Sa-wat-dee-kah from Bangkok!

I arrived last Wednesday night to my good friend from UVA (thank you Joey Katona) Aunt's family's lovely apartment in the center of Bangkok, near the main public transportation intersection where the sky train meets the subway.

View of the city from my balcony

Judit (host mom) and Vegas (9 year old grandson) relaxing in the light & airy living room

Things noticed immediately upon arrival:
1.  Thais are very polite, bowing their head when they see you
2.  On my way in from the airport after midnight, I passed hordes of women out in the streets after midnight, either catching cabs to go out, or waiting by the massage parlors and nail salons.  Of course, they aren't waiting to give only massages...
3.  Thailand is the late-night food capital of the world, with dozens of street car vendors appearing at busy intersections after midnight along with plastic tables and chairs

Every morning on my way to work I take a short cut to the sky train by Soi Cowboy, also known as a red light district.  It is one short block and by day looks like a normal street, but by night the neon lights come on and the girls come out.

As a white foreign woman, this is the least I have ever been bothered walking on the streets (compared to Rabat, Morocco; Amman, Jordan; Delhi, India; and even Lyon, France!).  In fact, no one even notices me - they are much more concerned with the male farangs (Thai word for foreigners).

I spent my first two days in Bangkok helping out the entire Labor Department of Myanmar refine their English for their presentations to their supervisors when they return home to their country.  The Department came to Bangkok for a workshop put on by Dr. Pisawat Sukonthapan of the Mekong Region Law Center, whom I am working for.

Myanmar is one of the largest sources of trafficked people coming into Thailand. In these poorer countries like Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and also the northern rural regions of Thailand, daughters have become more prized than sons over the last couple of decades because families realize the money they can bring to the family if they are sold off for sex.  If you think such a practice must be rare,  in the Northern Thai region of Mae Sai it was estimated that 70% of the 800 families living there have sold a daughter to a trafficker. (2001 Second World Congress Against Commercial Exploitation of Children).

Myanmar is still a very traditional country, as you can see the men and women here dressed in their traditional outfits:

They all work in Myanmar's new capital city, Naypyidaw, which was founded 8 years ago when the government clear-cut forest and built government buildings.  And why did the government choose to move its capital city here from its historic, coastal location in Yangon?  One theory is that the current "President" (really military ruler) is very superstitious, and when you fold up a map of Myanmar, the exact center is the location of the new capital!  (Another theory is that the capital city in the interior of the country is less vulnerable to attack in this war-torn country).

On my morning walk to the Myanmar workshop, I found evidence that the Thais love their King, Rama IX:

And their sex (or the money it brings, $4 billion annually):

That is all for now - more on anti-trafficking and Thailand's sex industry next week after I've done my first research assignment and paper, in preparation for my conference with the Thai team in Siem Reap, Cambodia next weekend!