Thai bahtToday the US dollar is worth exactly 37.54 Thai Baht. Which is pretty much the same as yesterday (37.52) but possibly due to the nuclear test by North Korea, major currencies in Asia are beginning to fall versus the dollar, and the stock markets are somewhat depressed here, too.

I have to confess my second day in Bangkok was not all it could have been, since I spent much of the day at the Chinese Embassy trying to obtain a visa to go to Beijing next week. I spent the entire morning in line waiting to be seen, and then had to come back in the afternoon to pick it up, waiting another couple hours. But despite all the waiting around, and the pretty steep fee for American applicants (3400 Baht, or $90.57), I have to say I was pretty impressed that they offered same-day turnaround. I’m just sorry I lost a day of exploring the city.

On the bright side, I did get to see a lot of Bangkok by taxi cab going back and forth. Since the Embassy is about 6 miles in heavy traffic from my hotel, I expected quite a hefty bill going back and forth. In fact it was about 90 Baht, or a whopping $2.53 in US dollars. Just getting in to a NYC taxi cab costs that much!

I also took the liberty of popping over to a Tesco-Lotus “hypermarket” which looked remarkably like a Walmart, and is generating much the same tensions. Prices were pretty good, for instance 2 liters of milk for 58 Baht, or about $1.55, and a liter of cooking oil for 25 Baht or 67 cents. But a 6-pack of Heineken is 659 Baht (on sale) or $17.55, which seems steep to me. So if you plan to shop in Thailand, the lesson is buy local brands (even if you aren’t sure exactly what you’re getting!) and avoid imports, which are at least as expensive as back home.

In other news, the new government of Thailand was officially appointed and sworn in by His Majesty the King yesterday, after the bloodless military coup on Sept 19th. Interestingly, the new cabinet of 26 ministers includes two women, including Minister of Culture Khunying Khaisri. I would have expected a somewhat higher percentage of women in the government, but in fact I’m told this is progress. So hurray for progress.

Between the antics of North Korea, internal corruption, and recent massive flooding, the new government of Thailand has its work cut out. Good luck to them.