It's almost impossible to miss the huge portrait of her, wearing a lavish gown and generous make-up, on the side of many a Cherdchai bus all over the country.
The billionaire inter-provincial bus operator Suchinda Cherdchai shrugs when her mobile self-publicity becomes the talk of the town, saying it's all part of the plan.
"If the bus drivers see my face all the time, they won't dare do anything wrong," says the 78-year-old transport tycoon.
Mrs Suchinda, alias Jeh Kiew, also the president of the Thai Bus Operators Association, is known for her bold and blunt character, especially when it comes to disagreements between bus operators and the authorities over fares.
Recently she again wrestled with the Transport Ministry over demands that bus operators reduce their city and inter-provincial fares amid continuous falling oil prices.
After several meetings, Jeh Kiew eventually agreed to reduce fares by two satang a kilometre.
"We weren't allowed to raise the fares when oil prices went up," she argues. "So of course we don't want to reduce them when oil prices go down, as we've kept them unchanged for the past seven years."
Dressed in a flower-print shirt and dark blue suit, Jeh Kiew has inspired the public with her rags-to-riches tale. At the same time, though, many have labelled her a "stingy" woman — a criticism she wears as a badge of honour.
"'Stingy' is my middle name," she admits proudly. "If I weren't like this, I wouldn't get rich."
Perhaps growing up in poverty and struggling to help bring up a big family explains her frugal nature. Impoverishment was what also drove her to the fame and fortune that she has achieved today. Understanding how it feels to be poor and despite her thrift, she says she gives to charity and her lifelong ambition is to set up a foundation one day.
A Thai-Chinese, Jeh Kiew was born in Nakhon Ratchasima into a family of 10 siblings with her mother as the only breadwinner. She was forced to drop out of school at the age of nine to start working to earn money. She has never stopped working since.
The young Jeh Kiew took any job available, from selling drinking water, desserts, groceries and lottery result sheets, to carrying 50 kilogrammes of rice to buyers every day. She vividly recalls the accident that cost her her right ring finger as she helped her father mill flour for sale.
She later opened a sewing shop and her own small sewing school. That was the beginning of a better life financially for her and the family.
"I fear poverty," she says repeatedly, "so making money, spending it wisely and saving it is forever my motto. And that's what I've been preaching to my children."
At age 19, Jeh Kiew got married and started a truck body manufacturing business with her husband.
In 1971, the couple began to explore bus body-making and transport ventures. From humble origins with only two buses in service, Jeh Kiew's transport empire grew into the country's biggest operator with 1,000 buses across four regions.
At present, 3,000 drivers are employed in Cherdchai's buses. To keep costs down, drivers don't get a monthly salary but instead are paid daily wages calculated from the number of trips they drive. There is no overtime pay, but drivers are covered by social security as required by law.
Harsh though it sounds, she says she gives them a second chance when they do something wrong by talking and correcting their errors. It's not easy to manage a large number of male workers.
"You can't expect everyone to be perfect and make no mistakes."
Apart from Cherdchai buses, her businesses now include bus body-making and sales, Japanese and luxury car sales, and car financing.
Jeh Kiew says the bus transport business makes less money than the others. Moreover, she complains that income has continued to dwindle over the past several decades with the rising number of competitors offering similar services: public vans and pickup trucks, taxis, even the emergence of low-cost airlines.
The government's infrastructure development projects, she adds, will further worsen her business.
Recently she lodged a complaint with the Transport Ministry that the budget airlines' fares were so low, they were rendering her bus transport non-competitive.
"Our revenue has fallen by about 50% over many years," Jeh Kiew laments, adding that she will launch a low-cost bus service with cheaper fares to compete with rivals.
She is also in talks with officials to put her company under the Land Transport Department's umbrella.
"All I want to do is provide Thais the best transport services," she says. "But if the business suffers too much, one day I may consider quitting. Anything that rises can fall — just like a human being."
Today the billionaire is more than proud of her hard work and multi-billion-baht transport empire. She has collected money through continuous acquisition of land but says she never counted the number of plots. She reckons they would be worth billions if sold.
While most of her work these days has been passed on to her four children, Jeh Kiew never really works hands off. The lady wakes early in the morning and does not finish working until 4am — a routine she says she has maintained throughout her life.
"I like working and I work 365 days a year," she says proudly, "and I don't plan to retire. That's because I love money and I love counting it.