Dear Editor: Was that an Ad or an Article?

Posted on 29 January 2009 by christao408

The Nation is one of Krungthep’s two English-language papers. A year ago, the paper refashioned itself as a primarily business focused paper, separating the arts, lifestyle, entertainment and sports sections into a separate free paper called the Daily Xpress. The Daily Xpress is included in my subscription copy of The Nation and is also distributed free throughout the city.

Ever since that reorganization, I’ve been pretty disappointed by the lack of depth in The Nation’s reporting. It has gone from my favorite Krungthep newspaper to my least-favorite (out of two!) as “News McNuggets”, advertorials and cut-and-paste news lifted verbatim from press releases replaces investigative journalism and objectivity.

Each Thursday in Daily Xpress a page is dedicated to health news. One of the columns “Ask the Pros”, written by Khun Sirinya, purports to answer readers’ questions about health, tapping the expertise of professionals in fields related to the questions.

From the January 15th column:

Does a colon flush really work?

[“Letter” from unnamed reader]

I’ve been hearing about detoxification a lot lately. One method is colonic irrigation, also known as colon hydrotherapy, and I wonder what it really is. Why do people go for colon hydrotherapy?

[Answer from “pro” Dr. Pakpilai Thavisin, MD, the president and founder of S Medical Spa.]

Colonic irrigation is an efficient and safe way to remove toxic debris from the digestive system, thus restoring its normal functions and regularity. It’s a treatment that’s been around for more than 3,000 years, beginning with the sue of a saline solution to rid the large intestine of bacteria.
People these days ingest more toxins because of the kinds of foods we eat, from smoked and grilled meats to dairy products, sugar and alcohol.
The accumulation of toxic debris along the walls of the intestines weakens the digestive system. It can’t absorb nutrients as well, and the resulting imbalance stymies the immune system.
Eating too many dairy products and too much sugar encourages the growth of yeast, which can cause problems such as dandruff and acne.
Colon hydrotherapy helps clean up acne, since the yeast overgrowth in the intestinal walls is removed. The complexion improves overall, and allergies can be cured.
Colon hyrdotherapy is also one of the safest and most effective ways to lose weight. It’s best to undergo the therapy under the supervision of a doctor and registered nurse.

Reading this, I was a bit concerned about the impartiality of Dr. Pakpilai’s opinion. I don’t doubt her medical expertise, but given that her claims about the efficacy of colon hydrotherapy are widely debated and that she is the founder and president of a “medical spa” that provides colon hydrotherapy as one of its primary services, it seemed to me that she was in a pretty biased position to offer unbiased opinion.

So I wrote a letter to Khun Sirinya and The Nation’s editor. An email exchange ensued and when I opened the January 29th edition of Daily Xpress, I saw the following:

From the January 29th column – portions in brackets are part of my original letter that they edited out of the column:

Clonic sceptic flushed out

Dear Editor,
Regarding the “Ask the Pros” column published on Thursday, January 15 in Daily Express, how can Dr. Pakpilai Thavisin, president and founder of S Medical Spa, be considered an unbiased professional to answer the question of the safety and efficacy of colon hydrotherapy?
Her spa specifically provides that service, so her opinions on the subject are heavily biased because she and her company stand to profit from a positive answer.
The claims she makes[, including that colon hydrotherapy is one of the safest and most effective ways to lose weight,] are greatly disputed within the medical and scientific communities. [Most importantly, though, is that even if her claims were not in dispute, she is still not an unbiased professional.
This is an unacceptable practice which I’ve observed The Nation engages in all too often: passing off advertorials as legitimate, unbiased journalism. As a reader and as a subscriber, I expect higher levels of journalistic integrity from my news sources.]
Chris Schultz
Bangkok

[Dr. Pakpilai Thavisin, MD, the president and founder of S Medical Spa, provided the following response.]

Dear Chris,
I write from my own experiences using colon hydrotherapy and am sorry to hear you think my opinion biased.
I would point out the S Medical Spa is not the only company offering colon hydrotherapy in Thailand and we don’t profit from recommending the treatment if a consumer decided to go elsewhere.
Colon irrigation is, in my experience, an effective way of treating skin conditions like eczema. Along with adjustments to the patient’s diet, it can cut the accumulation of toxins in the bowel that seem to be a factor in eczema attacks.
Best regards,
Dr. Pakpilai Thavisin

So, dear readers, let me ask you: Were my original concerns of bias justified? Did Dr. Pakpilai’s response satisfy those concerns?

Rituals Make a Home

Posted on 24 January 2009 by christao408

Part of what makes a place feel like a home is the rituals you create. For example, when I move into a new place, it isn’t until I’ve cooked there several times that I begin to feel like I belong in the space. Along the same lines, it takes time to create routines and rituals around other things such as your morning or preparing for bed.

Most mornings, I wake up an hour or two before Tawn, even on weekdays. This gives me some quiet time to check personal email, update my blog and read subscriptions, and scan the news headlines from around the world. The soi is quiet and once the mosquitos have gone away, I open the windows, turn on a fan if necessary, and enjoy the morning.

Something I like about this morning ritual is that it gives me a chance to notice the weather here and how it really does change from day to day and season to season. In the middle of the day, beneath the shining sun in a hazy sky, the weather seems monotonous.

But in the mornings, I can see the difference. Is the breeze still or does the wind blow? Is the sky clear or overcast? Can I feel a hint of coolness in the air or does yesterday’s heat still remain?

This morning, for example, we had something unusual: fog. Not the usually smoggy haze but true, San Francicso style fog. Tall buildings a block or two away were absent from my view and the top of the adjacent condominium tower was flirting with invisibility.

The only difference was that, unlike fog in Baghdad by the Bay which can chill you to the bone, the Big Mango’s fog is warm and still, muffling the city in its heavy embrace.

Driving to the airport this morning to meet Mario and John for breakfast – they transitted overnight at the airport hotel on their way to Vietnam from Chicago – we were amazed at how thick the fog was. The expressway seemed to float in a cloud, nothing by the immediately adjacent trees visible to us as we sped east to Suvarnabhumi.

Part of my morning ritual is coffee. Not so much the caffeine, but the process of preparing it. On weekdays, I’ll go in and wake Tawn up about seven-thirty, opening the curtains and putting on a jazz CD or, if the day requires, something a bit more up-tempo. Then, while he slowly ascends to consciousness, I go to the kitchen and turn on the espresso machine.

First, I prime the pump, running water through the steam wand and then through the brew head. Next, I warm the cappuccino cups then grind and measure out the espresso beans. While the steam pressure builds, I start a pan of oatmeal warming on the stove, choosing different dried fruits each day to add some variety to our breakfast.

The newspaper is usually slid under our front door by this point, so I bring it in, scanning the headlines: Have we had another coup or not?

By this point the machine is ready for me to froth the milk, a feat that requires my meditative attention each day. Some days, despite my best effort, I end up with a messy foam with huge bubbles – too much air for my liking. Other days, though, I find my sweet spot and am able to steam the milk into a thick, velvety, meringue-like froth.

Carefully cleaning the steamed milk from the wand – once it dries on it is difficult to remove – I proceed to draw two one-ounce shots of espresso, counting the time to make sure that it takes between eight and ten seconds to pull the shot.

When it is too quick or too slow, I make a mental note for the next day: grind the beans more finely, tamp the grounds a litle less. Each day, a lesson to learn to help me improve the next day.

Finally, it all comes together: espresso, a pinch or sugar, steamed milk, a cap of foam, and a dash of cinnamon. By now Tawn is out of bed and sitting on the sofa in the office, a blanket around his legs and reading the newspaper. I bring in his coffee; another morning’s ritual is complete.

Eating at the Chia Tai Agricultural Fair

Posted on 22 January 2009 by christao408

It isn’t enough to just go and see the fruits and vegetables being grown in the Chia Tai demonstration gardens. You have to eat them, too!

It turns out that they weren’t too happy when I attempted to pull a carrot out of the ground and see how it tasted. Instead, security suggested I head over to the food tents to satisfy any hunger pangs.

Sure enough, amidst the rows and rows of processed foods manufactured and sold by parent company CP Foods (they audaciously sell their label of frozen entrees called CP Fresh Mart, which you could select from a freezer case then they would microwave them for you on the spot – not a hundred steps away from acres and acres of fresh produce!), there was actually a few stalls selling freshly-prepared food items.

I counted three items for sale made from (presumably) local produce: steamed pumpkin buns, pumpkin donuts, and steamed corn on the cob.

The pumpkin buns, made from a yeast dough in a process described in the video below, were light and tasty and I could have easily eaten a dozen of them. The pumpkin donuts, below, were even more amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever had a lighter, less oily donut. Krispy Kreme take note!

Here’s a two-minute video that will tell you all about it.

Hope you enjoy.

Trip to Chia Tai Agricultural Fair

Posted on 21 January 2009 by christao408

Last Saturday Tawn and I made a trip up to Kanchanaburi province to attend an agricultural fair. Kanchanaburi is about 150 km northwest of Khrungthep – roughly a two and a half hour drive if you include a stop to stretch your legs.

Kanchanaburi is one of the largest provinces in the kingdom. Nestled along the border with Myanmar, the province is mountainous and is home to the famous “bridge over the River Kwai“, part of a 400 km railway built by the Japanese Empire during World War II using POWs and conscripted Asian laborers at the cost of more than a hundred thousand of lives.

Two interesting notes about the bridge over the River Kwai:

First, the movie starring Alec Guinness was an awful bastardization of history. A much more accurate telling of the story and glimpse of the person played by Guinness can be had by reading Peter Davies’ 1991 book The Man Behind The Bridge: Colonel Toosey and the River Kwai.

Second, the Anglicization of the name of the river (“Kwai”) is terrible, too. The Thai name rhymes with “way” not “why”. Make note of that next time you’re talking with friends about this topic. You’ll be certain to come across as a know-it-all.

Trivial tidbits aside, we arrived at the Chia Tai test gardens just outside Kanchanaburi town in marvelous time, among the first few hundred people to carve parking spaces out of the dirt shoulders of the two lane highway 323.

Sponsored by Chia Tai, the largest producer of seeds in Thailand and a part of the CP Foods conglomerate, the fair is a biennial opportunity to open the test gardens’ gates and let the public explore many of the four hundred different types of fruits, vegetables and flowers that Chia Tai sells seeds for.

With the still cool (relatively) winter weather, some twenty thousand visitors come each weekend day to explore the vast gardens, pavilions and greenhouses, taking pictures, admiring many unfamiliar varieties, seeing demonstrations, signing up for “harvest your own” tours of the gardens, and buying seeds and fresh produce for their own consumption.

There were plenty of families enjoying the fair and a good number of students running around with workbooks, completing homework assignments. These two boys (left) were charged with writing down as many different types of fruits and vegetables as they could find.

By the time we found them, they looked to have already found more than two dozen different varieties, all of which seemed to have grown to gargantuan size. Maybe this was just a matter of the rich volcanic soil of the province, maybe they had been allowed to grow past the normal point of maturity, or maybe there was just a lot of nitrogen-rich fertilizer in the soil – who knows? But the gardens will certainly lush.

Above, Tawn tries his hat on one of the head-sized hanging gourds. Above that, an homage to the River Kwai railroad, replete with a cargo of fresh vegetables.

A row of greenhouses was open for inspection. Unlike most greenhouses I’m familiar with, which are designed to keep temperatures warmer, these had the opposite purpose: to cool the vegetables. A huge radiator was built into one end of the buildings with water circulating down corrugated metal fins. At the other end of the greenhouses were large fans, sucking air from the north side of the building, through the radiator and then out the south side.

Needless to say, the greenhouses were quite popular with the crowd as even though it was winter, standing out in the midday sun was still pretty warm. Left, two children pose with some of the “wart” covered gourds.

The greenhouses were each dedicated to a different type of vegetable or fruit: melons in one, gourds in a another, pumpkins in a third. The pumpkin greenhouse had an interesting range of colors and shapes.

In the watermelon greenhouse, there was a large display educating visitors about the development cycle of watermelons. In addition to a half-dozen different varieties of watermelon, we were told in no uncertain terms:

“Please read this… read then have understanding. We do not use GMO [genetically modified organisms]. We do not have anything dangerous.”

They read my mind. I’m inherently suspicious of food conglomerates (and pretty much any other sort of conglomerate) as I think their mission is more about profits, efficiency and productivity over biodiversity and food safety. But who can argue with such a frank statement as the one printed above?

In one of the educational halls, though, I found this exhibit about the different types of fertilizers Chia Tai sells. It seemed to confirm my fears: grow monocultures on your farms and slowly deplete the natural health of your soil, ensuring you grow dependent on the use of our fertilizers.

The general public, home gardeners, were not the target audience for the agricultural fair. We saw busloads and busloads of people arriving from around the Kingdom: farmers, agricultural cooperatives, students studying land management and agriculture from various technical schools and universities, and development organizations such as the Population and Community Development Association, for which Tawn’s father has worked for many years.

The buses are worth mentioning. They are decked out in all sorts of wild paint schemes, blaring with music, lacking proper air conditioning – karaoke parlors on wheels. And they arrived, one after the other, from all corners of the country.

It is easy to be skeptical about Chia Tai’s intentions. But as I looked around the test gardens, I saw many varieties of vegetables and fruits that are not normally available at the corner market. Certainly, no heirloom tomatoes to be found, but enough varieties of other fruits and vegetables to encourage farmers to expand the diversity of what they grow, to develop new markets and pique the Thai consumers’ interest in new and different fresh foods.

This being Thailand, there was plenty of fun to be had. Not only nonstop blaring announcements and music, but raffles, games of skills and chance, picture taking opportunities, heart-shaped watermelons (grown in a box) and vegetable carving galore.

Vegetable carving is actually a traditional Thai craft. Here it was taken in some unusual directions. Funny note about the penguin playing football, below. A mother brought her toddler over to see the carvings and said, in Thai, “Look, a football.” The toddler then promptly kicked the “ball” and it rolled away. The shocked mother promptly scolded her child, “No, no, it isn’t a real football!” Poor child – probably wishes mum would make up her mind.

And, since this is Thailand, of course we had the requisite “We Love the King” carving:

We had seen all we needed to see by lunchtime and after having some food – more on that in another entry – we bought some souvenir melons and then turned the car’s nose back towards the City of Angels.

Here’s a 4-minute story about the trip. I hope you enjoy it.

A visit from the country mice

Posted on 14 January 2009 by christao408

Another first: Ajarn Yai, the retired director of the country school where I used to volunteer as an English teacher, came to the big city to visit me. For more than a year, she has said she would come see our new house. But I was actually surprised when she called last week to tell me that she and another retired teacher from the school would visit on Monday.

With the worry that most people save for visiting in-laws, I tidied up the house, prepared some small snacks and brewed both iced and hot tea. It took several phone calls to clarify driving directions and I finally had to wait downstairs to wave my arms when they drove down the street.

In the back of her former student’s pickup truck (he had agreed to drive her) were gifts for me and Tawn: two dozen coconuts and a dozen large bags of palm sugar made on the student’s plantation. Additionally, she had a large bag of a local snack mix that includes tiny dried fish, rice crackers and peas.

The visit was interesting: I showed them around the condo, which Ajarn Yai pronounced beautiful but then went on and on about how it must be so expensive. Houses in her town are much less expensive, of course. Houses in her town are also at the end of an unpaved trail behind a temple, several kilometers from the town itself.

I served tea, invited my guests to sample the different snacks, and tried to carry the conversation mostly in Thai. The other teacher and the driver sat on the sofa much in the same way you might sit on your Victorian Aunt Millie’s lace doily lined sofa: musn’t muss things up! The atmosphere felt kind of stilted and I never was able to convince anyone to snack, although they liked the tea.

After a few minutes, Ken arrived, which livened things up considerably.

We headed to lunch at a local Thai restaurant. I had originally thought it might be nice to take them for Japanese or Italian, but am glad I didn’t as that would have been a fish way too far out of water.

At the restaurant, everyone had menus but deferred to me – the farang and the youngest at the table – to order. I tried to see what everyone would like or if there was anything catching their interest, but kept being deferred to.

I ordered as best I could, trying to remember what Tawn has taught me about creating the proper balance of Thai dishes. When the food arrived, which was delicious and plentiful, the Thais ate with uncharacteristic timidity. Normally, when I eat with the teachers at a restaurant in Samut Songkhram, appetites are hearty and people serve others and themselves, eating with gusto.

Monday afternoon, however, it was a very “refined” dining experience. They seemed to enjoy the food and ate plenty in the end, though. I tried to engage the other teacher in conversation, but she wasn’t very responsive. Ajarn Yai did relax a bit and we ended up having a good conversation, mixing Thai and English and translating for Ken as necessary.

Tawn laughed when I told him about the experience. He explained that both the other teacher and the former student were there to make sure Ajarn Yai had a good time; it was her trip, after all. So he wasn’t surprised they were so quiet and kind of “melted” into the background. He also pointed out that the restaurant, which I consider to be just a mid-range restaurant, would be very high end by their standards. So their “discomfort” was the same thing I might exhibit when I go walking in to the fancy home of some friend’s well-off parents.

All in all, though, it was a nice visit and I’m glad she made the effort. Ajarn Yai still harangues me about taking her to the United States. Maybe one day. If she felt out of water just on this short visit to see me in Krungthep, imagine if we were in the US.

Temps Hit Nine-Year Low

Posted on 12 January 2009 by christao408

As much as you folks in the further reaches of the Northern hemisphere may scoff at it, Thailand has been in the grip of a high pressure trough which has dropped down from China, bringing with it the chilly Siberian air.

Temperatures Sunday night hit an nine-year low in Khrungthep: 15 C / 59 F. The last time we were colder was on Christmas Day 1999: 13.2 C / 56 F while the coldest I could find on record was January 12, 1955 at 10 C / 50 F.

“Oh, that’s nothing!” scoffed one of Tawn’s former colleagues, a British expat still living in our tropical paradise. “Thais don’t know what cold weather really is!”

Put it into perspective, though. Our average low temperature in December and January is 21 C / 70 F. So we’re significantly cooler than the norms and much cooler than I’ve experienced since I moved here in October 2005. People aren’t used to this and even I closed the windows today for fear I would catch a chill from the cross-ventilation.

Tawn even reported that one rider on the SkyTrain was wearing earmuffs, although that may be just because the air con is often quite cool on the train. We would see this at the cinemas, too, but then the digital sound (which is cranked up to 10, by the way) would be muffled.

In Loei province, in the more mountainous north, the overnight low was 2 C / 36 F. Provincial governors have been coordinating the emergency distribution of blankets.

And last night a monk in his 70s died from exposure in Ayutthaya, about ninety minutes by car north of Khrungthep. He had only a knit cap and a jacket to add warmth to his robes, and was discovered in his cell by other monks when he failed to show up for the early morning alms collection rounds.

Speaking of knit caps and jackets, Tawn has dug deep into his closet and is enjoying this opportunity to layer and dress in a more wintry fashion. Above, a wool vest purchased at Macy’s while in the US. Below, an ascot and sportscoat keeps Tawn warm while enjoying his morning oatmeal on our balcony.

Oatmeal isn’t the only cozy food we’re eating. Last night I heated up the Dutch oven and cooked some split pea soup. I’m perusing other hearty recipes that will help us get past this cold front until the warmer days of the hot season return. Tis the season for braising!

Lea Loses Her Glass Slipper

Posted on 17 December 2008 by christao408

Vacation starts tomorrow. It is nearly 9 pm and I haven’t yet started packing. “Why not?” asked Tawn when he called from work two hours ago. Well, there’s been a lot to do. I already know what I’m going to bring so I don’t feel like I need to pack before getting done some other priorities, like work.

Besides, our flight tomorrow isn’t until 5 pm so I have plenty of time. Right?

Last night we attended the opening night of Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Lea Salonga. This is the stage version of the 1957 television special that R&H wrote specifically for Julie Andrews. There are a couple of numbers that you can tell were written for her.

Befitting an opening night, the Muangthai Ratchadalai Theatre was packed with celebrities and members of high society. The lobby had no shortage of TV cameras and paparazzi interviewing people and taking their pictures as they arrived in their fabulous gowns, etc. Strangely, they did not stop me and Tawn. Hmmm…

Compared with some of the other R&H musicals (think “South Pacific”, “The Sound of Music”, “Oklahoma” and “The King and I” – but if you’re in Thailand where the last show is banned, don’t think of it), Cinderella doesn’t deliver too many catchy tunes. “In My Own Little Corner” and “A Lovely Night” are probably the only two I could hum right now.

Despite horrid over-amplification (the technical aspects of stagecraft are still a bit crude here), Salonga’s voice was beautiful. She really is an amazing singer and able to deliver so much to a character. If you haven’t seen her, get on over to Singapore where the show will run from January 2-22.

Interesting spirit house, right. The Ratchadalai Theatre is part of the Esplanade “Arte-tainment” complex on Ratchadapisek Road.

Out back there are several night clubs. The spirit house for these night clubs is a bit unusual: the statue is the form of a dancer. In front are the words for the Hare Krishna chant, in both Thai and English:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama
Rama Rama, Hare Hare

I’m thinking that maybe I should do a coffee table book of the interesting spirit houses in Thailand. What do you think?

I work from home. This can be nice except when there’s construction work going on.

Currently, four units in the complex are under renovation including the one directly below us. I have some audio postcards I’m going to share with you one of these days so you can hear my pain.

But this week I got to enjoy a new distraction. The planters next to the swimming pool shower were emptied, cleaned, and sealed as there has been a leak into the car park below. So for two days while the layers of sealant were applied, I was catching these whiffs of incredibly toxic smelling industrial adhesive.

I’m not sure whether I suffered any brain damage or not, but I started feeling really good…

Finally, just in case you didn’t believe my previous post about Christmas being celebrated here in the Big Mango, here’s what’s displayed outside Ploenchit Center.

Yes, it is a giant Starbucks coffee cup. The triple-venti. Actually, it is a book collection point as part of a charity drive they are doing. Pretty nifty idea, although I’m curious if there’s even a dozen books in that cup. One of these things that works were as a PR stunt but who knows whether the impact would have been greater if they had just taken the money on the display and used it to buy books for children instead.

But then they wouldn’t have received any publicity in my blog. Or anywhere else, for that matter.

There will probably be a few days where I don’t have any posts as I transit through Taipei with Tawn and across the Pacific Ocean. Enjoy your final weekend before Christmas and try to make time for yourself and your loved ones. Shopping, wrapping, decorating and cooking are much less important than enjoying the company of those close to you.

Merry Jolly Mango Christmas

Posted on 15 December 2008 by christao408

As you peruse these pictures and two-minute video of the holiday decorations around town, just keep repeating this mantra to yourself:

“It’s a predominately Buddhist nation… It’s a predominately Buddhist nation…”

Sure, you may find that really hard to believe given the huge quantity of Christmas ornamentation, but that’s just as much a testament to the commercialisation of Christmas than any conversion of the Thai populace to a new faith.

Above, the Central Chidlom department store on Phloenchit Road. Below, Central World Plaza on the corner of Rama I and Ratchaprop Roads.

Here’s a little video, set to cheerful music by Nat King Cole, to help you enjoy the sights of the season here in the wintry Big Mango:

And the goose is getting fat…

Posted on 7 December 2008 by christao408

Is there any doubt that the holidays are just around the corner? All over the Big Mango we’re seeing signs of the holidays:

Twinkling lights, which are already popular here, are in even greater abundance.

Gift baskets, the staple of New Year’s greetings especially in business, are being put together, cellophane wrapped and set out for sale. (Below left)

And the random ornament displays have been set out, including this huge deer head with psychedelic antlers which we spotted at the J Avenue “lifestyle shopping centre” on Soi Thong Lor. (Below Right)

Everywhere we go, Christmas music is playing. It is very festive and not just a little strange, considering that Christians make up less than one percent of this country’s population.

But here’s the deal: Buddhism doesn’t have any catchy holiday carols. Sure, there’s the chanting, but where are the Wan Makha Bucha carols? Sadly, there aren’t any.

We’re preparing for our sixteen day trip in the United States, for which we depart a week from Thursday. So much to be done beforehand and we have several projects that we would like to wrap up before that departure.

We’ll see. If there’s anything I’ve learned in Thailand, it is to not get my heart set on having something done by a particular date.

Happy Birthday to His Majesty

Posted on 4 December 2008 by christao408

Today is the 81st birthday of His Majesty the King of Thailand, Buhmibol Adulyadej. Born in 1927 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, HMTK has reigned over the Kingdom of Thailand for more than 62 years, making him the longest-reigning current monarch in the world.

Those of you who haven’t been to Thailand may have a difficult time fully appreciating the level of respect Thais have for their fatherly monarch. His image appears on all the currency, there are portraits of the King and the Queen in almost every home and business, and the royal anthem is played before movies and all performances.

Unlike many countries where the leader’s visage is so widespread (what was that European country where the leader named one of the days after himself?), the Thai people’s affection seems very sincere and genuine.

This seems difficult for most foreigners to believe and I regularly encounter people – both expats and visitors – who insist on asking about “the truth about the King”, and usually do so in public and in front of Thais. Needless to say, this is highly taboo, not to mention illegal. If you want to show good manners while in Thailand, please don’t make Thais uncomfortable by asking them probing questions about the monarchy, especially in public and in front of other Thais.

After six decades of leading the nation, the King is seen as a beacon, something constant amidst the ever changing tides of Thai politics.

To that end, he annual birthday message, which he delivers on the eve of his birthday, is widely anticipated. What will he say? What guiding lessons will we receive? The anticipation was all the higher this year after the resolution of the airport seige just three days ago.

So it was with great disappointment that the public learned that His Majesty was feeling unwell and did not have the strength to make a public address. He sent two of his children, the Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn and the Crown Princess Maha Chakri, to receive the public’s well-wishes and to return them.

So we will wait with baited breath until HMTK is well enough to address his subjects.

This morning while out on an early morning bike ride, I came across a community event in a dead-end street down near the river. The local emergency corp and all their volunteers were celebrating HMTK’s birthday. After a short parade they made merit for the King, said an oath of loyalty to him, and then sang the royal anthem.

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty!

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

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