The Bangkok Drug

Singapore is an testament to the virtues of planning and order. This path of Lego has allowed us to develop quickly and efficiently. Angmohs came and saw a vision of neat and tidy, with everything in its place, just like a circuit board. The well-laid put plans has allowed 4 million people to live comfortably (this is relative, by the way, to the rest of the world and not tied to the 5Cs dream of every Singaporean twentysomething) on a space of less than 700sq km. We speak the best English in Asia, we are Asia for beginners, we are the safe, secure, modern haven for the world to partake upon and put money in. We're into two generations of post-65ers, a group that is reaping the rewards of a marvellous solution. This same group is also wondering what's next.

Bangkok is a mess. Buildings of varying heights and grandeur (or lack of) sprouting unabashedly and unco-ordinatedly in the middle of nowhere and next to one another. Throngs of people moving, buying, selling and eating. Traffic that's next to terrible if you took a wrong turn at a bad time of day. Taxi-drivers that try to rip you off and shopkeepers who are willing to amuse themselves and customers alike with a haggle. Cracked pavements, street kids, exposed electicity cables and side-street hawkers are part and parcel of life in Krung Thep. All these things, and more, are the sum of many years of simply letting things happen. Yet all these things, and more, give me a buzz. I am sure you can feel it too. A buzz that makes you realise that Bangkok and Thailand are part of the next big thing.

Maybe it's the shop run by all these young people. Maybe it's the way the T-shirts with cool designs and quirky messages are an inkling of how creative the natives are. Maybe it's because a ferris wheel popped-up in the middle of Bangkok in Suan Lum. Maybe it's the mega-billboards with bold statements about where Thailand and her people can and will go. Maybe it's the fact that no one honks a horn in a traffic jam, that everyone is calm and patient yet bold and confident. Hey, a coup happened and everyone is cool. This realisation of potential (not infinite but stratospheric) is the drug the fuels passion and imagination - Philip Yeo may agree. The rest of us probably don't feel the buzz about lala-land.

My Singdollar made a me a happy person in Bangkok. That could be why I miss it already. Perhaps as a resident there, I may long for a template to success, order and cleanliness like Singapore, and a stronger baht.

Let's just soak it all in for now.