COMPARISONS ARE always odious.
The traveler though invariably comes to comparisons: of his home country with his destination of the moment. Which, to paraphrase Desiderata, also invariably makes him vain or bitter, for always there will be a country much better or lesser than one’s own.
This travel to Thailand, I did for once try to get out of that rutted mental track, taking in whatever that came, like a second-hand car buyer, on an as-is, where-is basis.
So the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok is world-class, well in the league of Frankfurt’s and San Francisco’s. So wished I that the same were at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.
A wish spoken too loudly for Mayor Boking Morales to remark: “With the political will, the same, perhaps even better, can be built at the DMIA.”
Mabalacat’s forever chief exec well articulated there the rationale of this “Lakbay Aral” of the town’s officialdom: “the replication of best practices” in the Thailand experience.
Best practices that bring to the former Siamese kingdom over 14 million tourists annually, as Prakit Piriyakiet, executive director of the ASEAN, South Asia and South Pacific Region Department of the Thailand Authority of Thailand, happily told the Mabalacat delegates.
“Amazing Thailand,” phrased Piriyakiet of the country’s CNN advertorial, “is defined by amazing value, value for the tourist’s money.”
Yes, so I found out myself. The value of the baht stretches further than the peso’s. No, it’s not just in the rate of exchange but in the purchasing power. Simple sample: a heaping bowl of truly divine wanton noodles for 25 baht, that’s P37.50. Beat that Chowking!
The world’s best tom yum goong at Baiyoke Sky hotel, Thailand’s tallest at 88 storeys where we stayed, is at 150 baht, all of P225. Practically a very pedestrian value meal at McDo.
An hour of really relaxing and rejuvenating – for the next day’s endless shopping safari – foot massage at 180 baht, P270. Almost half the cost of the slightest Roman rub-a-dub at P500.
A full-meal for three on the street sidewalks at night – grilled catfish the size of Schwarzenegger’s arm, half a dozen tiger prawns, seafood tom yum goong and mineral water – cost 500 baht, that is all of P750. And you dine in the company of the well-heeled yuppies and corporate suits.
The greatest argument for the purchasing power of the baht was provided by this paper’s Joey Pavia. No, he did not shop until he dropped. He just shopped and shopped and shopped – clothes for everyone at home and the office, some jewelry, home decors, dried fish and tamarind – right up to the last moment before he boarded Philippine Airline’s Flight 731 for Manila.
Amazing variety, Thailand offers too. In goods – clothes, food stuff, handicrafts, furniture, jewelry. In leisure and entertainment – from beaches to bitches, my apology for the political incorrectness.
So we bused to Pattaya and boated to Coral Island, where Arnel San Pedro of the Clark International Airport Corp. wondered aloud, “This is not Thailand, this is Bombay or Calcutta,” marveling at the sea of Indian tourists there, the women swimming in their saris.
No, we did not go to infamous Patpong district and thus failed to range it against our own Fields Avenue. From what we heard, read and seen in the web though, there is no basis for comparison whatsoever. Fields is a nunnery to Patpong’s brothel – what with the female sex finding novelty as beer bottle opener, tobacco smoker, slot machine, dart thrower, among others.
The amazement over Thailand, even in this recounting brings out the giddiness of the first time tourist in me, the sights coming in some form of instamatic blur, err, digital movement.
Need to stop this digression and redirect the discussion to some seriousness. On the replication of best practices.
The traveler though invariably comes to comparisons: of his home country with his destination of the moment. Which, to paraphrase Desiderata, also invariably makes him vain or bitter, for always there will be a country much better or lesser than one’s own.
This travel to Thailand, I did for once try to get out of that rutted mental track, taking in whatever that came, like a second-hand car buyer, on an as-is, where-is basis.
So the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok is world-class, well in the league of Frankfurt’s and San Francisco’s. So wished I that the same were at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.
A wish spoken too loudly for Mayor Boking Morales to remark: “With the political will, the same, perhaps even better, can be built at the DMIA.”
Mabalacat’s forever chief exec well articulated there the rationale of this “Lakbay Aral” of the town’s officialdom: “the replication of best practices” in the Thailand experience.
Best practices that bring to the former Siamese kingdom over 14 million tourists annually, as Prakit Piriyakiet, executive director of the ASEAN, South Asia and South Pacific Region Department of the Thailand Authority of Thailand, happily told the Mabalacat delegates.
“Amazing Thailand,” phrased Piriyakiet of the country’s CNN advertorial, “is defined by amazing value, value for the tourist’s money.”
Yes, so I found out myself. The value of the baht stretches further than the peso’s. No, it’s not just in the rate of exchange but in the purchasing power. Simple sample: a heaping bowl of truly divine wanton noodles for 25 baht, that’s P37.50. Beat that Chowking!
The world’s best tom yum goong at Baiyoke Sky hotel, Thailand’s tallest at 88 storeys where we stayed, is at 150 baht, all of P225. Practically a very pedestrian value meal at McDo.
An hour of really relaxing and rejuvenating – for the next day’s endless shopping safari – foot massage at 180 baht, P270. Almost half the cost of the slightest Roman rub-a-dub at P500.
A full-meal for three on the street sidewalks at night – grilled catfish the size of Schwarzenegger’s arm, half a dozen tiger prawns, seafood tom yum goong and mineral water – cost 500 baht, that is all of P750. And you dine in the company of the well-heeled yuppies and corporate suits.
The greatest argument for the purchasing power of the baht was provided by this paper’s Joey Pavia. No, he did not shop until he dropped. He just shopped and shopped and shopped – clothes for everyone at home and the office, some jewelry, home decors, dried fish and tamarind – right up to the last moment before he boarded Philippine Airline’s Flight 731 for Manila.
Amazing variety, Thailand offers too. In goods – clothes, food stuff, handicrafts, furniture, jewelry. In leisure and entertainment – from beaches to bitches, my apology for the political incorrectness.
So we bused to Pattaya and boated to Coral Island, where Arnel San Pedro of the Clark International Airport Corp. wondered aloud, “This is not Thailand, this is Bombay or Calcutta,” marveling at the sea of Indian tourists there, the women swimming in their saris.
No, we did not go to infamous Patpong district and thus failed to range it against our own Fields Avenue. From what we heard, read and seen in the web though, there is no basis for comparison whatsoever. Fields is a nunnery to Patpong’s brothel – what with the female sex finding novelty as beer bottle opener, tobacco smoker, slot machine, dart thrower, among others.
The amazement over Thailand, even in this recounting brings out the giddiness of the first time tourist in me, the sights coming in some form of instamatic blur, err, digital movement.
Need to stop this digression and redirect the discussion to some seriousness. On the replication of best practices.
