The Thais seem to have found a springboard in Chittagong. Thaksin Sinawatra, their prime minister, in a most hospitable gesture in recent diplomatic history, has flown all the way from Chiang Mai to Chittagong, and gone back, no not alone, but with our prime minister as his royal guest in the same plane. The plane itself was making a historic flight, a Thai Airways Boeing 747, inaugurating the route between Chiang Mai and Chittagong.
A few weeks before this, another air route to Thailand was opened from Chittagong -- Chittagong to Phuket by Phuket Airlines. These two new routes give strong credibility to the newly built Shah Amanat International Airport of Chittagong against the doubts raised in some quarters about its efficacy as it lay in very close proximity to the sea.
Our geographical sense is not as poor as the Americans, most of whom, as it was published the other day in a newspaper, do not know that Washington D. C. and Washington state are two different geographical locations, but then it is not so strong either as to know that
there are other cities in Thailand than Bangkok. In fact, many people are there amongst us who think Bangkok is the country, and Thailand is its capital. So, few may have heard of Phuket, an island resort, and fewer have heard of Chiang Mai. And this Chiang Mai, no joke, is the second biggest city in Thailand.
Yes, Chiang Mai is in northern Thailand, probably surrounded by hills, and a city of hospitals and missionary schools. Geographically, Chittagong and Chiang Mai are located on either side of the same 20-degree latitude, Chittagong to the north and Chiang Mai to the south, and are longitudinally separated by Myanmar in between or two hours' flight.
On the day, when Thaksin and Khaleda Zia inaugurated the Chittagong-Chiang Mai flight, it was accompanied by much fanfare, and some of the programmes extended well into the evening. At the Chittagong Club, the Thai Airways arranged a buffet dinner on the hilltop lawn and an exhibition down at the swimming pool. The buffet savoured of the most delicious cuisine that the Thais are famous
for, an eight-course dinner (original Thai soup, shred chicken, fried or plain rice, vinegar-soaked olives, meat balls, sliced sea fish and grilled lobsters, salad and chutney, and ice-topped fruit desserts and custard) and free drinks, lavish servings of fruits and cakes, and for the general entertainment, a dance troupe, probably consisting of the fairy Thai Airways stewardesses, performed the most exquisite Thai dances that many present were simply enthralled to watch. They also sang in a Keatsian nightingale's full-throated voice. These girls all wore typical red sarong-type Thai skirts and when they danced on the green lawn the movement of their white legs and the curving of their supple bodies produced enough proof why the Thai Airways carried the slogan: "Smooth as Silk." No airline in the world has a more apt _expression. 'Swasdi ka' that is, "good morning" in Thai language.
This fine dancing show was followed by a lottery session in which five tickets for Chittagong-Chiang Mai-Chittagong flight by Thai Airways were given away to the winners. Interestingly enough, two of the guests, out of five winners
were foreigners one an Indian, another, probably, a Japanese.
After the lottery show the guests were requested to visit the exhibition at the swimming pool. The exhibition was an eye opener for many to realise what superior business acumen should mean. Of about two dozen stalls there at the exhibition, fifteen were just kiosk offices for different hospitals in Chiang Mai. Each stall was equipped with a laptop screen running a video tape of the hospital it was promoting. The video showed the picture of the compound of the hospital, its clinical and technical facilities, its rates and charges and many other amenities that should make the patients rush there for treatment (or for their final destination).
One felt that Chiang Mai was actually competing against Bangkok in its attempt to advertise its hospitals. Rich Bangladeshis must be falling sick in greater numbers, and in their choice for places of treatment, they have long ago learnt to abandon the Indian hospitals and turned to Singapore and Thai hospitals. In fact, at the Bangkok airport anybody arriving with a Bangladeshi
passport is looked upon as a potential patient. There is a very beautiful hospital with a very strange Thai name that is difficult to remember in the heart of the city of Bangkok, near Sukumvit, and many say that this single hospital earns about Tk 120 crore annually from the Bangladeshis, and if such is the case then they must know that there are other better hospitals not only in Bangkok but also in Chiang Mai.
There is an ironic side to it that foreign hospitals have chosen Bangladesh on promotional grounds. Our health has become the capital for foreign doctors to make profit from it. It is sad that our dear foreign exchange is being spent for recovery of sickness, and it exposes the failure of our health sector. Not good.
Then there were some more stalls advertising kindergarten schools located at Chiang Mai. One stall belonged to a school whose principal was a white lady from New Zealand. She founded the school herself at Chiang Mai some years ago, and she claimed that it was one of the best cosmopolitan children schools at Chiang Mai. Her stall proudly displayed many pictures of the school framing different activities conducted there. She also kept a booklet containing a description of the tuition fees. Like our health, our children's education too is sought after by foreign agencies with profit motive.
On an individual count, a sick person's going abroad for treatment or a set of parents' sending their only child to a missionary school in a foreign land has nothing objectionable in it, but collectively speaking, this does not bode well for Bangladesh.
The Chittagong-Chiang Mai connection is further interesting for the fact that the comparison is irrepressible. Chittagong is a major seaport, Chiang Mai is nothing of that sort, but it is the latter that comes to the former for business.