Catching up

Wow. It's been a long time since I wrote anything here but a lot's been happening so let's see if I can cover it all in the next few days. I will address the pressing issues like the flooding in Bangkok and my impending return home in future posts but for now let's pick up where we left off: Pook's wedding.

Because we had to work late, we missed the actual ceremony (5am start!) but were on time for the reception at the Mon Tien Riverside Hotel. I haven't been to too many U.S. weddings and even fewer Thai ones so I can't say what the differences were but there were little things I noticed. The family/friends/food part was obviously the same but instead of the Best Man and Maid of Honor getting up and giving toasts independent of one another, they acted as joint emcees for the evening. They introduced other guests of honor like the couple's parents and employers and had them give little speeches. Then the couple got up and told the story of how they met which I was told happens at most Thai weddings. The cutting of the cake was the same except the cake was 10' tall and they used a sword (but that might've been due to the groom's military career). Afterwards, as with any Thai ceremony, there were thousands of pictures to be taken. There was a little stage set up and every friend, family member and coworker in every permutation had to get in a picture with the couple. The only major difference I noticed that night was the total lack of dancing. There was a band and plenty of room for it but no one shook a leg. That's alright though because everyone had a great time and I wish nothing but the best for Pook and her husband. Here's some pics as promised.

The monster cake being sliced

The lovely bride with Andrew and me

The gang from I Can Read Sathorn

The staff from all the ICR centers in Bangkok

My girlfriend and me in front of megacake


Much Love
J

Wi-Wa

The manager of my I Can Read center is getting married tomorrow and guess who's invited to the wedding! I've never been to a Thai Buddhist wedding before and I'm really excited to go. We don't get out of work until 6 so we'll miss the ceremony (normally in the morning) but I've seen pictures and it looks like there'll be lots of praying and merit-making. I'll let you know how the reception goes and hopefully be back with some pictures.

Much Love
J

No Signs

The elections were only five days ago and it already seems like a weird dream. The newspapers are running news again instead of articles about a candidate’s favorite restaurants or what’s on their night stand, people have resumed wearing red and yellow shirts without making bold political statements, and the 8ft tall election posters that blanketed the city have all vanished without a trace. I wanna talk more about these posters because they really are ridiculous. Instead of a small card saying “Elect So-and-so” in some red/white/blue scheme staked in the lawn, Thailand instead opts for larger than life posters on cheap wooden frames placed anywhere there’s a pole or a tree to tie them to. Literally anywhere. I had planned to take some pictures of some of my favorites to share with you but there was some kind of massive, massive clean-up on the night of the 3rd and there’s hardly a trace that they were even there. Here’s a couple I pulled off the internet.


We’ll start with the victorious candidate. This is a typical poster for Yingluck Shiniwatra and her Pheu Thai party. The numbers assigned to the parties are based on some kind of random ping-pong ball machine like the lottery which gathers lots of attention (Thais can really get into lucky/unlucky numbers).


Here’s former Prime Minister Abhiset. You had a good run?


This was my favorite candidate. Apparently he runs every year as somewhat of a joke. He campaigned with the message “enough with corruption in government!” He made his millions as a sleazy massage parlor tycoon. He’s a member of parliament now.


This series of posters created a stir.They have a variety of creatures on them and they basically say “No animals in government” and were directly targeted at members of the Pheu Thai party. Calling someone an animal here, especially a dog or buffalo is a pretty serious insult so this shocked even me.


Here's an idea of how ubiquitous these posters were. During the final week before elections it really approached critical mass. It actually got difficult to find somewhere to cross the street.

That's the story from over here. Hope all's well back home and you're all enjoying the summer.

much love
j

Happy 4th

Well the numbers are in. The red shirts took an overwhelming number of parliament seats and Yingluck Shiniwatra is Thailand’s first female prime minister. We’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out in the coming months.

The post-election mood here in the city is pretty somber despite it being an absolutely beautiful day. I just hope it’s this nice back home for the parades and especially the cookouts. Eat up on those burgers and dogs for me! Have a great 4th of July everyone.

Much love
j

Politics

July 3rd. Election day. As the Thai people cast their votes there’s really only one question on everyone’s mind: Reds or Yellows? I think you all are somewhat aware of the political situation here but let me break it down. First of all, there are more than two parties. I know it sounds like it’s just the two sides fighting for control but there’re other players. They aren’t nearly as polarizing (or popular) but they do have their views and they bring in enough votes that they can’t be dismissed. The real big dogs though are the Pheu Thai Party (red shirts’ new party) and the People’s Alliance for Democracy (yellow shirts). Before you ask “which is republican and which is democrat?” let me just say that the answer isn’t that easy and there isn’t really a 1:1 match. All this drama started with Thaksin Shinawatra who was a telecommunications tycoon turned Prime Minister was convicted on corruption charges 5 years ago. He fled the country rather than go to prison and the Thai government has seized something like $2 billion of his money. While he was in office, Thaksin was a champion of the poor down-trodden farmer increasing social spending to rural areas and building a strong voter base (the red shirts) who want to see his policies continued. The yellow shirts, on the other hand, are more closely associated with the military, the royal family, and the city-dwellers (liberal elite?) Thaksin was tossed out on legitimate corruption charges but it was seen by his supporters as a big-city scheme to toss out the one guy working hard for them (and Thaksin played no small part in spreading that idea). The next guy in line after Thaksin was his brother or something so he was tossed quickly too, and then the yellow shirts tossed the third guy after he appeared on a cooking show breaking constitutional law somehow (something about receiving payment for non-governmental service… a very flimsy excuse which rightfully enflamed the red shirts further.) All this led to a yellow shirted PM and a lot of angry farmers.

The elections today are part of the settlement of the violent protests of about a year ago and the outcome will say a lot about Thailand. If the yellow shirts win and retain power, then we will likely see allegations of corruption and vote tampering and probably another large scale protest. The other scenario is the red shirts prevail, elect Thailand’s first ever female prime minister (Thaksin’s little sister), and open up the doors for Thaksin to reenter the country that he divided. Either way there’s gonna be some aftermath so keep watching the news. I'll have some more follow-up on this later.

Much love
J

Songkran 2

Oh man. I’ve really let this blog collect some dust. I wanna get you all up to speed on my life and Thai life in general but it’s gonna take a little time. I should start with a recount of the World’s Greatest Holiday: Songkran. I traveled to Chiang Mai just as I did last time around and ended up staying in the same radical guesthouse. This was the guesthouse that organized the group trips and activities throughout the 3-day holiday. I was bummed when I got there early morning on the 13th and found out I had missed the excursion into the quiet near-by village for some stories and authentic Thai desserts. I quickly got over that as I stashed my things in the room and went out into the city to find Ryan who had gone up a day earlier and was staying somewhere within the walled city. (Side note: the traffic flows pretty freely during Songkran except for the streets surrounding the wall where it’s a standstill. To cross this war zone into the old town requires incredible bravery. There’s no bigger bulls-eye than a solitary farang sitting in a convertible tuk-tuk that’s inching its way down a crowded street.) Our group was considerably smaller than last time. It was Ryan, a couple cool folks he had met traveling, and me. We also kept running into these two Dutch guys everywhere which was always fun. The three days were great. Day one was spent preparing for battle and trying to connect with the others. Cell phones are the first tragedy of water war so there was a lot of running and retreating to dry areas to try to answer a call before a hang up. We eventually got together and made the most of it. We were able to safely maneuver our way back to Ryan’s hotel which became our base of operations. There was a Thai tourism agency open across the way and they were delighted to host four wet farangs as they themselves were big fans of the Songkran festivities. Days two and three are pretty similar. Not a whole lot of riding in trucks this year although we did make it down to the main gate where all the concerts and events were going on. Once we got there we would set up at a good water station (hose, 50 gal. drum, large ice block) and proceed to soak all comers until it was time to move on to the next one. You never know what else is out there!

What was nice about Songkran this year was that after the holiday I still had 4 more days off. We decided to spend an extra day up in Chiang Mai and see some of the sights. We took a trip Wat Doy Suthep (I think that’s the name) which is a large temple on the top of a mountain with a beautiful view of the city. We spent a good portion of our afternoon there just walking around and taking pictures. Then we made our way to the Chiang Mai zoo. There was a lot to see there but we made sure we got to see the main attraction, Lin-Ping the panda. This panda cub was all the rage when it was born even getting it's own 24 hour panda channel (basically a live feed of the panda pen). By the time we left the zoo, it was just about time to get down to the bus station and head back to BKK. What really surprised me, as we went back to town, was how suddenly the Songkran holiday had ended. I expected some residual water fighting or at least a clue or two as to the bedlam of the days before but there was nothing. Not a soul was standing on the corner of the moat where hundreds had taken place in a water melee just 24 hours prior. Weird.

That’s just about all to report on this Songkran. We made it back to Bangkok just fine and had plenty of time to readjust to normal, dry life. Sorry for the major gap between posts. I really wanna get this post up so I can get to what’s going on in Thailand right now: Elections! It’s time for the special elections that were promised after the disastrous protests in April/May ’10. Election day is on Sunday and I’m sure no matter what happens, there’s gonna be somebody who is upset with the outcome. Stay tuned!

Much love
j

Wild Weather

I’m not sure how much Thai news makes the pages of the Farang papers but I’ll give you a quick little update. The most recent headline is that the UDD (Red Shirts) is up to their old tricks again, but I’ll get to that later. What was strange and totally unexpected was the weather in Thailand this past month. Around the same time as the earthquake in Japan and the ‘supermoon’, the temperature here plummeted and it started to rain regularly. Just to be clear, Thailand has three seasons: Hot, Cold, and Rainy. We were right in the middle of hot season and it was anything but. I know lows of 15c are far from bone-chilling and I’m not asking for your pity (in fact I loved it) I’m just saying it was bizarre. It would be like having the coldest day of the year in late June. The weird weather struck the whole country too. Heavy rains led to devastating flooding in the south that they’re still recovering from. Andrew had a friend from there visiting when it all went down and she’s still here ‘cause her home is drying out. And while the south had too much water, there was also terrible drought up north. Weird times. The Bangkok weather has since returned to normal and the past couple days have been full of the oppressive heat and humidity that I associate with mid-April. That’s great news because we’re rapidly coming up on Songkran!! The greatest holiday on the planet!! Songkran is the celebration of the Thai New Year and consists of a three-day nation wide water fight. I’m heading up to Chiang Mai tonight to spend the holiday there and come home next week. I’ll give you all the details of my adventure then. The Red Shirts are once again holding giant rallies in the city. As far as I can tell they’re just holding them to commemorate those killed last time they had a giant rally in Bangkok. No one knows whether they’ll be in-and-out or if it’ll drag on as long as it did last time. I don’t think we’ll see anything close to as bad as the violence from last May but you never know. For now, just know that I’m safe and having fun in Chiang Mai for the next several days.

Happy New Year!

much love,
j