Bangkok’s refugees wait in limbo

Bangkok is an exercise in constrasts. Thai people are polite, passive and respectful but on the traffic-clogged roads, they are ruthless and unforgiving, quick with the horn and unafraid to run over a pedestrian who crosses their furious path. It’s a bustling city with skyscrapers, a modern train and subway system where almost every spot deposits a crush of people into giant gleaming shopping malls several stories high. The malls are spotless and with air conditioning cooling people as they stroll past the luxury stores. It’s a shock, then, to walk through the streets, on the cracked, uneven pavement where missing chunks are clumsily repaired by slabs of concrete or planks of wood. The smog-filled air is muggy with the thick smell of street food and garbage, lots of garbage strewn about with nary a rubbish bin in sight. In the shadow of the skyscrapers are crumbling apartment buildings with corrugated roofs and laundry draped on clothes lines.