I’ve been writing a lot lately about my search for an apartment, but that’s because it’s my number one priority, and I worry about it constantly. If I were a new arrival, it would be no problem living in one of the “mansions” that my school points people to. They are big, fully (but un-tastefully) furnished, close to work, and not too expensive. (Unfortunately, they are also a bit grim and dilapidated) Plus, they have short-term leases, so you can stay there until you find someplace nicer.

But I lived in places like that for six months, and I don’t want to go back. Now that I’ve been here a while, I want to find a nice place, that’s close to they Skytrain, in an interesting, lively neighborhood.

My school is located in a very uninteresting, un-lively part of town. All the shops are closed, and there are no people around. It’s like a ghost town. And a Thai colleague says it’s impossible to find food on Sunday. So there you go. I don’t want to live anywhere near my school.

The school is located south of Sukhumvit in the Khlong Toey neighborhood, which is famous for its slum. North of Sukhumvit is the high-rent district. I walked up Thong Lo (which should be spelled Tong La), in search of places to live, but, as usual, nobody has studios. Plus, the neighborhood, while livable, is really nothing special. Finally, I would have to live so far up the street to make it affordable, that I wouldn’t be anywhere near the school, or the Skytrain.

So, in disgust, I aborted my Thong Lo investigation, and called up a friend who lives next door to the little place I found in Silom. She’s going to look at the place with me (if it’s even still available), and give me a second opinion. It is tiny, truly what the British would call a “bedsit.” But it’s beautiful inside. And, the location could not be any better. I want lively and interesting, and where is more lively and interesting that Silom? For me, a single guy, the three most important things about an apartment, are location, location, and location.

I talked to my landlord, and, not surprisingly, she isn’t too happy, so I can kiss my deposit goodbye. After all, I did sign a one year contract.

What goes around comes around

Since I live so far away, I’ve been spending a lot of time using public transportation, and thinking about how f*ed up it is, and how it could be so much better. Unfortunately, the Golden Rule of Thai politics is as follows:

Nothing that will benefit the public will get done unless it benefits either the Prime Minister, the family of the Prime Minister, or the cronies (cabinet members) of the Prime Minister.

The five-year-old Skytrain does not go very far. For five years, there have been plans to extend the Skytrain across the river. They have actually built the platform for this extension. But still, there is no track, and there are no stations, and no construction is being done. The Prime Minister says he’ll extend it, then he forces a debt restructuring, stalling the whole process for an unknown amount of time. Never mind the fact that it would benefit the tax-paying public.

Why? Who knows. Maybe he’s waiting until his family can secure a lucrative contract. Maybe he’s holding off, so he can dangle the possibility of a Skytrain extension as a reason to vote for him in the upcoming election. Yes, I know it would make more sense to you and I to have a completed extension as an accomplishment. It’s amazing that the Skytrain and subway have even been built at all (the Prime Minister’s son recently secured exclusive rights to do the advertising in the subway tunnels).

The website 2bangkok.com covers all of this in great detail. It’s quite fascinating if you are interested in urban planning and development.