BANGKOK, Thailand — Sirivat Voravetvuthikun has been on the streets for two hours peddling his homemade sandwiches. The morning is heavy with a steamy heat, and he mops his brow as he heads toward a new corner with more foot traffic, doing some mental calculations on the way.
Let's see. So far 30 tuna salads, 26 or 27 ham-and-cheeses, probably 40 crab meats. "I should do 200 sandwiches today despite the heat," he finally notes. "Customers come looking for me now. They say, 'If it's not a Sirivat sandwich, I don't want it.' "
There are hundreds of vendors like Sirivat on Bangkok's narrow, congested streets, selling everything from watches to noodles, but what makes Sirivat different is that the 49-year-old has a business degree from the University of Texas and at this time last year was a multimillionaire developer and stockbroker.
It is a familiar story in a Southeast Asia racked by economic crisis.
He was the CEO of one of Thailand's top brokerages. The economy was booming, and everyone was buying on margin. He started developing luxury residential condos, and whatever he wanted, the banks obliged. Even when interest rates shot up to 17%, then 30%, he kept borrowing, developing, dreaming, living as if good times would last forever.
"Big was beautiful. Small was ugly," he said, taking a customer's 30 baht (80 cents) for a crab meat sandwich. "Everyone was bullish on Thailand. We all lived beyond our means. Then the sky fell to Earth. So, looking back, I'd have to admit frankly that, yes, I was part of the problem."
Sirivat still owes millions on his failed businesses. But the sandwiches put food on the table and give him breathing room while he tries to figure out how to salvage at least part of his empire. Hard times for Thailand aren't over, he said, but he predicted: "Our country will recover and survive and eventually prosper. Of that I am confident."
As Thailand takes its first steps toward economic recovery--with a currency that has stabilized, a prime minister who is honest and popular, and a bruised ego that is on the mend--people such as Sirivat have come to symbolize the changes in attitude and behavior that are shaping a new Thai society.
With the majority of Asia's economies seemingly disintegrating--most alarmingly, Japan's--Thailand serves as evidence that there is a bottom. Although the economy here is small, it symbolizes both Asia's problems and its potential. Indeed, it was the devaluation of Thailand's currency nearly a year ago that started the unraveling of the region's economy.
