I come from Bangkok from a very high society family. When I was young, I lived in Soi Pipat, in Silom Road. I could play around with my friends. It was so quite and peaceful. My family lived in a traditional house. They sold it later on to a cousin who also bought the land and turned it to a department store. He was very rich in a few years but now he has lost most of his money. I think he got bad luck because he didn't care about destroying our family house. Most people have no vision. They think only about making profits quickly. Now, the area where we lived is one of the most crowded. It makes me sick. I think that Thai people's attitude will have to change. Now everything is going in the wrong direction. On the material side, we have very convenient things but people feel bad in their hearts. I believe that the positive ideas I give to my students in ABAC University will contribute to changing the city and the country. These people will be the leaders of Thailand in the future. Buddhists try also their best to transform society in a positive direction. We need them more and more.

I come from Singburi, north of Bangkok. I came six years ago to Bangkok to study art. I was excited because the lifestyle was very different in the city. Every week I go back to my village, I feel freer in my province. Everybody knows each other. I don't feel secure in Bangkok, I feel lonely and anonymous. If I have problems, nobody can help me, my family is so far away. I must say that Bangkok is much more inspiring to me for my art work than my birthplace. I make a lot of drawings there and I show them in Bangkok. I want to stay in the capital city as there are more jobs opportunities. I need this environment to grow up, to succeed.

I was born in Bangkok, in the Din Daeng area. Life was not always easy there, many houses were burned out. Some people did that through the local Mafia to get the land back. My family was scared and when I was fourteen years old, we moved to another area, Bangrak. I studied art and I am now doing painting, graffiti and tattoos for my friends. As I am tattooed myself, I sometimes have problems with people as nobody wants to sit nearby me in the bus. I prefer to live and work more during the night.The city is quieter and it is easier to go around on local transport to see my friends. I want to look different, to be an artist. Before, people who had tattoos came from jail. Now, young people like to have them. Sometimes I feel lonely when I see people waiting for buses or when I am among a crowd. Thai people want to be modern but we don't know how to adjust to such quick development. Here money can buy anything. Kids are becoming more and more individualistic now. I see it as a positive change. Now we can have more freedom, more choices, and more lively art scene.

I was born in Bangkok city. At that time, everything was easier. There was less traffic jams, less people and more time to travel around. I like Bangkok because everything is easy to get. All my family is living here. I am an administrative officer for the government. I am Muslim but I don't care about people's religion. I have many Buddhist friends. There is no problem in my family to go to work and to be independent. I am free to do whatever I want. Bangkok has good and bad sides. Everything is available but the environmental quality is bad. Thirty years ago, the air and the water pollution increased dramatically, the canals became black like ink. The area where I am living is called Samakkee road and people living there are mostly Muslims. There is a mosque and the children go there every evening to study the Koran.

During more than ten years I studied in Paris. I am now coming back to Bangkok and i have a desire of creating art projects as I think people are asking for it. I want to participate in the development of my city and my country. When I was a child we lived in Kannayao, thirty kms from the center of Bangkok. There was only one small road going through the fields. Nowadays there are expressways everywhere. In those days we had no tap water and we had to go to the well. But now buildings and gas stations are everywhere. My village is now the suburb of Bangkok. Nobody knows where Bangkok finishes and where its limits are. To live in Bangkok is to loose one’s own memory. Bangkok is nostalgia, the loss of the paradise. A few weeks back, I was in my car going to work. As I stopped, I saw a couple of old people singing and playing music in the street. They were peasants and strangers to the city's speed. They were like a piece of countryside moving into the city. I began to cry and couldn't stop it.

I am from Savannakhet in Laos. I have been living in Bangkok for seven years. The first time I came in Bangkok I was so glad and so proud to be in the city and to have the opportunity to look around. After a while, I found a job in a restaurant. One year later, I sold pancakes in the streets. I was my own boss. However, I had some problems and stopped doing it. I couldn't sell enough, it was just bad luck. I got a job as a waiter in a restaurant in the ABAC University area five months ago. My job is tiring, more than twelve hours a day. When I have a happy day, I feel that my life is getting better. I can easily meet people and foreigners here. I make more and more friends. I don't have Lao friends in Bangkok. Thailand is very similar to Laos but I prefer to live here. When I go around I don't care about the pollution and the transport problems. I just look at good things and forget the bad ones. I have a dream to be my own boss and open a restaurant but I know it is impossible. I miss my home and my mother. I don't have my father anymore.

I am from Northern Thailand where I was a street seller. Twenty seven years ago, I moved to Bangkok with my husband and our two children. We settled in the slum area of Klong Toey, in front of the Hualampong canal. Most of the people here come from the countryside where they worked as farmers, trying, like us, to have a better life. Now my husband is dead. I have four grandchildren. We all live in the same house. My son was a drug addict but he has stopped now. He stays at our house doing nothing all day. My daughter got a job as an accountant. We all live on her salary which is not big enough. I have to take care of the children during the day. Fifteen years ago it was different, Klong Toey was not so crowded and it was quieter. The canal's water was less polluted. I am still afraid of the Mafia which regularly burns houses here, to push the families out and get the land back. Sometimes people die in them. Now living conditions are improving. I hope that my grandchildren will get a good education in the future. I have no regrets, I had no other choice.

I was born in the Klong Toey slum. I love my community, my closest friends are here. Everybody lives in harmony. The only problems we have are drug related ones. I saw drug addicts around my house sharing drugs. I wish I could tell them it is not good. I also encourage boys around here to play sports. Once I saw two little kids sniffing glue. One of them, a boy, had all of his family taking drugs. I really hate drugs. I saw people shooting at each other near my home. I am happy that my school is outside Klong Toey, so I can go by bus and see the city. Sometimes I go into the country with my relatives. I love blooming flowers, nice air, going up to the mountains, looking at bats and birds. I dream of having a prawn farm. I would like to take my parents with me to live in the countryside. I am concerned about pollution around here. I would like the big trucks which park near my home to leave the area. I wish all people around Klong Toey could get together to solve their problems. At school I always say I come from Klong Toey and I am proud of it.

I came from South China when I was nineteen years old, in 1947 after World War II. When I arrived in the city I had no place to stay and slept in the streets. I couldn't sleep when it was raining during the monsoon. I worked at painting, repairing electricity lines and anything I could do. After a while, I had enough money to rent a room and later on a small house. I got married when I was twenty three. I learned Thai language by speaking with the locals. There was no problem between Thai and Chinese people, mixed marriages were common. At that time there were rice fields, canals and plenty of gardens. There were maybe fifty cars in the city belonging mostly to the governor and Chinese millionaires. Most people walked or rode bicycles. Very few foreigners lived in the city. At that time there were very few crimes, no migrants coming from other provinces. The difference between rich and poor people was not as much as it is now. Human relationships were easier. Nowadays, people only think about money and material things. There is a lot of corruption, especially among the army and the police and nothing is done about it. Life is becoming harder for ordinary people.

I live with my family in Bangkok. I have always lived here. I am a product of Bangkok. I had to find myself and decided to be an artist. I think that in this big city everybody wants to be rich to have a better social position. But, not me ! I don't want to follow the mainstream. I am looking for something other than consumerism. Sometimes I am in noisy places with hundreds of people around me and I feel alone. I try to find help from Buddhism. I want to learn more about suffering instead of happiness. What I am looking for is inside me, not on the outside which is the city around me. Deep relationships are hard to find here. Most of them come from social activities and are usually superficial.

I come from northeast province, Katin. It is the first time I come in Bangkok, to visit my relatives. I like the city. I am impressed by the big department stores, everything is available here, the fashion clothes, the food. I can eat the fruits from south Thailand whose I don't find in my province. The city is so modern, taxis, big cars are everywhere. I am impressed by the skyscrappers, the metro, the Chao Phraya river, the beautiful houses. My village is so quite, I am helping my parents there for farming. If I could be free i would like to come to live in Bangkok. I have more choices to look for a partner here. If I can get a boyfriend I will get married. My father will be happy if I can improve my life in the capital city. But I think that if I live a long time here, I will get disapointed by the noise and pollution.

I was born in Bangkok, on the Thonburi side. At my home, I could swim in the canal. When I was hungry I could pick fruits from the nearby gardens. I miss that time. A lot of population migrations has taken place here. Outsiders arrived in the capital and people from the city went to the countryside. I am a performer and the city inspires me for my performances. Once I was in a skytrain station, I was performing, and the security guards came. I had problems. I could hardly live anywhere else than here, it is my home even if it has changed a lot. Western influence is becoming greater and greater. Some things are good when we exchange at equal levels. But usually it is about money and corruption. The problems came with over-development. Everything changed too quickly. Communication between people was easier before. I really hope things will change positively in the future. However, as an individual, I can't do much to change them.

My father is American, my mother is Thai. I was born in Pennsylvania. I came to Bangkok when I was a year old. I went to high school in Bangkok. When I was eighteen, I went back to the USA to do my university studies. I graduated in Fine Arts. I am now living in Bangkok. I have many friends in both countries but relationships are different here and there. In America, people are very individualistic. In Thailand, the family structure is more important, people help each other more. People are more easy-going here. I find Bangkok exciting. There are a lot of parties going on around and the art scene is developing. The city is really chaotic and messy. You can travel cheaply, by taxi or go eat at whatever time of the night you want. I go out a lot at nights with my friends. Sometimes cops stop us when we are in my friend's car but we never have problems as he bribes them. You can't do that in the USA. I am modeling for advertising agencies. They look a lot for mixed people with European faces. People are surprised when I speak Thai as I don't look Thai.

My family is from Chonburi. I live in Bangkok since four years. I came here to do my law studies and I just got my bachelor degree. Our university is the number one private university and the teaching level is very high. I will go back to Chonburi to work as a commercial lawyer. I will have more free time there. I will stay one or two years to get some experience and go back to Bangkok where there are more job opportunities. I hope that in the future there will be less environmental problems in Bangkok.

I was born in Bangkok where all my family has been living. I always lived near Rangsit Road, quite a dangerous area. I am an artist and I can’t create when I feel unsecure. Around my house, people smile but never talk to each other. I seldom got the opportunity to have relationships with people of my age. My father has respiratory problems and I would prefer to take him with me in the countryside far away from Bangkok.

I come from Isan, a place called Nongkokwai. When I was sixteen years old I came to Bangkok. I was excited by the big city, and the availability of everything, nice clothes, big cars, skyscrapers. I felt the desire to buy everything. I found a job in a plastic factory. It was hard work on the assembly line. I nearly never saw the sunlight. I went to work very early and finished late. That work unabled me to survive. I had no family in Bangkok, I just shared a room with some people from my village. I got an interview in a hotel which was looking for waitresses. With other girls from Isan, we were told that our skin was too black so we couldn't get the job. Later on I went back to Bangkok and got a job as an operator receptionist in a private company. I met many people from Europe, Australia, America. They taught me English and the use of computers. I got another job as a food seller in the street. I will stay in Bangkok but I lost all my illusions about the city. For me it is a hell-like city.

I am from northeastern Thailand. In my province everybody hopes to come to the capital city for a better life. The first time I came to Bangkok I was amazed, the city was like a flower. Later on I got a job as a security officer in a hotel. I soon realized that life was not so nice in the city. At work everybody put me down. They didn't teach me anything so I had to learn the job by myself. It was hard to make friends. Soon after, my father died and I had to go back to my village. I lost my job. I got the opportunity to go to work in Taiwan where I stayed three years. During my stay I began to learn Mandarin. When I went back to Thailand I felt stronger as I had made a lot of money. I went to a school in Bangkok to study tourism and Mandarin. Now I don't care about the city in itself. Being anonymous makes me feel free. I have a few good friends. The city is not a paradise for me anymore. I hope to open an agency for tourism in my province. I think that people in my village have better hearts. In my childhood I learned politeness. In Bangkok, everybody cares only about social competition. They don't care about other people, tradition.

Twenty years ago Bangkok was an ugly city, crowded and polluted. I left Thailand to study in Europe. I stayed in Holland and I remarked that cities there were cleaner and quiter. When I came back in 1988 I hated Bangkok. There were more traffic jams and social competition was harder. I never had the time to relax. Nowadays I think the situation is improving. There are more trees in the streets, less traffic congestion, more playgrounds for my children. People are more caring about spiritual things, art, health. If the politicians let the people participate in the city’s management, things will improve.