Send to Friend 
 Digg   Del.icio.us   Facebook 
 StumbleUpon   Reddit 

Day 3 – One Night in Bangkok...

posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 01:50 AM

Final preparations being made and the butterflies have arrived in my tummy. The team is starting to arrive and communications have begun to flow from Bangkok rather than London. We have a detailed plan for almost ever aspect of the Summit and even a Plan B for most things that could go wrong but I still cannot get out of my mind the old military adage “no plan survives first contact with the enemy”. Not that our guests are the enemy of course! I remind myself that things always go wrong with big events and as organisers our task is to always act like a swan – calm and serene above the water, even if you are paddling like crazy just to keep afloat.

We are getting a lot of Thai media interest which is an encouraging sign but press coverage is even more difficult to control than anything else.

Last night I was walking around the bright lights of Patpong. This part of the City always fascinates me. It’s so crazy, the frantic selling from the street stalls where every price first offered is almost by definition a rip-off. The many gogo bars offer some very strange forms of entertainment. Everything is so chaotic, so outrageous and yet curiously in a city of so many extremes, nothing seems too extreme. When it is all mixed together, the night bazaar somehow doesn’t look so bazaar.

Bangkok is a wonderful city to view how the world is changing. Everything is changing here as such a fast pace. The famous three-wheeler tuk tuk used to be the main form of transport for the poor, have now become expensive tourist features with prices higher than those offered by taxis. Shopping mauls have arrived in a serious way and the Starbuck invasion has gaining territory in a serious way. There is much more money in Bangkok than when I first started to come here, everyone seems richer and better dressed. But whilst the famous Thai smile still remains, I am uncertain they are any happier. Does money really give you happiness? I have my doubts. I once met a butler who only worked for American billionaires and he told me that not one of them was happy. Some of the happiest people I have met were in places like Laos and yet they are amongst the poorest.

Anyway, its late and i still have to check my bank balance before going to bed. One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster, or so the song goes.

Comments

No comments