Like all huge Asian metropolises, Bangkok enchants and worries, between charm and frenzy, luxury and poverty. Our intellectual sensitivity can hardly accept the social chasms, whereas here, Asian nonchalance and placidity indicate no heightened social jealousy, yet the contrasts are enormous.

On Friday evening, one lets off steam at the entrance of the circuit where a track has been laid to allow young people to have fun on their countless weak-engined two-wheelers. Between two rows of packed grandstands, the amateur "bikers" race on two hundred meters as many times as they wish, with starts in small staggered groups. Shoes, long sleeves and helmet: definitely the minimum but then again compared to daily practice, it's a miracle. The rest of the time, they drive helmetless, barefooted and in shorts with two or three passengers. In Thailand, to see four people on a 125 cc bike is nothing. Generally, the youngest child rides between the driver's legs, the mother sits sidesaddle and the second child holds on to her. Some have breakfast en route to school behind the father, all in an unspeakable rush. True repeated miracles, despite a road mortality rate 10 times higher than in Europe.

Another shocking observation, electrical networks clustered, knotted, twisted and tangled on poles, making one fear the worst even though apparently they work… generally. You find the same outer-urban decor as in China and Malaysia: small shops scattered along the roads, with corrugated roofs including housing, where are sold bare essentials...the realm of resourcefulness in short, with plenty of smiles and politeness. Proof the theory of relativity also applies to poverty and happiness: a question of education and society…

Hervé Guyomard / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO