>>44 continued
I noticed the deplorable living conditions for many citizens. When I vacationed there, I avoided the tourist traps because I find them artificial. The large department stores are all strategically located around the only state of the art sky train system still being built. Obviously, this caters to the well off and tourists. Money is poured into this when other obvious needs are neglected. For example, the buses are outdated. They are dirty and break down frequently. Many buildings are dirty and seem to be neglected as well. This is why they say that Thailand is characteristic of having wealthy looking, high fashion skyscrapers and malls next to rundown, filthy apartments. I saw villages under highway passes, I've wandered into alleyway gantlets consisting of seemingly never ending rows of street vendors, and people without limbs on the street patiently begging for alms.

I had a considerable problem with their reverence of Western culture. Their concept of the West is that we're rich and trendy, and that is what the media conditions the youth to aspire for. Many are fashionably dress, I'll admit, with western designer labels, and their forgeries, but it's concerning if that is on their minds aside from social ills. This hyper-material mindset places money, physique, and other superficialities above real worth. It leads to women, even the well of and University students, to sell themselves so they can buy the latest handbag. The neighborhood I stayed in had this problem where the families were fed up with their daughters selling themselves for trinkets.