Tourist Pollution

It's funny how sometimes an idea seems so clear that you can't figure out why others haven't already picked up on it.

So yesterday I drove with my youngest daughter to the National Museum. It gave us a chance to try the GPS on the new top of the range Nokia N95 8GB she had given me. We parked on Sanam Luang, the royal fields used in the yearly rice ploughing festival. While walking to the museum we passed 20 plus large coaches all without passengers and with their engines running. They carry the tourists who visit the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. They keep their engines running so the air-conditioning is on when the tourists return.

If one of those Bangkok Metropolitan Authority cops was to walk up and down the line of coaches getting them to turn off the engines there would be very few losers. Apart for the tourist having to wait a few minutes for the bus to cool down everyone's a winner. While the city cop is checking on the coaches he isn't picking on poor street hawkers. The coach company saves on fuel. Most importantly we don't have the diesel pollution around this historical area.