Somying uncaps the plastic bottle and shakes three orange pills into her hand. The branded lozenges are among the daily regimen of drugs that the 33-year-old takes to suppress the symptoms of HIV/Aids, a condition she has lived with for more than a decade. She is one of about half a million Thais infected with the virus.
A widow and mother of two children, Ms Somying lives in a two-room shack by a canal on the eastern fringe of the capital Bangkok. Her husband, from whom she contracted the disease, died seven years ago, leaving her to raise a son and daughter. Her son, 13, is HIV positive, and also takes anti-retroviral drugs to keep his condition in check. Her daughter, 11, isn't infected.
Last year, Ms Somying - a pseudonym - fell sick, so her doctor switched her to a new regimen. In March, she began taking the branded orange pill, Kaletra, as part of her daily intake. Every 12 hours, she swallows three of the pills, which she keeps in an icebox in her house, wrapped in a plastic bag and bundled with her other prescription medicines, as well as bottles of fizzy orange and cola for her children.
Since switching to the new drug, Ms Somying has gained weight, although at first she complained of nausea and sore limbs. Now, she has come to depend on the bottle of orange pills, which she receives for free every month under Thailand's national health care scheme. Her son has also switched to the drug, which he takes in smaller doses.
'I've got no choice. I must take Kaletra,' she said, resting on a straw mat outside her small house. 'Life is valuable, and we must keep living it.'
The orange pill is at the centre of a global row over the rights of national governments to suspend patents in order to source essential medicines at cheaper prices. The dispute has thrust Thailand's health care system into the global spotlight and sparked a war of words between Thai Aids activists and US lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry.