One of the things you may not know about public relations is that, often, when they are in a pinch to find photos to include with press releases, they will simply take some of the agency’s own employees and photograph them with the particular product that are publicizing.

In his fifteen months with the PR agency where he works, Tawn has been in photos for several clients.  But often times these photos have not actually been selected by a media outlet for publishing.  Last week, Tawn’s photo was used by one of the Thai language news dailies in an article about Microsoft.

The background to this photos is that they were shooting in the office and using several other employees, all younger than Tawn.  Then they came over and asked Tawn to pose.  The photographer paused and asked Tawn to put on a pair of glasses and drape his sweater over his shoulders.  Tawn’s interpretation: they needed a more “mature” looking model than the other, younger ones.

Sorry about the quality of the photo – it is from a clipping service and is a copy of a fax.

The day that the article was published, I met Tawn for lunch and he was wearing his glasses (they are only reading glasses).  After he told me about the article, I put two and two together: he was wearing the glasses out and about in the hope he’d be recognized on the street!

Saturday morning Floridan Bill, his local friend Kom and I headed out for a bicycle ride in Phra Padang.  The morning dawned wet and cool but with a look at the sky it seemed plausible that the weather would improve as the morning proceeded, so we continued with our plans.

Driving to Wat Khlong Toey Nok adjacent to the container terminals of the Port of Bangkok, we parked the car, saddled up our bicycles, and headed to the pier.  Unlike the last time I did this ride with Markus, the ferry boat we were offered was quite small: nothing more than a long-tail boat – a motorized canoe – with the water just centimeters below us.

Phra Padang is a lightbulb-shaped peninsula surrounded on three sides by the Chao Praya River.  Across the river on each of those three sides is urban development.  How Phra Padang has managed to escape this development is a matter of some mystery, a mystery tied to the fact that only a narrow isthmus, wide enough for a single road, connects it to remainder of the western bank of the river.

Phra Padang is mostly coconut and banana plantations, jungle, concrete footpaths and narrow roads that would be more at home in Samut Songkhram, eighty kilometers away from the, than in the heart of Khrungthep. 

We spent more than three hours riding about, mostly on the paved roads, occasionally on the footpaths or on muddy trails, logging in a leisurely 28 kilometers by the time it was all done.

Our primary destination was the floating market, which other than a few noodle vendors still tied up along the shore is no longer floating, the other vendors having fled to stalls along two canal-side paths.  We sampled a variety of khanom – snacks – both of the sweet and savory variety, before continuing our journey.

The furthest extent of our explorations was our arrival at the edge of Phra Padang, the flood control canal that cuts across the isthmus, effectively making it an island rather than a peninsula.  Soaring above the canal, a civily-engineered demarkation of jungle from civilization, is the mega bridge project, as yet unnamed.

Opened just two weeks ago, this marvelous combination of two dual-tower suspension bridges high enough to allow ocean-going ships to pass underneath, and a curlicue of ramps in the middle, allows traffic from three directions to converge and interchange, heading smoothly in any of the directions.  Below it is the flood control canal and beside that, a small and poor neighborhood of happy children riding their bicycles and running in the street, practicing their English (“hellogoodbye”) with passing farang cyclists who stop to photograph the bridge.

After an afternoon of rest, Tawn and I picked up Bill and Kom from their hotel around 7:00.  Accommodating Bill, a vegetarian, and Kom, who doesn’t stray far from the food genre of Thai, Tawn selected the very nice restaurant Anotai, tucked beside Rama 9 Hospital.

The Thai restaurant, also serving a few mostly-Italian dishes, is strictly vegetarian and largely emphasizes organic food.  While the main courses are good, the appetizers and desserts are the stand-outs.  Appetizers are meticulously prepared with special attention paid to the sauces.  We enjoyed Seaweed-wrapped Japanese tofu with wasabi mayonaise; soft tofu fried with spicy lemongrass dressing; tofu-chili-and cilantro dip served with fresh vegetables; rice paper wrapped with enoki, tofu, and apples. 

The fried foods were notable because the chef pays special attention to the oils she uses: they are of the highest quality and the temperature is carefully controlled so the end result is something light, crispy, and not in the least bit oily.

Desserts swing in a wildly different direction as they are all western, the result of a on-site bakery and ice cream shop.  We enjoyed an apricot claufoutis and a dark chocolate and cherry cake with homemade ice cream.

After dropping Bill and Kom back off at their hotel, as they had an early morning trip to Ayutthaya for some photography prior to Bill’s evening flight back to the United States, Tawn and I stopped by the Suan Lumpini Night Bazaar.  A cooler (literally and figuratively), less crowded, and more upscale alternative to the overheated Chatuchak Weekend Market, the Night Bazaar is slated for closing next year as its lease ends and the land owner decides to seek more profitable ways to use the land.  Maybe another mega-mall?  We certainly have plenty of those!

The feature right now is la Grande Rue de Paris, a 60-meter tall Ferris Wheel that has made its way from Paris to Birmingham to Manchester to Amsterdam before settling in for a year or two here in the City of Angels.  Lighting up the night sky and referred to by some locals as the “Bangkok Eye,” passengers are entitled to a expansive view of the surrounding corner of the city, most of which is quite dark at night.  But it is a nice treat nonetheless and so we’ve finally checked off another one of our to-do items from our mysteriously invisible to-do list.

Please be advised that the excitement related to our recent coup d’etat is officially over.  Unless you are a junkie for Thai political news, there really isn’t much more to see or talk about.  So unless we have any developments, I think I’ll just move on to other stories.

…

Thursday evening, we joined Jack, David, Prince, Eddy, Ble, and Jack’s friend Tui for dinner at Rakhanthong, a seafood restaurant across the river from Thammasat University, which is upriver from the Grand Palace.  The occassion was the early celebration of Jack’s birthday, which isn’t for three weeks but David will be out of town by then.

The river-front restaurant has a deck that offers a view of the Grand Palace and Wat Pho (reclining Buddha) as well as Wat Arun.  Less spectacular than The Deck, as they are further away, but nice nonetheless.  The real attraction is the food: very good seafood along with the lightest, most flavourfull fried chicken (marinated in fish sauce) I’ve had.  The total bill for eight of us was something like 2700 baht – maybe US$70.  Really quite spectacular.

Right: Jack blows out candles on not one but two cakes, as David looks on.

Jack’s friend Tui had studied in Brisbane, OZ and has been back in Thailand for a few years now.  It turns out that Tawn introduced me to him once when we were out on Soi 2, but that was many years ago and I didn’t specifically recall.  Anyhow, he was a nice enough person.  The real attraction, though, was seeing Prince.  This francophone friend of Tawn’s is a really delightful individual and offers a lot of substance in addition to his light-hearted gossiping and cattiness (which is de rigeur with that group).  He’s one of Tawn’s friends with whom I can have a serious conversation.

Unfortunately we don’t see Prince very often – this is the second time since I moved here.  He lives on the outskirts of the city, Nonthanburi, and teaches up at Rangsit University – closer to Ayutthaya than to Khrungthep.

Interesting to read the memories of the 1991 coup from Tae’s blog – he’s a Thai living in the US now and was pre-university at that time.  It is the September 20th entry.

While they didn’t provide the details of how the poll was conducted, the Bangkok Post is reporting the results to nationwide polling asking people’s opinion of the coup.  The results are a bit surprising.  Here’s an excerpt:

A survey by the Bangkok Post found most people interviewed in Bangkok and selected provinces across the country supported the coup.

A survey conducted by Suan Dusit Poll yesterday among 2,019 people from various occupations nationwide found that 83.9% were for the takeover by the Council for Democratic Reform.

Surprisingly, more people in the provinces supported the coup _ 86.3 % of the respondents, compared to their counterparts in Bangkok at 81.6 %.

Meanwhile, 75% believed the coup would improve the political situation, 20.2 thought the situation would remain the same, while 4.7% said the coup would make matters worse.

Many members of the public at large sighed with relief that a long period of uncertainty and the divisiveness that it engendered was coming to an end.

The third paragraph is really the clencher: deposed Prime Minister Thaksin had enjoyed support in the 70-80% range from the 90% of the population that lives ourtside Khrungthep.  That people in the provinces are support the coup so highly suggests that the reforms of the Council have a good opportunity to be successful.

Thank you to all the people who have sent emails expressing their concern for the well being of Tawn and myself.  Rest assured that all is well here and Bangkok and that the reporting you’re hearing and the pictures you’re seeing represent a very narrow view of the overall situation.

It reminds me of the case after the invasion of Iraq where we saw the images of mobs of people toppling the statue of Sadam Hussein in Baghdad.  Later on we learned (source: Control Room) the the pictures of the crowds bringing down the statue were deceptive: upon viewing a wider angle view of that square, there was only a small group of people, not the masses that it appeared in close-up.  Plus, those people turned out not to be Baghdad locals but people who had been brought in from outside for the event.  Interesting.

The day after the coup, things were pretty calm in Khrungthep.  Traffic was light as most businesses were closed, as were banks and government agencies.  Shopping malls and cinemas were open as usual although the malls closed at 8:00, an hour or two earlier than usual.

We saw very few soldiers in the Sukhumvit/Asoke area.  In fact the only ones were a group of eight or so who were relaxing in the shade around a pool at the Asoke Condominum complex, across from the Sukhumvit Metro station.  We noticed this while eating lunch at Bitter Brown, the owner explaining that the soldiers were guarding the Metro station and were using the pool area for breaks.  The dark-skinned skinny country boys in camoflauge were sleeping on the deck chairs, pulled into the shade on this already-cool afternoon.

Police officers were conspicuously absent – there are normally one or two at every intersection but I didn’t notice any, even as we drove past the National Police headquarters on the way to Siam Square.

This is the slow reason for tourism, September being the rainiest month of the year, so there was already a low number of people out and about.  The coup provided additional incentive for people to stay indoors, although there was no sign of any danger in being out.

Martial law is in place and gatherings of more than five people is not allowed, meaning that you have to choose your dinner guests more carefully.  We met Tod for dinner at T42, so were only three and were okay.

Before dinner, we watched “You and Me and Everyone We Know,” Miranda July’s unique take on relationships and connection in a very disconnected world.  (Roger Ebert’s review here)

The story centers on two characters: a divorced shoe salesman with a teenage and pre-teen son, and an eccentric performance artist who struggle to connect with each other after obvious attraction when they first meet.  A host of other interesting characters populate the movie, each playing out the different and desparate ways we seek out connection in this age of chat-room dating.

The film won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance, and at Cannes won the Camera d’Or as best first film, and the Critics’ Week grand prize.  It is really a beautiful and lyrical film, and captures characters so realistically and so unlike many – especially American-made – films.

Bill Kannberg, a photographer friend visiting from Florida, headed out last night and took a taxi into the old city to see what was happening.  Here are some pictures that he took.  All pictures in this post are copyright 2006, Bill Kannberg, used with his kind permission.  His website is: www.billkannberg.com

Bill has said he always travels with a camera; now we know why.

At 9:20 am local time the heads of the military branches and the national police appeared on TV.  General Sondhi read a statement mirroring what was announced last night:

We took over because of the increasingly divided and fragmented society, caused by Thaksin’s corruption.  We are loyal to His Majesty and will return power to the people as soon as possible.  Thank you for your cooperation and our apologies for any inconvenience.

The heads of the armed forces and national police, left.  Right: General Sondhi speaks.

Immediately afterwards, broadcasting on Thai TV channels returns, all news stories showing some very compelling footage of the tanks around the palace, soldiers, etc.

One of the morning programs “Puuying tung Puuying” (Woman to Woman – “The View” of Thailand without Star Jones-Reynolds) returned with the normally very relaxed women all sitting upright at a news desk, rather uncomfortably, with vaguely shocked expressions on their faces.

From the Globe and Mail website, information about nine of the most recent coups (now totalling 19) since the Kingdom became a democracy in 1932.

Previous recent coups in Thailand

— 1971: Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn returns to power and abolishes the constitution and dissolves the parliament.

— October 1973: A student-led uprising ousts the “Three Tyrants” — Mr. Thanom, his son Col. Narong Kittikachorn and his father-in-law Field Marshal Praphas Charusathien — who ruled Thailand for much of the 1960s and early 1970s. A brief period of democracy ensues.

— Oct. 6, 1976: At least 46 student protesters, who were demonstrating against the return of Mr. Thanom to Thailand, are killed and hundreds more are wounded by the police and army. A coup installs a new military-guided, right-wing government.

— March 26, 1977: The military government thwarts a coup led by Gen. Chalard Hiranyasiri after Gen. Chalard and about 300 men seized four government and military buildings.

— Oct. 20, 1977: A bloodless military coup, led by Adm. Sangad Chaloryoo, installs Kriangsak Chomanan as prime minister.

— April 1, 1981: Factions in the military attempt to overthrow Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda’s government.

— Sept. 9, 1985: Retired military officers stage a failed coup attempt.

— Feb. 23, 1991: Gen. Sunchinda Kraprayoon topples the civilian government of Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan in a bloodless takeover.

— May 1992: Gen. Suchinda’s is forced from power when troops gun down at least 50 pro-democracy demonstrators in Bangkok. In the aftermath of the violence, his appointed prime minister resigns. King Bhumibol Adulyadej intervenes to end demonstrations, and parliament votes to reduce the power of the military in Thai politics.

At about 6:00 this morning, my phone rang.  It was Ajarn Yai (principal) from Bangkhonthii school, agreeing with my sentiment that I shouldn’t drive down there today.  “Well, see you next week,” she said in a characteristically Thai manner.  Coup?  Oh, mai pen rai!

Since last night, all of the foreign channels on cable have been blocked – even “Spongebob Squarepants!”  Who knew he was subversive?

From the internet, especially www.2bangkok.com which is a great consolidator site, it appears that what we had yesterday was actually two coups:

Conflicts between to military groups, one pro- and the other anti-Thaksin, had been mediated yesterday by the head of the King’s Privy Council – a body that serves as the mouth of His Majesty in politics.  The negotiations broke down during the afternoon.

Prime Minister Thaksin staged an initial coup, going on air live from New York announcing a state of emergency and firing the military supreme commander, General Sondhi (I’m modifying the spelling from what I used last night to more accuracly reflect the pronounciation).  The military was already at the TV stations (some local stations are owned by the military) and pulled the plug mid-way through the announcement.  Except for Channel 9, which played the entire statement.

It was at that point that troops led by General Sondhi (pictured left) staged the counter-coup.  The Fourth Army Brigade took up positions around key government buildings, including all ministerial offices, the Dusit Palace and Government House.  One motivation that has been cited is that there was a major protest scheduled for today by anti-Thaksin forces called the People’s Alliance for Democracy.  The armed forest police based at Khao Yai National Park (90 mins away) had been called into the city to quell the protest.  The military decided to stage the counter-coup at this point to prevent what could have become a violent clash between the forest poice and the protesters.

A few weeks ago, General Sondhi had asked the National Park Department to return 1,000 rifles that the army had loaned the forest police several years ago, claiming that the army had a shortage of weapons.  This lead additional creedence to rumours of a possible coup.

Funny and slightly overdramatic SMS from Tawn’s friend Pim, received early last night, about 10:00:

There’s a coup going on.  Stay home and lock the door for safety!

(As if we lived in a small shop house near the Grand Palace!)

As for today, a national holiday has been declared: schools, the stock market, and government offices are closed.  Traffic on Asoke is still pretty heavy, so not everybody has received the message.