out in a park on our second day here, Dan and I heard a series of sharp whistles, following which all the park-goers stood to attention, facing the invisible source of the sound. It turns out that at 8am and 6pm each day, as part of an initiative to bolster patriotism, Thai cities play the national anthem for their residents. It's hard not to be impressed and moved by the sight.

Thanks to a generous introduction from the co-founder of my old company, I was able to grab coffee with a local venture capitalist who focuses on southeast Asian startups.

She and I talked for an hour on the nuances and differences of technology companies in tech-light emerging economies like Thailand. For instance, due to low credit card penetration (30% in Thailand and under 10% in Indonesia), many e-commerce companies have to accept cash payments, requiring them to employ their own delivery people to collect. This forces the companies to think of these delivery people as part of their front-end customer interface, and to test how to use them to drive additional revenue and improve customer satisfaction.

She also mentioned that, by virtue of being one of the only female venture capitalists in the area, she is frequently approached to speak on 'women in tech' at local conferences, rather than on her investment theses, management advice, or subject expertise. I guess some things don't change country to country.

In the expatriate area by Asok Junction, women call out to you and grab you as you walk the streets to coax you into massages that are presumably more than just massages. It reminds me of our time a few years ago traveling in Brazil. Even in the middle of the Amazon, when we finished our meal at a nice restaurant, a local mama-san would come around to leave unsolicited business cards for her brothel on each table. In reality, this is less a commentary on these tropical tourist destinations than on the male, undersexed western tourists who frequent them. It speaks volumes that this is just what is expected.

One night, while grabbing dinner from some street food vendors, Dan and I saw a large, intoxicated Brit arguing loudly with a local woman - presumably a pro -argumentatively pursuing him down the street. He turned into the confrontation and shoved her down to the ground. Dan and I quickly got between the two of them to keep anything worse from happening. The distraction didn't seem to do much. She continued to follow him down the road and he shoved her into a car, scattering the contents of her purse. While this unfolded, the crowded street around us, full of locals and food vendors, did nothing to intervene. As a tourist, it's easy to believe that the passerby would want to help a local woman fighting off an aggressive foreigner, but it seems the bystander effect is just as pronounced here as anywhere else. Then again, maybe this scene plays out too frequently to merit much attention from the vendors, who are used to seeing what the bars of Soi Cowboy bring out of tourists.

All in all, Bangkok is an amazing city. The pace at which life moves is breathtaking, and locals are extremely accommodating of foreigners who cannot for the life of them pronounce kap-kop-kun (thank you.) We're excited for the next chapter of our Thai journey to Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, and Pai.

Nik / 11.10.16

right place, wrong time

with the vietfam

Bali'n on a budget

Pai, Mai, Rai

where the streets have no wifi