A few Sundays ago, Jason and Ben invited me to join them for the second to the last concert in the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra’s annual winter Concert in the Park series. While you would never think that the weather here, even in winter, is cool enough to enjoy an outdoor concert, it was actually the perfect event.
Located in Lumpini Park, the closest thing we have to a central park, the full symphony orchestra performed to a crowd of more than 1,000 picnickers. Spread out on rental mats, lawn chairs, and blankets, the audience enjoyed the pleasant after-sunset breezes and moderate temperatures of about 80 F / 28 C. Not too bad.
Jason and Ben own a little cafe called Kiosk and borrowed the beanbags and ice chest from the cafe, packing quite a spread. Prosciutto and melon, cheese and crackers, fruits and salami, nuts and spreads – we were well satisfied.
Ever stylish, Ben and Jason (and their friend Zenya – in red pants) artfully arranged our spread. The one drawback of the event, one we worked around, is that the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority prohibits the consumption of alcohol inside city parks. Now, I can understand not wanting winos wandering around drunk but a nice bottle of bubbly goes so well with al fresco music.
Security guards were keeping an eagle eye out for violators, confiscating any alcohol (which they no doubt later consumed for themselves). We got around it by keeping the bottles in the cooler and discreetly pouring the glasses inside the cooler, too. Nothing could ever be seen outside the cooler except our paper cups of “apple juice” and “white grape juice”. Ha ha…
Thank you to Ben and Jason for their invitation and lovely hosting.
christao408 
wow that looks like a feast. picnics are fun that way.. especially when u have entertaining music
That would have been the perfect outing for me!! They have a brown bag concert series over the lunch hour in downtown Topeka…not an orchestra but usually a smaller group, string quartet, brass quintet…bring your lunch and blanket and enjoy!!!
We have enjoyed the concert in the park series here too – can’t wait for summer evening music…heck, I’d take spring music and if the winter looked like yours, I’d have a picnic in the park as well (esp. if there was music). Sounds like a wonderful time. (sighs with a touch of jealousy)
Sounds like you had a nice, fun picnic! I remember one time when we sneaked in alcohol to an event. Since frisking is such a common thing here (for security) there was no way to hide the bottles anywhere. So, we took in vodka and rum by transferring it into packaged mineral water bottles. One of us just took a big gulp as if it was water while the other was being frisked and soon enough, the girl who cleared the frisking openly asked the other person to pass on the bottle of water. We were something like 18 or 19 then.
Fun!!!We do similar outdoor concerts here at a winery. I shall take some photos this summer, if it comes! 😀
Sounds like a wonderful evening. I would definitely enjoy such an evening if we had something like that around where I live. And, 80 F is perfect evening weather.
A lovely way to spend an evening. That park looks like a great place to have a picnic.
Sounds like a good time to me! I can’t wait until it gets warm enough here for outdoor concerts.
@TheCheshireGrins – I agree. I wish winter would go away already!
Man…I really love these park concerts…It looks really warm, nice, and without direct sun.That’s somewhere I’d like to be.Along with Ben and Jason’s plate of food and bean bag. Those two know how to live!
Dang Chris! Breaking the law! Such a rebel 😀
Seeing that reminds me of the concerts we have at the Waikiki Shell here. I think it’s great that in the middle of Winter, when you live in the tropics, you can still go to outdoor events like this and it’s a nice balmy temperature, especially right after sunset. It’s perfect. We do something here like this weekly; where you can set up a little picnic and sit on the beach and watch a movie on a huge projection screen with hundreds of other people, just after sunset. It’s a great romantic thing to do, I think; and is one of the things I missed the most about living here when I wasn’t.
Nice picnic. It’s definitely a lot less crowded than similar free concerts in Central Park!
This looks like a nice relaxing time, with good friends and food!
Oh that looks so relaxing. It’s snowing outside right now – maybe 1/2 on the ground so far. But more to come tonight and throughout the week.
That looks like a delicious spread – yum! How was the concert?
@LADYLILYTHAO – The concert was very nice. They did a mixture of familiar classical pieces, a few contemporary Thai pieces, and some John Williams (theme to Jurrasic Park, for example). Very audience-friendly.@ElusiveWords – You’ve had a relatively snow-free winter, though, right? It has mostly hit the US and not Canada.@TheLatinObserver – Well, we’re more modest in our ambitions here in Thailand.@notjus4ne1 – @Chatamanda – @everyday_yogi – It was a really pleasant time, yes.@arenadi – The German Institute has been doing outdoor film screenings all winter, too. That type of outdoor lifestyle is something I really enjoy, even when I was living back in California.@secade – You know it, man. Now don’t be a snitch, or else I’ll have to punch you in the nose! =P@Wangium – Start scheduling. Next concert series is like late November through mid-February, 2010-2011.@TheCheshireGrins – @Roadlesstaken – Yeah, I don’t know what y’all are up to but please stop hogging all the snow! =D@Dezinerdreams – That’s a great story. What gall!@murisopsis – No need for jealousy – I’m sure you appreciate your summers all the more for the cold winter weather in between.@yang1815 – Winery in Omaha?@Redlegsix – A lunchtime series sounds like a great idea – something for a mid-day break.@gweirdo – It was quite a spread. Perhaps a little too much but that’s okay. Better than not enough.
Yes it has been very snow free winter. We escaped the horror that got dumped in the east coast. It was actually +5 yesterday, oh my goodness – I almost went out in my shorts. But winter sent more snow today. There’s about 2 to 3 cm out there but the streets have been cleared.
Can I just ask something that’s been puzzling me Chris ? How do you do those replies where you combine more than one person into one reply, like you’ve done above ?
@Chatamanda – I’m not sure what sort of layout you have (whether there is some “newer” Xanga interface that you may be using, but when I hit the reply link after your comment I type my response in the “post a comment” box, then I hit return to go to the next line and then hit “reply” on someone else’s comment. That way they all stack up in a single comment and everyone can see my responses to others’ comments, which they might be interested in reading.@ElusiveWords – Tawn and I are heading to the states in a few weeks and I hope they’re over their snow fondness by then. Stay warm – double up on the longjohns.
Many thanks Chris – just done a test at mine and it works – great stuff. 🙂
@christao408 – Yes we have several actually!
Oh, concert at the Lumpini Park, how nice! The setting reminds me of a summer concert at the Huntington Library or The Arboretum in Arcadia. I guess you can say Lumpini is like a mini Central Park in BKK?
@CurryPuffy – Very apt comparison, yes.@yang1815 – I would never have expected.@Chatamanda – Glad it worked.
@christao408 – You drove past one on the way to the tractor pull. http://www.soaringwingswine.com/
You have a nice picnic here. Thanks for sharing us your moments.