Oh, those stupid tourists

A voice that is becoming louder as the column is gaining readership... no, I won't take away from the excitement of reading it first, so...

Read on!
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BUDGET TAI TAI

Oh, those stupid tourists

They think things in Bangkok are just as they are back home ...

by Tabitha Wang

It's 2pm on a weekday and I'm chatting online with an old schoolmate, M. Suddenly, a message pops up: "Got to go, more clashes expected near my office."

Having worked in Bangkok for over three years now, M, a Malaysian, is no stranger to political protests in the city.

In November 2008, when the Yellow Shirts laid siege to the Suvarnabhumi Airport, she still went to work every day. It wasn't so bad, she recalled, because the protesters largely left the city alone.

This has not been the case with the recent protests. The main skirmishes took part just two train stations from her office so, more often than not, she would get ready for work, only to be turned back because they had closed the station. She has to take the bus instead - no cabbie would enter the area.

A single woman alone in a foreign country is always vulnerable, even at the best of times. What more when the country is in the midst of a bloody power struggle.

It sounds commendable that her company is not giving in. But her boss, whom you would expect might protect her, has run off to Perth with his family to wait out the skirmishes. He has refused to return until Thailand has a stable government again - which could be years.

Yet, he has insisted that she travel into the centre of the city to open the office every day since the protests began.

No, there will be no increase in insurance coverage. When she asked for a helmet or bulletproof vest, he just laughed. He wouldn't even let her have the company car, insisting that she make her own way to work every day.

Her local colleagues have not stepped into the office since the Red Shirts set up their camp in mid-March. So she mans the office alone, staying away from the windows and making do with cup noodles for lunch.

When the government threatened to cut the water and power supply, she had to fill buckets of water in the toilet just in case.

M has been watching her back for more than two months and now, she is fed up. She just wants to go home.

It is emotionally exhausting. She hasn't had a good night's sleep for weeks. Every little sound sends her sitting bolt upright in bed, convinced that another round of gunfire has started.

She comforts herself by saying the protesters have dispersed - but understandably, she is still afraid, especially when she can see barricades burning from her bedroom window.

It is lonely. She doesn't speak Thai so has not befriended anyone in her apartment block. Thankfully, the Internet is still up, so she can stay connected with her friends and family back home.

But the last straw was not being able to shop and eat because the protests are being held in the city's main shopping area.

"What's the point of being in Bangkok and not shopping or eating?" she lamented. "I moved here, putting up with the traffic and chaos, for the cheap food and clothes."

"There must be some places," I replied, pointing out that some Singaporeans, despite the Government's travel advisory, were still pouring into the city in search of imitation watches and fake antiques.

"The stupid tourists, you mean," she noted darkly.

Ah yes, the stupid tourists. The idiots who hear "protests" and think "perfect for a holiday". The ones who go to trouble spots, thinking: "It's nothing to do with me because they're fighting each other."

They forget that bullets and Molotov cocktails don't check passports. A lot of people who have been killed or injured so far were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If anything happens, they scream at their government and demand that they be airlifted home/rescued from prison/given compensation.

Many Red Shirts thought they were invincible because they had amulets to protect them. But, according to M, many tourists from Asean countries, including Singapore, are acting that way too.

"Their amulet is their sheer stupidity. They think things in Bangkok are just as they are back home."

M is pretty gloomy about the future of Thailand. She's told her boss she's had enough and is leaving Bangkok. For good. Tomorrow, she's taking advantage of the recent clampdown to make a dash for the airport, and head back home.

Where she can shop again. She said: "I know everything is cheap in Bangkok but so is life. I'm not about to die for a 50-baht shirt."


Even Tabitha Wang is not tempted by the thought of a to-die-for 50-baht shirt.



Taken from TODAY, Voices - Friday, 21-May-2010
Oh, those stupid tourists
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