At 10:30 pm local time Tuesday evening, Tawn received a call from one of his customers telling him that they had just heard there is a coup d’etat occurring.  There have been rumours going around for many months about the possibility of this, and it appears to have happened.

Turning on the television, every channel is playing a simulcasted generic montage of photos of the king, royalty, monks, and generally happy people.  Various patriotic songs are being played.

From the BBC website at 10:39 pm (Tuesday evening local time)

Thailand calls state of emergency –

Updated 11:11

On the TV screens a message now reads (translated from Thai by Tawn)

“The Committee of Politcal Reformation Under Democracy, which believes in the Monarchy and includes the heads of the military including Air Force, Navy and Army, and the National Police, are taking control of the situation in Khrungthep and surrounding areas.  There has been no resistence.  In order to keep the country in peace we would like to ask your cooperation.  We apoligize for any inconvenience.”

Updated 11:21

There is now a gentleman appearing on TV in a suit and tie (yellow Thai and is wearing a royal crest on his lapel – in show of support of the monarcy).  Unclear who he is as he didn’t identify himself.  He repeated the same message that was previously listed above.

Updated 11:29

Reports from BBC, Germany and CNN are showing some conflicting and confusing things.  Thaksin, who is in the UN right now, is saying that the government has Khrungthep (Bangkok) and surrounding areas under control.  But whose government?  The Thaksin government, or the opposition government lead by General Sonti, the head of the military?

 Updated 11:40

The gentleman appeared again, repeating this message.  This time with a little more emphasis on the “no resistance” part of the message. 

Useful article from BBC giving some background on the turbulent political situation here this year.

 Updated 12:00 midnight (Now Wednesday Morning)

The gentleman appeared yet again this time providing the reasons for the coup.  Here is a roughly translated text, provided by Tawn:

From Committee of Political Reformation Under Democracy: As it is clearly seen that the current government has caused the society to be fragmented, many people are skeptical of how the government is being run.

Corruption has occurred.This is the worst in our history.This has caused many parties to come close to challenging the King’s power.There have been attempts to solve this problem but they have been unsuccessful.

This situation has made it necessary for the Committee – consisting of the heads of the military branches and the National Police, to take over the power from this point.

Rest assured that the Committee does not intend to run the country; our intention is to restore the power to the hands of the Thai people as soon as possible.

Thus, to keep peace of the nation, and restore the rightful position of the monarchy.

I have edited the televised version of this speech and uploaded it to You Tube with subtitles.  Low quality – be warned.

Updated 12:27

A subsequent message has been delievered that the Committee is now in control of the government and the curfew imposed by Thaksin has been lifted.  All soldiers are advised and military are advised to remain in place and not to move, including arms and equipment, until ordered to do so by General Sonti.  Soldiers are also to report to their commanding officer if they have not already done so.

Updated 12:37

Another message has been delivered on the TV consisting of four main points:

• The current constitution has been invalidated
• The senators and members of parliament have been relieved of their positions
• The King’s advisors remain in power
• The judiciary remains in power

General Sonti Bunyaraganan is the signatory to this statement.

This is interesting because it makes it very clear who is responsible.  Tawn says that from his memories of the last coup when he was back in middle school, the next step will be “to clear the chessboard.”  In other words, to wipe away all vestiges of Thaksin’s power.

Updated 12:53  From the Bangkok Post website: 

The army commander Gen Sonthi Boonyarataglin staged a coup d’etat Tuesday evening (Thailand time) and ousted the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Mr Thaksin was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, and had earlier tried to dismiss Gen Sonthi and order troops back to their barracks. His order, via a voice broadcast on TV and radio, was cut off halfway as the dramatic coup unfolded.

Tanks and troops of the Fourth Cavalry Battalion moved into strategic points in Bangkok, including the Royal Plaza.

A so-called “Democratic Reform Council” declared itself in control, a throwback to former coups when military commanders promised more democratic reform.

Like most of the previous 19 military coups since 1932, there was no violence. Tanks surrounded Government House and apparently some newspaper offices. All broadcasting on local TV was interrupted, and replaced by a notice which stated the military takeover and apologised “for any inconvenience.”

At least in the early hours of the coup, most other communications continued uninterrupted. Cable-TV broadcasts continued — including foreign news reports of the coup — and the airports remained open.

Thailand websites including the Bangkok Post were operating under very heavy loads as people tried to find out what was happening. As always, local broadcast media contained no breaking updates.

Mr Thaksin said he would return to Thailand from New York. The shadowy coup administrators said he would not be allowed to resume his post as prime minister.

Sources told the Bangkok Post that Privy Council president Gen Prem Tinsulananonda had tried and failed to mediate between the coup forces and another army faction loyal to Mr Thaksin. Gen Prem was summoned to the Royal Palace.

The whereabouts of most of the members the government were unknown. Mr Thaksin, Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkol were in New York. Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Wannasathit, the caretaker premier, was reportedly detained by the military.

Updated 1:10  

While I’m sure many additional detail will emerge in the next few hours and days, I think I’ve seen enough excitement.  I’m heading to bed, leaving you with these final thoughts:

• There have been 19 coups since Thailand became a democracy in 1932, almost all of which have been bloodless.
• Prime Minister Thaksin won two elections – most recently in 2005 – with landslide victories.  He still commands a respectable majority in opinion polls.
• Accusations of vote-buying and other election tampering arose after this April’s snap election, called three years ahead of schedule when the Prime Minister came under significant attack from opponents.  The courts threw out the results of the election.

Sunday evening we arrived back in Khrungthep after a busy two days and two nights in Phuket, the glitzy, touristy resort Island an hour’s flight south of the capital.  There is a lot to share and many stories to tell and I’ll get to those in the next day or so, since I have a lot of work to do this morning.

For the moment, though, I hope you’ll consider these pictures and brief captions as an acceptable amuse bouche for your attention, whetting your appetite for more:

Patong beach along Phuket Island’s western shore, early in the morning before the crowds of tourists arrive to soak up their Vitamin D.

Saturday morning we were invited to the religious ceremony, which about thirty people attended.  Five monks changed, Dan and Kathy made offerings, and all of us were splashed with holy water.

Afterwards, the traditional water-pouring ceremony was held.  Each guest, in descending order of importance starting with the parents of the bride and groom (or their grandparents, if present), pour a small amount of water on the bride and groom’s hands while wishing them good fortune, health and happiness in their marriage.  Here, the bride’s mother does the rod nam offering.

Afterwards, guests relaxed in the library, visiting and enjoying refreshing ginger tea and lychee water.  There was some intrigue as one of the guests, a friend of the bride’s who is the ex-boyfriend of one of Tawn’s close friends, arrived for the ceremony with his boyfriend, who it turns out that another one of Tawn’s friends who was at the wedding had had an affair with two years ago.  Confused?  I’ll try to explain it all later. 

After the rod nam ceremony all eight of us piled into the rental car (including Tawn’s friend EE and her husband Chris, who now live in Melbourne, OZ) and drove 60 km across the island to a small local seafood restaurant that is right next to the pier where the fishing boats offload their catch.  We had a huge feast of incredibly fresh seafood including some of the best grilled calamari I’ve ever had: if you thought that squid is rubbery, this would change your mind.  We ate too much.  By the time we returned to the hotel, we had only thirty minutes to freshen up and change, heading back to the Chedi Resort for the second part of the wedding celebrations.

The bride, Kathy, and her father arrive on the back of an elephant complete with dancers and musicians.  The attracted the attention of many of the resort’s guests who, in addition to the wedding guests, had quite a few memories of this spectacular entrance.  Kathy is Tawn’s friend from Chulalongkorn University.  Kathy and Dan live in Hong Kong.

Sorry for the poor picture quality.  The service was held just before sunset with the ocean as the backdrop.  The temperatures were surprisingly cool and the clouds kept the sun from being too strong.  Then, just as they started to exchange vows, the sun dropped below the clouds, flooding Dan and Kathy with a radient light. 

After the service the guests enjoyed appetisers and drinks on the beach and the nearby lawn.  Traditional Thai music was being played and dancers performed.  As the sun set, the sky was ablaze in a glorious combination of pinks and purples – which my camera hardly does justice to – and everyone was lining up for photos with the bride and groom.

After the service, the mahout gave rides to anyone who wanted them – this was as close as Tawn wanted to get to the beautiful elephant.  After about a half-hour, the elephant was tuckered out and half-way down the beach with two of Tawn’s friends on its back, kneeled down on the sand for a rest.  We subsequently gave Eddy and Jack a hard time about being too heavy for the elephant to continue!

The reception was intimate – only about 80 guests – and was in a tent on a lawn next to the beach.  The music changed to a live jazz combo doing all of the favourite songs from the 40s and 50s from Gershwin to Porter to Arlen.  Dinner was all Thai food, with great curries, veggies, and as a highlight heaping platters of grilled seafood: rock lobsters, prawns, whole fish… it was really spectacular.  The glass tea light hurricane lamps were the thank-you gifts for the guests, sourced by our friend Ble, a local designer.  It was a lovely setting and the weather was perfect for it.

Sunday we had some free time.  Tawn and I walked to the nearest temple in the morning, since it was his birthday, to make a donation and receive a blessing.  This temple is right on the beach at Patong and was completely destroyed by the tsunami.  It has since been reconstructed, although some work in continuing. 

In the afternoon we spent more time with with Eddy, Ble, Jack and his boyfriend David.  As our flight was delayed, we had time to hang out at a resort community that has boat rides on their lagoon, then do some shopping for local Thai food products before heading to the airport.  We were spread across three different flights, ours departing the latest.  As Jack, Ble, and Eddy’s flight pushed back, there was a lovely view of the sun setting behind it into the Andaman Sea.

Tawn and I leave this afternoon for our first trip to Phuket, to attend the wedding of one of his university friends.  It should be particularly interesting as we’ve been invited to participate in the pitii rod nam – literally the ceremony of pouring water – the morning ceremony for family and close friends where monks officiate.  This is the the religious ceremony that is held in Thai culture, akin to the church ceremony in a Christian wedding.

Most guests are usually invited only to the reception, so I’m looking forward to seeing this slice of Thai culture up close.

There may not be any – or many – entries until Monday, so thank you in advance for your patience. 

Missing my International Driver License and keen to have another blog-worthy adventure, I headed down to the Thong Lor Satahnii Tamruat (Police Station).  Located way down Sukhumvit Soi 55, two Skytrain stations away, it took me about thirty minutes to get there.  I informed Tawn and my tutor of my whereabouts, so they could alert the newspapers if this farang driver was incarcerated or never heard from again. 

After quite a bit of walking – the station is much further down from the Skytrain station than I thought – I finally arrived at a squat, concrete building with a few lush trees under which a few dozen officers lounged in the shade, in front.  Thai police stations are not the epitome of modern design, nor of up-to-date interiors.  Straight out of the 60s, everything was a shade of formica, mostly dingy grey.  The only sign with an English translation was the one on the outside that said “Fines” and showed an arrow pointing indoors.

Inside, a few people were sitting around in handcuffs; another group of three were speaking with an officer.  A row of six desks, arranged to suggest a counter, were occupied by six officers all of whom appeared deeply engaged in their work.  Finally, a woman working the endmost desk finished looking at her phone and then motioned to me to come over.

My tutor suggested that I should try speaking some Thai with them, so I made the attempt.  It worked pretty well, I suppose.  The first officer looked at my ticket, then went to speak with another officer, then lead me over to another counter across the room where two matronly policewomen chatted.  There are plenty of women on the Thai police force, it seems, all located at desk jobs in the station.

The process was pretty straight forward: she retrieved a stack of driver licenses from a drawer and located mine.  She took my 400 baht and filled out a receipt.  She made small talk with me, asking me various questions such as where did I come from, how long had I been in Thailand, did I like Thailand, did I like Thai girls – to which I did my best to answer in Thai, although sometimes I would feign ignorance with some of the more pointed questions.

The most pointed of which was, “so you’re working in Thailand?”  Of course, I don’t have a work visa nor a work permit, so the correct answer is, “no.”

The almost as pointed questions was, “so you like Thai girls?” to which I responded, in Thai, “Oh, I like all Thai people; they have such good hearts.”  (A particular expression in Thai, jai dii, literally means “good heart.”)

Within five minutes our business was concluded and the officer practiced her English with a farewell greeting, “See… you… again,” to which I responded, “Let’s hope not.”

Not wanting to walk all the way back, I decided to try a form of transportation I have not yet tried: the motorcycle taxi or rot motosai.  At the mouth of each soi and at strategic points along the ways (large sub-soi, busy office buildings) there are gangs of motorcycle taxi drivers, distinguished by their Bangkok Metropolitan Authority-issued orange vest.  They wait turns to shuttle passengers on the back of their small motorbikes (scooters, usually) to and from key points along the soi. 

The routes are largely fixed, I can go up and down the soi and to sub-soi along the way, but cannot cross to the other side of Sukhumvit, for example.  Prices depend on distance and are usually fixed at 10-20 baht one way.

The danger of riding motorcycle taxis is difficult to exaggerate:

For each trip they make, there is a different center of gravity depending on the size of the passenger; they weave between cars and oncoming traffic; and the mandatory helmet that is provided (usually in a basket on the front of the motosai) is either too small or is so flimsy it would offer no protection.  So you sit on the back, one hand clutching your bag, the other clutching the handle at the back of the seat: two minutes of adrenaline as you make your way to the Skytrain station where you are deposited, hopefully in one piece.  You pay your baht and then walk away, heart still beating fast.

Pity the poor women in skirts and dresses who have to ride sidesaddle!

Wednesday, Tod joined me for the second time to teach down at the school in Bangkhonthii.  This is good not only because the students like him (heard last week: Phom khittung khruu Kobfa – “I miss Teacher Tod.”) and he provides helpful translations when I’m explaining more complex concepts, but also because he’s just a pleasant person to have with you on an adventure.  This week had a few adventures, mostly of the “Wild Animal Kingdom” variety.

Right: A student leads a game of Bingo, writing words on the board for everyone to read.

The electricity is back on and the fans are working in Bangkhonthii.  The number of functioning dry erase markers is on a precipitous decline so a trip to the office supply store to supplement their ranks will be necessary before next week.  The older children completed their “All About Me” project, which has lasted a few weeks.  The end result: a bulletin board full of mini-resumes with full-colour pictures, names, ages, and favourite fruits, animals, colours, and body parts. 

The younger children were admiring the board after school, asking when they would get to do the same project.  “In a few weeks,” I said, adding to myself, “when you learn what the words “animal,” “fruit,” and “colour” mean!”

Left: Admiring the “All About Me” project done by the older students (grades 4-6 combined), the younger students (grades 1-3 combined) ask when they will be able to do the project, too.

There are usually one or two dogs from the nearby houses who hang around the school.  They are friendly and generally patient with the tremendous abuse suffered on them by the students, especially the boys.  Today there were another half-dozen dogs there with non-stop turf wars, growling, barking, and since at least some of the dogs were in heat, pro-creating.

Warning: This next part gets a bit graphic; delicate readers may choose to skip it.

While working in groups – Tod worked with half of the students, I took the other half to sit on the porch and review sentence grammar – one of the male dogs came up and sniffed around.  One student was petting him, and the other students became quite talkative when they noticed the dog’s prominently erect penis, which seemed to be dripping blood.  Nice.  Some students thought this was quite intersting; others scooted away trying to get as far from the dog as possilbe.  I tried to shoo the dog away so we could get focused.

Later in the afternoon, the students having way too much restless energy, we went out to the playground.  One of my favourite games – it burns up energy very effectively – is to draw pictures of different fruits using sidewalk chalk, with their names written in English – then have races where participants from three teams run across the playground to locate the fruit whose name I’ve called out. 

When this proved to be lopsided in favour of one team, I changed the game and had all the boys work in one group and girls in another.  Then we had the individual groups run from fruit to fruit, Tod and I trying to coordinate so their paths didn’t cross.  It is funny to watch the herd behavior: if one person who is regarded as a leader starts to head in one direction – even if it is wrong.  When it is determined that this person is wrong everyone else will turn towards the next presumed leader, following like a flock of birds.

More graphic material

While we were out there, the pack of dogs wandered up and the drippy male dog proceeded to mount one of the female dogs who usually stays around the school and have sex.  This was like some National Geogrpahic episode, except we were right there as were two dozen screaming, yelling, “eeew-ing” Thai children.  I and another teacher tried to clear them out, coitus interruptus being an appropriate response to recess interuptus.  

The attention of the students was easily redirected when I told them to go back to the classroom so we could play bingo.  “Biiiiiiinnnnnggggooooo!” and they’re off. 

More Photos

A day at Bangkhonthii School isn’t complete without taking photos.  The teachers regularly are snapping pictures – in fact, I should get the digital files for some of them as there are few pictures I’ve posted of me teaching – and of course I carry my camera to capture whatever interesting moments occur.  The students are such hams, though, that they are excited anytime they can get photographed.

Clockwise from top left: Tod helps the children play Bingo – “Does everyone see “chin” on their card?”  Afternoon session of badminton among the older girls, using a rope tied to the flag pole as a net.  A “bright” student.  Younger children make rabbit ears after class is over.

Also on Wednesday, Ajarn Yai plied as much of a guilt trip as she could on me, since I had failed to show up on Monday for a major community event.  She told Tod how many parents, monks, and other important people had showed up, looking forward to meeting me.  For my part, I brought a large basket of expensive imported Washington apples and California oranges for her and the other teachers.  Tawn assures me that Thais have short memories on things like this.

First, let me clarify: there is no sign anywhere near my apartment indicating that right turns are illegal during commute hours.

So when I was trying to make a right turn into my apartment on Tuesday afternoon at about 3:30, I was suprised when a khon tamruat (police officer) pulled up along side me, shook his head, and indicated that I should continue driving onwards.

Confused, since I and hundreds of others of people make that turn all the time, I assumed he just didn’t want me blocking traffic there.  So I drove further down the road.  Considering my options for making a U-turn, the closest location with a dedicated u-turn was about 1.5 km down the road (about 1 mile) – through heavy traffic and two major intersections.

This didn’t make a lot of sense to me, so about 200 meters down the road I saw a break in the oncoming traffic so made a right turn into the Q House office complex.  Upon later research, there is a small sign on the left-hand side of the road nearby indicating no right turns during rush hours.

The police officer, keeping an eye on me, drove down to the parking lot and pulled me over.  In his limited English, he told me that there was a sign saying no right turn.  So I asked where I was supposed to make a U-turn if I couldn’t turn right.  “There’s a sign.  No turn,” was his response.

The normal practice when you’re pulled over by a low-paid police officer is to give him your “Thailand Driver License” – a 100-baht bill folded and discreetly placed behind your regular driver’s license.  Since I’d like Thailand to make it to the rank of first world nations one of these years, I’ve decided that I’m not going to support that practice.  So I gave him my International Driver’s License (available for $10 at the American Automobile Association, $15 non-members) and my California Driver’s License.  He didn’t seem interested in the California license so took the IDL instead.

He asked me whether I read Thai (I said no – speaking English the whole time) and then wrote me a 400-baht ticket, explaining (kind of) that I had to go to the Thong Lor police station to pay the fine and retrieve my license.

So I have had my first experience being pulled over.  I’ll go to the police station today or tomorrow and retrieve my license and report on that experience.  I’m going to demand a signed and dated receipt for my fine, though.  Not going to pay money into the deep pockets of the police chief.

Aida

Date: Tue 12 and Wed 13 September, 2006
Performed by: National Opera House of Belarus
Composer: Guiseppe Verdi
Conductor: Andrei Galanov

One of Guiseppe Verdi’s most famous operas, Aida is based on the French prose of Camille du Locle, with a scenario by Auguste Mariette. This opera in four acts has a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. The opera first premiered at the Cairo Opera House, on 24 December, 1871 and was born of the desire of the Khedive of Egypt for an opera that echoed Egypt’s ancient past.

Today, Monday, I was invited to take a trip out to the school in Bangkhonthii for a special event that they were having.  A senior monk was coming to the school to instruct the students on the Dharma, or teachings of Buddhism. 

The ajarn yai (Principal) thought this would be very interesting for me and told me I should come out to see it.  I told her that I would make a point of being there.  The last time we spoke about it was two weeks ago, as she wasn’t there last week when I was teaching.

Last night as I was going to bed, I had my alarm set early so I could drive down to Bangkhonthii.  But I was feeling like the amount of work on my plate was too much to justify being down there twice this week.  When I went to bed, I made a note that I’d send ajarn yai a text message in the morning letting her know I wouldn’t make it.

Of course, come this morning I forgot about sending the text message.  Actually, honestly, I did remember but chose not to send it at 7:00.  By the time I remembered again, about 8:30, I figured that school was already getting underway so it was too late to bother sending the message.  At the back of my head, something told me that I probably should go ahead and send it, but I dismissed that voice.

About 10:30 I received a call from ajarn yai, wondering where I was.  If I understood her correctly, and perhaps I didn’t as her English is about as good as my Thai, but they had been waiting for me!  Yikes!

I apologized and said I would not be making it because of the work I had and assured her I would be there to teach on Wednesday.  Her response was a very Thai, “oh, mai pen rai” (“not a problem”) but it didn’t sound like that was exactly what she was thinking.

So now I feel bad that I didn’t let her know if advance.  Hopefully they weren’t literally waiting for me… that would do wonders to create a bad impression.  We’ll see on Wednesday.  Perhaps Emily Post has a suggestion for how I should handle the situation now?  Flowers?  Cookies?

Another extraordinarily busy weekend centered around the plans for a surprise birthday party for Tawn, scheduled for Sunday evening.  You know how these types of events become all-consuming, making them even more difficult to keep hidden from the guest of honor.

Last weekend we had dinner with a group of Tawn’s friends at Basillico on Sukhumvit Soi 33, and Tawn mentioned his upcoming birthday.  Since one of that group of friends is having her wedding in Phuket the weekend of Tawn’s birthday, it seemed that we would not have an opportunity to celebrate until the week afterwards.

While Tawn went outside to help Pim’s husband with a mechanical issue on his car (moral support, not technical), I proposed to Tawn’s friends that we have a surprise party for him this Sunday evening.  Everyone agreed, and Dao offered to help me with the logistics.  Since she works the next building over from our apartment, we met on Monday afternoon at Starbucks to hammer out the details.

As all the arrangements came together – invitations, reservations, cake – the one piece that was missing was the reason to get Tawn to the restaurant on Sunday evening.  This was compounded by a number of factors:

• Tawn had visited his parents the day before and felt like he was coming down with the cold that they both had;
• We had a farewell lunch Sunday afternoon at The Deck for Detlev, Markus’ cousin who had been visiting for three weeks; and
• We’ve been eating out a lot recently, so another trip to a nice restaurant would seem excessive.

Trying to figure out what was the least likely way to raise suspiciouns while getting Tawn to Pan Pan restaurant, I text messaged Tod and asked him to call Tawn Sunday morning and suggest dinner.  It was still on the edge since Tawn was feeling under the weather, but when he asked if I thought we should go, I insisted it would be fun.

We returned home about 3:30 Sunday afternoon after a long, liesurely lunch at The Deck, overlooking Wat Arun on the banks of the Chao Praya River.  Tawn took a nap and then, at my suggestion, did a half hour of yoga to help stimulate his immune system and help him get over his cold.

At about 6:50 Tawn called out from the shower and asked me to call Tod to confirm which location of the restaurant we were meeting at.  The timing was good because everyone was told to be at the restaurant by 7:00 and I asked Tod to suggest 7:30 as a dinner time so we’d arrive after everyone was there.  So I placed a faux call to Tod, pretending to have a conversation with him.

“Yes, oh you’re already nearby?  Yeah, I think we could get there earlier…. hang on… Tawn, Tod’s already near the restaurant, do you think we could make it there a bit earlier?  Yes?  Okay…”

So we arrived at the restaurant at about 7:15 and Tawn walked upstairs to the second floor and saw Markus and Tam and then saw they were sitting at a large table with most of his other friends.  Shock.  Surprise.  Then, “I didn’t dress appropriately for this occassion!”

Pictures from the event:

From left to right: Dao, Sa, Job, Pim, Arm, Pune, Tawn, Tod, Tam, Markus, David, Jack, Ble, Eddy, and Ja (barely in the picture)

From left to right: David, Jack, Chris, and Tawn as Tawn blows out his candles.  Tawn, Ble, and Eddy with a nice candle holder.  Tawn, Sa and Job – they are getting married in December.  Jack and Tawn laugh at what Tawn first thought was an oven mit, but turns out to be a body scrub glove. 

Chris, Tawn, Markus, Pune and Tam with their birthday gift to Tawn, a handmade vase from one of their friend’s shops at Jatujak Market.

When we arrived home, the first birthday card of the year was waiting, one from my parents.

Happy birthday Tawn!

In my first few months living here, I drew the conclusion that Khrungthep did not have much of an arts scene.  Now with nearly a year’s experience, I have erased and redrawn a different conclusion: there is a notable arts scene, although it is less supported and accessible to locals than it could be.

One of the showcase events is the month-long Bangkok International Festival of Dance and Music, now in its eighth year.  This year in celebration of the King’s 60th Anniversary on the Throne, part of the festival was held in June.  There are a few dozen different events, five of which we will attend:

The Nutcracker

Date: Sat 9 and Sun 10 September, 2006
Performed by: Belarussian National Ballet Theatre

We arrived for our first in a series of events at this year’s Bangkok International Festival of Dance and Music, excited to see a full audience composed of an unusually high number of Thais and – particularly impressive – ten to fifteen percent of them were children!  Mostly young girls, along with some boys, I was very happy that the event was not only receiving more support from the local population but that they are exposing their children to the performing arts.

Without a doubt, the girls were all ballet students: some were dressed up in outfits perhaps chosen for their “princess and fairy tale” theme; others pirouetted and jetéed about.

Also adding to the evening’s excitement was the presence of Her Royal Highness, Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajnagarindra.  The Princess, the King’s older sister, is in her early eighties and has long been the designated patron of the classical arts.  A box was set aside for her at the front-center of the first balcony, a lovely chair with a side table and individual trash can placed a lonely distance away from everyone else on a red-carpetted, raised dais.

Shortly before the performance commenced, the audience stood and the Princess’ royal anthem was played.  She was escorted in and at the conclusion of the anthem, was seated.  At the conlcusion of the show – although not also at the interval as I had expected – the King’s anthem was played, followed by the Princess’ as she made her way out of the building.

And the show, the show, the show… it was really fantastic.  The Belarussian National Ballet and the Belarus Opera Symphony Orchestra are both world-class.  The choreography was beautifully creative and the audience was enraptured, most of all the young boys and girls in attendance.

We look forward to the continuation of the series this Wednesday. 

Aida

Date: Tue 12 and Wed 13 September, 2006
Performed by: National Opera House of Belarus

Inaki Urlezaga Tango Group, Argentina

Date: Friday 29 September, 2006

Ramayana by Kalakshetra Theatre, India

Date: Sun 1 October, 2006

Carmen

Date: Fri 6 and Sat 7 October, 2006
Performed By: Aida Gomez Flamenco Ballet, Spain