Letter from Thailand - May 4th, 2008

Dear Reader,

Greetings from a gloomy, grey Bangkok. A cyclone moved close to Thailand yesterday and several provinces have been put on alert. An American friend, who just arrived in Thailand yesterday, e-mailed me to say in Chiang Mai, where she is, they are on high alert and severe flooding is expected. When Chiang Mai floods, it really floods! The last time I was there, my parents and I left a restaurant in the Night Market and had to paddle to our songtaew (little red open-sided truck used for public transportation in Chiang Mai). The water was up to our knees! A great adventure for my parents, who couldn't take enough photographs of everybody paddling.

In other news, our crazy Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has announced that a rice cartel (operating similarly to OPEC, the oil cartel) would be beneficial for rice producing countries. Thailand is the world's largest rice producer and number 1 rice exporter, so Samak thinks this would be beneficial to Thailand. While the West scratches their heads wondering why anybody with a brain would come up with this idea (any country can grow rice if the conditions are right, so if there was a cartel controlling prices, other countries would just grow their own), Samak is talking up his idea. Even Vietnam, who he has approached to join the cartel, are saying "Er, thanks, but no thanks".

The Health Department is warning that birth control has been so successful, Thailand is in danger of the population declining. Honestly, you'd never know living in Bangkok. Everybody in Asia seems to live here - could do with less people if you ask me!