RATM

The trip from the Perhentians to Bangkok was comparatively simple and trouble free - a couple of military guys with machine guns sitting behind me on the train being the only sign of the Muslim insurgence that prompted the travel warning for the SE Thai region - i thought that wasn't too bad considering the conductors uniform looked like it came form North Korea.

The Train to Bangkok revealed the Asia Id imagined I would see earlier - set in the swamps lining the tracks along the way are slums constructed of sticks, stones, old bike tyres and rusted scraps of corrugated iron - Thailand's per capita GDP is about 75% of Malaysia's, however, it looks as though the distribution is far worse.

The masses of advertising scraps integrated into the slums provided some food for thought along the way .... a poor indictment on society that the scraps of advertising - not the product itself or even material used to distribute the product - is the unintentional and inefficient support provided to the worlds poor from some of the worlds richest companies - an interesting juxtaposition. Perhaps someone should produce coffee table book comparing corporate headquarters and the slums integrating the advertising from the same companies. Just read No Logo.

At the end of the train trip the slumvertising had had its effect so i re energised with some KFC.