Kat’s Window

Things can be quite the opposite from one’s expectations of how they should be in Thailand. For example, once I was preparing to drive over a mountain off in middle-of-nowhere rural Thailand in a pick-up track packed with locals. I was excited to enjoy some peace and quiet. The driver, who was wearing a longyi, started his engine and proceeded to pop in a tape of smash-hit techno club songs from New York City. As the lush greenery passed, the speakers (right along with my eardrums) nearly exploded from the volume. It just didn’t seem fitting.

Thailand seems to specialise in absorbing other cultures into itself without batting an eye, leaving a potpourri of customs, cultures and fashions all floating around on the streets in a medley of unique strangeness. Traditional dress walks side-by-side with tiny T-shirts and skintight jeans. Football (soccer) matches receive more attention than Traditional Thai Boxing (Muey Thai) championship fights.

Thailand contains an amazingly diverse mixture of nationalities and religions. Chinese, Burmese, Laotian, Cambodian, Shan and a host of other ethnic minorities and hilltribes all contribute to the cultural tapestry of the nation. Add to that the hundreds of thousands of tourists and expatriates putting in their cultural two-cents worth and you’ve got quite a jumble on your hands at times.

McDonalds, Coca Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken can pop up in the oddest locations but one gets used to this corporate globalisation in time. Thais with dreadlocks, foreigners wearing traditional hilltribe costumes, 70s disco wear in rural villages, the Titanic soundtrack, Mohawk hair styles, hotdogs and bands covering western smash hits have the habit of popping up where one least expects them to.

Will the ‘Thainess’ of Thailand simply vanish over time? If one walks around the capital city, the picture looks bleak indeed. The impact of tourism also takes its toll. A visitor to Thailand who does not venture into remote areas has the option of eating food from their own country every night and does not need to speak one word of Thai to get around. Visitors can also take self-hypnosis, Reiki, yoga, massage or cooking classes, all of which are taught in English. Getting beads put in one’s hair, signing up for a permanent or temporary tattoo, or tracking down good cheese and wine is an easy thing to do but has almost nothing to do with Thai culture.

Thais are proud of their nation and proud to be Thai. This was clearly illustrated by the current Prime Minister’ political party’s name: ‘Thai Rak Thai’ (Thais love Thais), but over time the core cultural values of Thailand are destined to change as western influence becomes stronger and stronger. It is Thailand’s downright friendliness and accepting nature that is its crowning glory and curse if you ask me.

The backbone of Thai culture is found in its rural villages but even they are far from being unscathed. The most important of Thai values is taking care of one’s parents and family and families are beginning to erode, also. As the younger generation watches western TV and films, praises the food of Ronald McDonald more than mom’s home cooking, and breaking the rules becomes more fashionable, I am forced to wonder what Thailand’s cultural tapestry will look like in the next few decades. The potential for a unique cultural vacuum lingers.

I catch myself sometimes doing something I swore I would never do: using the phrase ‘Kid’s these days!’ Traditional Thailand says baring one’s shoulders is impolite, premarital sex is not acceptable, illegal substances should not be consumed and kids should obey their parents’ guidelines and rules. This, of course, means that rebellious kids are walking around wearing napkins for T-shirts, popping drugs, having premarital sex and staying out late at night. And there are more of them than you might think. The problem is not the act of rebellion in itself, but the fact that they are giving up their culture while adopting a new western-styled one that they hardly know anything about.

A recent outing to a Thai metal concert in Bangkok proved fascinating for the author. Audience members sported the most daring and provocative of rebellious clothing. Some wore gasmasks, other donned prison suits. Hundreds of western band names paraded around on T-shirts, some of them from the neo-nazi music movement.

The vast majority of Thais outside tourist areas have very little or no understanding of the English language. How can one support a western band singing in English, even have its name tattooed across your chest, if you don’t understand the band’s lyrics or message? This is but one symbolic example of the much larger problem: adopting western culture without understanding what it is or the implications involved in doing so.

Pharmacies in Thailand give out many medications that one would need a prescription for elsewhere. To name but a few, antibiotics, birth control, asthma inhalers, heart medication, and antidepressants are all available over the counter.

Medications are notoriously cheaper in Thailand than in many other countries and visitors can be found stocking up on their prescription drugs when they pass through. For example, the same asthma inhaler that would cost US$37 in the United States can be had for a mere US$5 here. Many other medications are available as Thai-produced generics meaning that a well-known brand name drug is sold under a different name.

Every major block seems to have a pharmacy or five. They range from the small to the immense and from the chaotic to the super-messy. Most pharmacies have a scale that customers can use free of charge.

Not all medications are available over the counter, however. There are controlled substance drugs in Thailand and prescriptions are needed before certain pills will be dispensed.

Pharmacists also give doctor-like diagnosis to those coming in asking for assistance. If you show up with a small cough, a bottle of codeine cough syrup and a box of antibiotics is more than likely to be placed in front of you.

Thailand’s pharmacies, hospital and doctors all tend to over-prescribe. Something worth noting is that pharmacies have cross-reference books available in English. It is well worth doing some reading in them before deciding to purchase an unfamiliar medication. I once went to a pharmacy complaining of nausea and was offered medication used to treat epilepsy.

Suphawon Virotesiri is a 33-year-old woman who runs her own pharmacy in my neighbourhood. She studied at university for five years in southern Thailand to become a pharmacist and upon graduating got a full-time job at a government hospital in her field and made 7,000 baht (US$159) a month. She studies English at school and can speak it quite well.

She has been married for nine years and is has a four-year-old daughter who is very often at the store with her mother when she is not attending school. Suphawon moved from southern Thailand to Bangkok after getting married. “I got a job at a private hospital as a pharmacist and was paid 17,000 baht (US$377) a month. I worked there for six months. Then I became a sales representative for an international pharmaceutical company. I could earn 35,000-40,000 (US$777-889) baht per month. I got to go to Europe with the company two times,” she said. She also opened a small dry cleaning business next to her pharmacy six months ago. “Business is not going good or bad,” she stated.

She opened her medium-sized pharmacy two years ago after moving the business from a location about fifteen minutes down the street. Her present store is in a good location and is well stocked and well kept.

“This store makes about the same amount of money as my old store did. I pay 7,500 baht (US$167) a month in rent and 5,000 baht (US$11) a month for electricity. I let the restaurant next store use my electricity meter and bill them, so actually my electricity bill is 3-4,000 baht a month because I use the air conditioner,” she explained.

She did not want to state specifically how much her present business earns per month, but informed me that it was over 20,000 baht (US$444). Suphawon employs a shop assistant and she is paid 4,800 baht (US$107) per month.

Suphawon works from 10 am-8 pm Monday through Friday. Her husband works full time as an engineer for Thai Airways. “On the weekends I take care of my family and do the shopping. I have a maid to help me during the week.” She lives in a three-bedroom house with her mother-in-law and daughter that she and her husband own.

When asked what she likes to do for fun, she replied, “I watch TV. I like to rent video CDs. I like Hollywood movies. I also like shopping for clothes, shopping for everything actually. I like to travel. In Thailand I enjoy going to Phuket and Chiang Mai.”

If hypothetically given 5,000 baht, Suphawon said she would spend it. “I would go shopping and buy things for my daughter, things for myself and a little bit of stuff for my husband,” she declared with a smile.

She is content with her job and said, “I like to sell things. Anything!” She is a clever, energetic and highly motivated businesswoman who is doing well for herself and her family. When asked what the most popular products in her store were, she giggled and said, “Birth control and Tylenol but I make the most profit by selling diet supplements and vitamins.”