Uncomfortably well off...

One thing that I've noticed about Bangkok is that there is a very clear, and very obvious split between the rich and the poor. Take my neighbourhood for example. I live in a hotel/apartment complex on a small side road. From the outside it looks very glamourous and right next door there is another complex that looks even more expensive. However, right across the street there are rows of shacks made of corrugated sheet metal, scrap wood and plastic. There appears to be no property line between the people who have and the people who have not. It's a bit unsettling, not because I have issues with poor people, but because it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable with my place in this society. I don't have a lot of experience with being "rich" or better off than those around me. In fact, I have taken pride in the fact that I have spent most of my life closer to the bottom rungs of the economic ladder than the top. So now I am in a situation where I am in a very foreign and uncomfortable place of wealth.






I think this picture sums up my current financial situation well. The giant red building on the right is my school, only a stone's throw away from the local housing on the river. The school is surrounded by huge concrete walls and iron gates with guards. At the moment I am stuggling with the fact that I am working there while the rest of the world lives on the other side of the river. I have not actually been into the school yet since I wasn't too interested in trying to communicate to the guard that I was going to be starting work there next week and would like to take a boo, but I can imagine that the wealth of the school is as apparent inside as it is outside.

Here's another view. The rich looking down on the poor. A bit creepy to say the least.

I'm still not sure how I'm going to maneuver my way around my new social status. At the moment it's leaving a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

Cheers from the upper crust

J