Before my fist week in Thailand, I thought the weather would be perfect, the cities would look modernized, and everyone would get along since they’re all asian. I was definitely wrong.
It was super humid in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. I thought the rain would help. Instead, it made the humidity worse. I felt sticky every time I stepped outside. Also, the weather can be bipolar sometimes. One moment the sun would be up, and the next moment clouds would cover the sky and start pouring.
Bangkok had a lot of abandon buildings and deteriorated houses that seem to have people living in there. The homes and living conditions didn’t look comfortable. There are a lot of people and the houses densely compacted together. Thailand seems to be a country where everyone makes a living off from selling products. Literally, there are food, clothes, massage, accessory, and many other shops every where. What seems to make Bangkok and Chiang Mai humid is due to too many cars creating pollution and a lot of vendors are constantly cooking.
When we went to the Hmong village, I learned that some Thai people discriminated the minority groups. I was surprised because I wanted to know the reason why they discriminated other asians when they have so many things in common. The chief villager told us about how they tried to pursue in a career they desire, but the Thai people would try their best to make them fail and put them down no matter how hard they tried. This is one of the reasons why many of the minority students stop going to school after high school and go back to their villages to help their parents with farming.
I’ve learned so many things just by living in Thailand for a week. I hope to discover more about Thailand for the next 2 weeks that we have left.
How does it make you feel as a Hmong American when you hear that Hmong Thai communities are facing discrimination from the Thai community?
I also was saddened to hear about the discrimination among minority groups by some Thai people. What I wonder is if they are seeing any progressive change in the past 10 years through the recent events happening around the world. Hopefully change is around the corner.
The heat here is definitely something else George! It definitely gives me a new appreciation for our “hot” summers back in the Midwest. But you do bring up an unfortunately relevant point about pollution and smog in the larger cities here, and really everywhere else. I think one of the larger contributing factors in Thailand, and more specifically Bangkok, would be the endless traffic. I believe one of our guides said something to the degree of the number of cars in the city is double what the roads can actually accommodate.
From my own perspective, the best way to combat this pressing issue is to reinforce the existing public transit system, and expand it with more buses, tuk tuks, and sky trains (something I rode a lot last time I was here, the existing system is phenomenal) thus giving the citizens of Bangkok an alternative option to congesting the highways with their cars to get to work.
Now will this do anything about the heat directly? No, sadly I don’t think the climate of Thailand is in our control, but it will help reduce CO2 emissions thus reduce the human impact of global warming, and make traveling a few kilometers via a motorized vehicle in a reasonable amount of time a more realistic option for Thai citizens!