Bangkok
Thailand’s Colors…and Red Shirts and Watermelon Soldiers
Taken from an article in Time
In Thailand, people literally wear their politics on their sleeves. The nation has been locked for years in a paralyzing political showdown between two camps. There are the red shirts, who support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup and later convicted in absentia of abuse of power. And there are the establishment yellow shirts, who back current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. On March 12, around 100,000 red shirts, whose numbers are drawn largely from Thailand’s poor rural regions, began descending on Bangkok by bus, truck, boat and tractor for what they deemed their final stand: a massive march to force the yellow-backed government to hold elections, which the reds believe will favor them. “Relinquish power and return it to the people,” went the rally cry from protest leader Veera Musikapong. (See pictures from Thailand’s April 2009 protests.)
The protests are the latest in a years-running to-and-fro between the groups. In 2008, the yellows occupied Government House, the nation’s seat of power, for three months. Later they hijacked Bangkok’s two airports for a week, a disaster for a tourism-dependent economy. Last year, after a yellow-supported government took office, the reds swarmed an international summit at a seaside resort, forcing the emergency airlift of foreign leaders. That was followed by a scarlet siege of Government House, a takeover that culminated in Thailand’s worst political violence in nearly two decades.
Thailand’s color obsession extends beyond politics. Every day of the week has a shade. Born on a Wednesday? Your lucky color is green. Saturday is ruled by the color purple. Thailand’s beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej entered the world on mellow-yellow Monday, which is why for years millions of his loyal subjects have voluntarily worn that hue to begin their week. But since the yellow shirts, who made support for the monarch a cornerstone of their activism, have chosen that color for political purposes, the number of Thais donning it on Mondays has declined dramatically.
So what’s safe to wear in Thailand these days? Pink — and the hue gets to the heart of a color conundrum. The Thai King may have been born on a Monday, but he was born in Massachusetts, which is half a day behind Thailand’s time zone. Technically, he was born on Tuesday, Bangkok time, which means he should be honored by the color pink. In late 2007, King Bhumibol wore a carnation-pink blazer and shirt following a hospital stay, apparently because an astrologer had judged the shade as auspicious for his health. The monarch’s fashion statement galvanized a run on all things pink, with tens of thousands of shirts selling in a matter of days. Last September, the 82-year old King, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, was readmitted to hospital. In late February, during a rare public appearance, he was again pictured wearing a pink shirt, prompting millions of Thais to pull similarly hued clothes out of their closets.
Now, with the current popular uprising in Bangkok, Thai soldiers sympathetic toward the anti-government “red shirts” are called Watermelon Soldiers.
Commenting on the continuing protests of Thailand’s red shirts, Wassana Nanuam wrote in The Bangkok Post:
Among the rapidly expanding glossary born of this prolonged political conflict, the term “watermelon army” or “watermelon soldier” is one of the most catchy. It means soldiers who may be wearing a green uniform but are actually rooting for the red shirts: green outside and red inside, just like a watermelon.
According to Nanuam, the red shirts have been keen to publicize the “watermelon factor,” claiming it shows that only the army’s top commanders support the government.
[Thailand’s Army chief] Gen Anupong has admitted that there are indeed “watermelon soldiers” but he could not estimate their numbers. “No matter what colour your heart is or what doctrine you subscribe to, you do your duty as a soldier when you are deployed. Do not bring the colour in your heart into your duty. Bear in mind that a soldier must have no colour. We serve the country and the King,” Gen Anupong said.
Nanuam noted that some watermelon soldiers are suspected of having leaked information to the red shirts, something the top brass is keen to halt:
Even though the military has tried to emphasise the need for soldiers to be professional and colourless in their line of duty by coining a new term – “mango soldier,” which is green both within and without (the popular unripe variety, of course) – they have been unable to curtail the popularity of the watermelon trend. …
For now, the hunt for the watermelon is on at the army. Those who are found to have “red flesh” will be moved out of important positions. This includes those who happen to have a watermelon wife – whose spouse is supportive of the red shirts – as well.
The hunt for the red watermelon, however, is causing discomfort among professional soldiers who may truly be colourless but are being watched with suspicion anyway.
I came to Thailand this year with three tops…red, yellow…and grey. No one has mentioned grey yet…somehow I doubt if grey will get me into trouble but I’m tired of wearing it.
Away From The “Reds” In Bang Phra Fishing Village
The “Reds” are trying to force the fall of the government in Bangkok by bringing in a promised half a million or a million of rural folks in pickups to paralyze the city. The government is threatening to impose a state of emergency.
Ordinarily a groundswell of rural people would illicit some kind of sympathy but in Thailand nothing is ordinary. They are supporting the return of a very corrupt former Prime Minister who bilked the country out of a couple billion dollars, was convicted by a court of corruption and who lives abroad to avoid a three year jail term. The premier has rejected the crowd’s demands to dissolve parliament and call elections which are scheduled for next year anyway. It is generally thought that Thaksin, who issued $25 loans plus interest to the farmers before he was deposed, is using them to gain reentry to the country so he can appeal the court’s decision and reclaim his money. Go figure.
At a press conference held by the Reds at the Thai Foreign Correspondent’s Club that I attended last week, they wouldn’t admit to the Christian Science Monitor to paying people. “Most of them are volunteers” was all they would say. But a YouTube video shows them handing out two 1000 baht bills (about $60) and their pickups are nice and new. Their strategy, they say, is to peacefully paralyze the city…forcing the government to either fall or [get baited] into a fierce bloody repression.Well, today is March 14, the day of the big Bangkok rally and the Bangkok Post claims 80,000 people…others estimate 100,000…but the week is not over.
Ex Prime Minister Thaksin has been in Dubai and rumored earlier to have flown to Siem Reap Cambodia where he has struck up an odd alliance with President Han Sen…no friend of the people there. Today the Bangkok Post reports that Thaksin claims to be joining his family in Berlin. Who knows where he is. But one thing is sure…he wants back into Thailand where he can appeal the Supreme Court’s decision to freeze much of his assets. I watch the news on Thai TV but of course cannot understand any of it. I just watch the video and photo parts.In the meantime, many people in Thailand are just shrugging their shoulders. They’ve seen 16 military coups in the last 30 years…the most recent when the elected Thaksin was toppled in a 2006 military coup.
Oxford educated Prime Minister Abhisit came to power in December 2008 after a controversial court decision removed Thaksin’s allies from government following an airport blockade by the Royalist Yellow Shirts. Yeah, I’m confused too.
So I decided it was a good time to explore a fishing village about an hour and a half NE of Bangkok. I am here in a separate room in a family compound. They are spoiling me rotten…bringing me breakfast, lunch and dinner…all of which I cannot hope to eat… and all manner of other things like water, coffee, beer and daily copies of the Bangkok Post. Music and announcements wafts over the village from the nearby Wat. Thai hospitality at it’s finest!A brother has retired here after 30 years living in Texas so his English comes in handy. A niece works as a Health Prevention manager. The sister wants me to stay here in April while her husband spends the month as a monk in a monastery. I have no idea what he does…or did. But this is an educated and accomplished family.
The room I am in is a big dorm room…usually used for students at the university near here. But when my friend Jiraporn, who is a professor of fisheries at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, and has some of her students working on a fishingcrab study here, brought me here the family happily consented to rent the room to me.My room has aircon but the family set up a table outside…with a fan…where I can fiddle with my WiFi-linked computer set up by a nephew who is a computer programmer…after taking early morning walks to the sea…actually the Gulf of Thailand…where I can watch the fishing and crabbing boats come in with their catch. The families boil the tiny fishingcrab, used in soups, in big pots fired by propane. Little children run around unattended…happy and at home on the entire beach.How long will you be here, the family asks. Maybe I stay forever, I say. We all laugh. Sigh.
A Day In Bangkok
Nice to be back and settled again in Bangkok. After two months in my serviced apartment before going to Samui, the doorman welcomed me back like an old friend….clicking his heels together and saluting (an odd custom here) and the receptionist greeted me with a big Thai smile. The doorman is trying to teach me Thai…just if I could only remember any of it!
Exhausted, I fell asleep early and of course woke up at 4am…hungry and wanting coffee so I ventured out in the warm dark morning in search of water and something to eat. As I walked down my little soi, squeezing past the endless stream of taxis even at that early hour, to Sukhumvit 22, the bored doorman at a nearby hotel waved furiously and offered a big “good morning.” Twice!
A sweating vendor had stopped her charcoal grill cart in front of the ubiquitous 7-11 so I couldn’t resist the sweetly marinated hot pork and chicken satay on a stick. In the dark, I handed her what I thought was two 20 baht bills. “Oh, no,” she says as she handed me back one 1000 baht bill (about $30).
Later, I joined the male regulars sitting in front of the Parrot Cafe…a few Dutch guys, an Aussie businessman currently working via his computer on development projects in Saudi Arabia and Mozambique, a Norwegian who had walked all the way from the Ekamai skytrain station…waiting to meet a friend. We read the Bangkok Post for entertainment and comment on the bizarre political goings-on in Thailand. The Red Shirts, supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin convicted for corruption and now in exile, are planning a million man march in front of the government house…claiming they want a return to democracy!! :)) Ask the Yellow Shirts, one of whom is among us and who was arrested with 83 others when they took over the airport a few months ago, whether they think Thaksin wants democracy in Thailand. Thailand is no democracy…just infighting among the ministers, parliament members, the military and the protestors of whatever side. Anyway, we trade comments and hope there is no violence and that Thailand can avoid yet another in a long line of military coups.
They all drift away and I am left with U2 on my iPod on my iPhone where also I catch up on my email with the free cafe WiFi… over another cup of coffee. A couple approach me. “Are you the laughingnomad,” they ask? I am furiously trying to remember where I met them before when they said they had found my blog on the web and had been following it. They reminded me that my picture is on the home page of the blog and that I probably mentioned the Parrot Cafe in a post. I was dumb-founded! Americans from New Hampshire, they travel often and, like me, are in Bangkok for medical care. He is an engineer and they have lived for years in places like Bangladesh and Manila. We trade stories. She shares a lovely children’s book she has written and illustrated. The last of four, the book nearly wrote itself, she says, as she composed it in her head on a serendipitous long bus trip in the company of an origami artist. I love it! We exchanged cards and I invited them to Oaxaca. I do hope they take me up on my offer. I really liked these two friendly people.
It was getting hot by this time so I retreated to my air-conditioned room…buying some fruit on the street on my way. I tip the waitresses well at this cafe. There is no service charge and I appreciate the fact that these girls are not “working” in the bars or on the street.
Back in my room, I get an email from a “friend” I met on Couchsurfing, from Turkey, who says she will be arriving in Bangkok soon and wants to meet for coffee. I call Bumrungrad and make an appointment for another pap with my lovely Thai gynecologist and the dental clinic for an appointment to get the two crowns placed on my implants.
Then up popped my Thai protestor friend on Skype chat. We talk politics. He tells me he has to fly to Australia to visit a “sick” mother. This is the 4th year in a row that she has gotten “sick” on her birthday. I tell him my kids would never let me get away with this. “This is the culture,” he says. “I have to go.” After four hours of this chat I notice the time. OMG!
Then I get a call from one of my husband’s friends in Pattaya who is temporarily in Bangkok for medical care. He wants to see a movie. I tell him I want to see George Clooney! So tuesday we will. Goodie!
I call a Thai friend who is a professor of fisheries in a local university to let her know I am back in Bangkok. She wants to take me to the fishing village again where she has some of her students conducting a small-crab fishing study. She is concerned about sustainable fishing practices in Thailand where the fish are fast disappearing.
Well, a few other things happened this day but this is pretty much what my days are like in Bangkok. I have been here 3 months now and my psyche has adjusted to this culture. Now if I can just remember what little Spanish I have when I get back to Oaxaca…where my internal cultural clock will change back again!
Bangkok To Ko Samui
All in one day on my street in Bangkok I saw a very good-looking farang (foreigner), who was old enough to know better, in a big wide straw hat…wearing no shirt…showing off his severely “cut” abs…attracting the stares of the Thai women and the rest of us who are not use to seeing shirtless farangs who forget they are not on the beach anymore! :)) But much better viewing, however, than the overweight European women in shorts and bra in the City of Angels where those things should never be seen!
The same day I saw a father and his 2 year old boy walking by one of those paid women beggars who sit at the foot of the stairs to the skytrain holding a borrowed infant. The little boy had been eating chips out of a small bag and he held out his bag to the infant as he passed by with no prompting from the father…so heart-warming to see his natural generosity! I saw a young Thai guy wearing a T-shirt that said in English “Merry Clitormas” instead of Merry Christmas! And I visited for hours with some newly-made friends at the sidewalk tables at the Parrot Cafe run by a Dutch guy and where you can get good brewed coffee.
Now I am on the island of breezy Samui where I am helping my daughter-in-law and her mother set up a small tasteful Thai-style “restaurant” on the beach in Lamai that Doug leased before he temporarily returned to the States last month. There is a water trench that winds through the restaurant that Luk wants to fill with fish. Yesterday we bought a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer and a wicker table and chairs. This is great fun! Luk’s mother is gregarious and an excellent cook so we hope for success! I am suggesting to Doug that he offer good American and British breakfasts that are difficult to come by on this part of the beach. They will have a juice bar and Luk will go to Bangkok to learn how to operate and make coffee with one of those nice Bon Cafe machines. She is all excited to make artsy fartsy designs in the foam. :))
Luk and I stopped by the Thai immigration office on Samui to check on my visa regulations. You have to leave Thailand the young good-looking officer says. Aren’t there any other options for me…I don’t want to leave Thailand! You can marry, he says. Can I marry you, I ask? Yes, he says. But I already marry! Me too, I say. And we laughed! Anything I can do for you, you come see me, he says! So much for those mean immigration guys! As we were leaving, I wanted to tell the young waiting backpackers in dreadlocks to SMILE! :)) It might help them a bit!
The A/C doesn’t work in Doug’s bungalow where I was originally going to stay, so I am in a lovely artsy beach hotel with an ocean view and so close to the water you can hear the waves through the sliding glass doors! I’m walking distance half way between the bungalow and the restaurant. Luk’s mom has been bringing morning rice and pork soup to my room in the hotel and cooking the late afternoon meals for us in the restaurant-to-be. The other evening a farang from Hungary and his Thai girlfriend were walking the beach so Luk’s mom invited them to finish off our generous meal. Talk talk, talk!
I’m driving Doug’s pickup on these narrow ring roads around the island which is much better than renting one of those little jeeps that are hard to shift. I just have to remember to stay on the left side of the road and watch for cars and motorcycles who want to pass on both the right and left of me…sometimes on both sides at the same time!
Today we are taking time off to rest. Luk is sore from working on the restaurant and will not be grilling pork sticks out in front of the restaurant by the road. Wednesday, Luk and her mom and I will take the ferry with Doug’s pickup to Suratani and on to Trang Province south of here where we will see grandma and pick up Luk’s mom’s motorcycle and a few household items. Doug and Luk will be giving up their beach bungalow in February and moving into a walled off section of the restaurant to save money. Hmmm. We’ll see how that works out! :))
I would love to take the ferry to the diving island of Koh Tao where there are no cars and where I haven’t been yet. Or Koh Pha Nang famous for the full-moon parties…only pure white sandy beaches with restaurants jutting out into the water. But no full-moon party for me!
So now I need to figure out how I am going to get out of Thailand before February 9th and where/when to come back in. A van to Panang Malaysia? Or a flight to Singapore? Maybe a week on the beaches of Krabi before hitting Bangkok again? I get the crowns on my implants in March in Bangkok before flying back to the states. Whew! I’m tired already!
And that, so far, with the exception of watching the heart-wrenching devastation in Haiti on my hotel TV, is my time on Koh Samui.
An Italian Night Out
I had been walking past this nice (nice is when there are table cloths and the waiter puts the napkin in your lap) Italian restaurant on Sukhumvit 20 for two months now…with Osso Bucco (lamb shank) advertised on an outdoor sign. I remembered how good it tasted when I had it in New york in 2005, so tonight I decided to treat myself. It didn’t taste as I remembered it, however, as the sauce was much stronger and more dense than the one I had eaten before. So that hankering is satisfied and done with anyway!
In Mexico, when patrons get up from their table to leave a restaurant, it is considered polite to say “provecho,” (much like bon apetit) to the people at the nearest table. So this time as I was leaving my table I nodded and automatically said “provecho” to this German family who looked at me like I was nuts. Got to remember where I am!
And now that my dental work is almost finished I’ve got to figure out where and when I am going next…
Up The Chao Phraya River
In my last post I mentioned Nick’s crazy flight from LA to Bangkok for a one day visit. Well, today he tells me about the return:
my flights back looked so good . . . on paper. from bkk – nrt (tokyo) i got a coach seat. not too bad. when i got to nrt, the nrt – d.c. flight cancelled and caused a serious domino effect. everybody on that flight scattered to get on any other flight stateside. i couldn’t get on my nrt – lax flight, not even a jumpseat. i scrambled and got on an nrt – sea [Seattle] flight. took the last coach seat. in sea, i couldn’t get on a sea – lax flight, so i went sea – sfo. at sfo, [San Francisco] i couldn’t get on an sfo – lax flight. so i went sfo – fresno – lax. just got home. what a ride. CAN’T WAIT TO DO IT AGAIN! HA!
Glad I’m not the only nut out there, Nick! :))
Yesterday I was invited by a couchsurfing friend, who has lived in Bangkok for several years, to visit her neighborhood . It required taking the skytrain to the river…then a ferry up the river 30 stops…taking about an hour. While on the ferry I visited with an Egyptian woman next to me who is married to a German who had a terrible accident falling off a waterfall in Chiang Mai. After two months in a hospital he was finally airlifted back to Germany with extensive after affects of his brain injury.
After this conversation I felt weird enjoying lunch of green curry and stir-fry vegetables and a visit to a lovely park next to a Wat. But then my friend showed me her ankle that has been swollen double for a year after getting hit by debris in the tsunami. She has been to 7 hospitals in Bangkok and no one can tell her what the problem is. I feel so grateful that my son Doug and his Thai wife, Luk, escaped injury the morning they woke to discover their bungalow under water!
The only other sight in my friend’s very Thai neighborhood was a prison which of course we didn’t visit. Then after 30 stops back and skytrain to my neighborhood, I stopped by the Parrot Cafe sidewalk table area on my Sukhumvit 22 neighborhood for spaghetti bolanaise and an hour’s late evening conversation with an Aussie businessman at the next table who divides his time between Thailand, Mozambique and Europe as a contract manager for a large Australian corporation. . I visit with him often here at the cafe…mostly for morning coffee and our daily entertainment…the Bangkok Post.
Today I am contemplating an invitation from the 30- something Thai businesswoman who has invited me, it turns out, to go to Khao San Rd. (backpacker street) with them on Christmas Eve. Does she realize I am 65, I wonder?
A Village of Two Houses
I got “home” late last night from a day trip to a “village” just off highway 304 in Chachoengsao Province about two hours east of Bangkok. This visit had several advantages.
I got to see my friends Dave and Syy again and meet Syy’s mother, brother and two year old niece who slept the peaceful afternoon away in a cloth swing while we visited in an outdoor covered area attached to Syy’s mother’s house.
I got to see my Vietnamese friend Nick again. Nick is a flight attendant for United Airlines. I last saw him a couple years ago when he visited me, Doug and Luk on Koh Samui on a quick side-trip on his way to visit family in Viet Nam. He gave me a freshly minted copy of his memoirs on that visitthat included the story of his escape with his family from Saigon in 1975 when he was 7 years old and subsequently resettled in the middle of Kansas!
Dave, Syy and I were imagining Nick lounging in first class on his flight from LA to Bangkok this time too. But alas we gave him our appropriate condolences when he revealed that the flight was full, he got the flight attendant jump seat all the way from LA to Tokyo and a middle seat in coach seat from there to Bangkok! We truly hope that he got a better seat on his return flight this morning….having spent only one night in Bangkok!
And I got to find out how to catch a van to outlying areas. Skytrain to the Victory Monument. From the skytrain platform, look for one of the figures on top of the monument of a sailor holding a torpedo. Walk in the direction that the torpedo is pointing. Take an exit off the platform to the right…to a small street named Ratchatewi 11 that runs parallel to the raised BTS walkway above. About half way down that street look for a restaurant called Pong Lee. Next to the restaurant is a sidewalk desk to buy a ticket for the desired van. Show them a piece of paper that says in Thai (presumably you have found someone to do this for you) Pratchinburi/Klong Rang/Tawa Ravadee Hotel so they can direct you to the right van in a very long line of white vans lined up on the street. The fee for us was 130 baht one-way…or $4.00. (But Dave said it should have been 120 baht so we don’t know whether to blame Nick or me!)
Dave wrote a little description of the “village” for his email list that I think I will lift for this post because his description is much better than mine would be. He says:
<em>the village is composed of two adjoining houses, Na Tit’s abode and Syy’s mom’s old house. Syy’s moms house is now an empty shell housing a few relics of the past including a clock stuck at 5:30 and memory filled photos on the wall reminding one of an earlier time. The house has been gutted of all inner conveniences and last night I was forced to sleep on the hard wood floor, waking up with an ache in the back or maybe an ache in the heart for the old home.
The days are warm and mild, the chickens wake us up every morning at 5. Now we have to make the long walk through the overgrown remnants of what used to be a garden but is now planted with thorny eggplants to Somsak’s home for our tri daily meals. Since we were here last, Somsak has built 2 small adjoining rooms on the estate, one for mother and one for Far. Somsak and Duen’s small room was slammed with lightening not long ago which tore out their AC unit.
Ants and papayas seem to be the big cash crops this year. The backyard is filled with recently planted papaya’s already loaded with young green fruit. The homes that were removed this year from the village have been completely replaced by the tropical vegetation and now you can never tell they were ever there. As a result, there is a new natural feel to the village, having lost its human component, and has been replaced by a veritable green paradise.
We started our meal last night with a bang, eating big green and white ants with enormous abdomens that literally pop in your mouth, making a sound akin to popcorn bursting into action for the first time on the bottom of a hot grease filled frying pan.</em>
As I sit here writing this, I hear fireworks. It seems very familiar. Then I realize I am in Thailand not Oaxaca Mexico! I step out onto my small 8th floor veranda and see the sky between the buildings alive with light and sound. I feel right at home because I have no idea what the occasion is…just like most of the times there are fireworks displays in Oaxaca! 🙂 This is the 3rd fireworks in a month here. Last couple fireworks I figured was in honor of the King’s birthday.
This time…Christmas?!!
Familiar Bangkok-2009
I like being in this familiar city again. And this is the winter…the best time of the year to be here…75 and 80 degrees during the day and even down to 60 degrees at night. But it’s nearly the end of December now and the temperature is slowly creeping up. But not enough to keep the locals out of their jackets and neck wraps! But it’s winter they say!
For the last 5 weeks I have spent a couple days a week in a dental chair in Bangkok…at the Bangkok International Dental Clinic. All very competent English speaking dentists working part-time…waiting for you to walk in. A multi-story new spiffy-clean facility with in-house labs. One tooth extraction, one root canal, four crowns and two implants and prep on a third. My young implant dentist completed 4 years of dental school in N. Carolina and spent another 3 years as implant instructor…and now back in Thailand with his family. $1200 each implant here…and $4000 and up in the States, he says. A no-brainer…and a holiday to boot.
I’ve enjoyed an International Street Fair in Lumpini Park with a Thai friend…seeing Chinese Opera Face-changing for the first time. Amazing! A thanksgiving dinner with my husband who came up from Pattaya where he lives…festing on a huge hotel restaurant buffet with a friend of his who is here having physical therapy on his shoulder. A trip to Khao San Road, a colorful backpacker walking street where you can get your hair dreadlocked, with my son Doug just before his temporary return trip to Oregon.
I really enjoyed seeing the comedy…Julia And Julia…and recommend this movie (screenplay by Nora Ephron)…especially to anyone who cut their teeth on Julia Child’s French Cook book and/or watched her TV cooking show. Meryl Streep did a great job…you almost forgot that it wasn’t Julia up there on the screen. And I love those lay-back lounger chairs in the new theaters here. Wasn’t so impressed with the new Scrooge in 3-D.
I like my familiar neighborhood on Sukhumvit 22. I like to sit in front of the Parrot Cafe and have my morning coffee…checking for email with free wifi on my iPhone. I like the meaty German breakfast at the Bei Otto German restaurant with wonderful home-made German rolls. All the foods that Oaxaca Mexico doesn’t have. I like having side-walk noodle soup while sitting on one of two small plastic stools…for 30 baht…less than a dollar. I like the Thai massage I can have as often as I want because they only cost 250 baht ($7.50) for an hour.
But I could really do without all those incessant insufferable Christmas carols in all the malls. Paragon Mall and other nearby malls are covered with outside megalights and the area just off the skytrain is expected to draw thousands at an extravagant New Years Celebration. It’s a Buddhist country…but anything for a party! Everyone lines up in front of Christmas displays to have their pictures taken by friends or anyone nearby who is willing to serve as picture-taker…many of them Japanese tourists.
An American friend and his Thai wife flew into Bangkok yesterday from the States. I called Dave to give directions to my serviced apartment. After a long explanation he said, you know, we must be very close to you. These are two well-traveled people (him and me) who have found their way in countries all over the world! So he sort of followed my directions…walking a very long way up Sukhumvit 20 to Sukhumvit St…down Sukhumvit St…over to Suk 22 and down to the corner of my little street where I was waiting for them in front of a cafe. After a little catch-up visit we rose to walk on to my hotel. This is where you are staying, Dave and Syy exclaimed! Yes, right there on the left, I said. We are staying there too!!! We just shook our heads…bewildered…and laughing at how we could have misunderstood each other so badly.
But tomorrow I’ll have a chance to get out of the city into the country-side to visit Syy’s family in a tiny village. A Vietnamese friend who works as a flight attendant for United Air is flying all the way from California to Bangkok so that we can join Dave and Syy in the village for lunch…then Nick will fly back to LA the next day! Well, I guess if you get a free flight in first class you don’t mind the trip so much on your day off! So to get ready I have been reading the directions to my new Sony video camcorder.:((
State of Emergency in Thailand
Update April 14, 2009
Shopping malls are open and the train station has resumed service. Protestors have been bused home. Arrest warrants have been issued for Thaksin and 13 other pro-Thaksin United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) leaders for violating the state of emergency, which forbids gatherings of more than five people for political reasons. It is worthy to note that that many of the “yellow shirts” that shut down 3 airports a few weeks ago have yet to be charged. Unequal treatment under the law may be what is dividing the country to the extent that it has. Read More
Laughingnomad 