Barack Obama arrives in Thailand to start historic Asian tour Mr Obama deliberately chose Thailand as the first destination on the trip in order to send a message that enduring relationships with democracies like Thailand - however flawed they may be - will form the bedrock of US diplomacy as the region warily eyes a rising China. Along with Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, the president visited the Wat Pho temple and monastery in the Thai capital. Both visitors readily followed Buddhist custom and removed their shoes. As they chatted with their monk guide, Mr Obama referred to budget negotiations back in Washington, where a damaging series of tax increases and spending cuts loom. We're working on this budget. We're going to need a lot of prayer for that," he said. They also visited Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej in the hospital that has been his near-permanent home since 2009. "I thought it was very important that my first trip after the elections was to Thailand, which is such a great ally," said Mr Obama, at a joint press conference with Yingluck Shinawatra, the Thai prime minister. Tomorrow Mr Obama will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and East Asia Summit in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. Both Burma and Cambodia remain under intense worldwide scrutiny for ongoing human rights abuses and human rights groups have described the visit as premature or called on him to publicly rebuke either government. In the last four months, vicious sectarian violence in western Burma between the Muslim Rohingya minority and the Buddhist majority has seen almost 200 people killed and over 110,000 mostly Rohingya people displaced. An estimated 330 political prisoners meanwhile remain in Burmese jails. White House officials insist that the president will raise human rights abuses during brief visit, and even those still suffering their effects are optimistic about the impact Mr Obama's arrival will have. Lae Lae Win's husband Myint Aye, a former vice-chairman of the NLD in Rangoon, was sentenced to life in prison in 2008 on charges Amnesty International have described as fabricated. I welcome that President Obama is coming. I hope and pray that his meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi will bring positive results and lead to the release of my husband," Mrs Win told the Daily Telegraph. Rangoon is changing already, with newer cars on the roads, rapidly rising property prices, far more tourists and an influx of business people from around the world. But its infrastructure remains decrepit, while in the countryside wages are as low as a £1 a day and villages are being de-populated as many young people head overseas. An estimated two million are migrant workers in neighbouring Thailand alone. But ordinary Burmese appear to have no doubt that President Obama's coming to the country will have a positive effect on its economic future, despite a heavy security presence for his visit with policemen stationed every fifty yards or so along Rangoon's main roads. Zeyar Winn was doing a roaring trade selling t-shirts emblazoned with President Obama's picture and US flags. "President Obama's visit will be good for business and for education," he said. We've been isolated for so long that we'd become sterile. Now, Obama is coming, more foreigners will follow him.