The Price of Coke

One of the more rude awakenings upon arriving in Cairns was to discover that prices in Australia approach the ridiculous.  A 12 oz. (325ml) can of Coke -- that might go for a dollar or so at a convenience store in the US -- was running about $2.50 in Cairns.  The cheapest lunch out -- a sandwich -- would run about $10.  Now, the Australian dollar has appreciated over the past year -- more people want to invest in Oz, so the price of an Aussie dollar goes up -- from about 75 US cents for an Aussie dollar to the current 1-for-1 deal, so that explains a bit of the pricing weirdness, but not all.  A paperback book in Oz costs over $30.  Magazines are between $10 and $15.  A 5km (3 miles) taxi ride costs $12.  What gives?

Last night, this morning, we arrived in Bangkok.  The prices seem equally out of whack, but in the opposite direction.  A 12 oz. can of soda costs 30 cents.  A hot lunch for two set us back $4.  A 30 minute taxi ride of over 8 km cost us a whopping $3.  What gives?  Subsidies?  Supply and demand?  Cartel vs. competition?  If it wasn't so stark a contrast, I wouldn't have mentioned it , but its hard to fathom.  And speaking of contrasts ....

Bangkok is a big city, laced with canals and divided by a large, brown, ferry-rich river.  The skyscrapers,  lurching upward from shacks and tin roofed shops huddled on dry patches, scream "new money," even as they shadow 200-year-old gold-leafed temples adorned with thousands of glittering tiles.  Every street teems with new cars, gaudy buses, lit taxis, and the ubiquitous tuk-tuks, three-wheeled motorcycles that have a canopied seat for two short passengers .. sort of a Thai version of a surrey with a fringe on top.

We visited the Royal Palace, and had a nice guide who explained the symbology of demon guards, snakes, eagles, and the various adornments and enhancements introduced by the nine Kings of Siam./Thailand since Bangkok's founding in 1782.  More later, as we're exhausted, but the notion of contrasts -- first encountered in the pricing structure of Cokes -- will deserve some more thought, as we explore a city of 6 million people, skyscrapers, SkyTrains, the timeless wheels of river-shaped commerce, and a polyglot of Buddhist religious history.  It's different than any island we've been at, and my first night off the boat in about a year was a useful reminder that it's a big world, and efforts to explain variation and differences often result in a "what gives?" kind of sentiment.  Observe, accept, wonder, and maybe, if we're lucky, understand.