Lottery Time!

Wherever I went the other day, people were crowded around tables set up on sidewalks all over the city. What was it they were curiously intent on buying? Dried fish? Buddhist amulets? Michael Jackson DVDs?

Lottery tickets. Thais are very superstitious about numbers, and whenever they start to see a pattern in their daily activities, will bet on those numbers in the next lottery. For instance, for the past 2 nights, I've slept 4 hours, then woke up for about 3 hours, then slept for another 4 hours. I was told that I should buy lottery tickets that end in 434. When the new baby Panda cub was born a few weeks ago, people rushed out to buy tickets that ended in the month and date of the birth.

The guy below, who goes around on bicycle from street to street, apparently only had one ticket left to sell. A good day's work.

The notorious sidewalks of Bangkok

From this....

...to this?


Whenever you attempt to get somewhere, it's always an obstacle course. Fruit vendors, blind singers, illegal DVD sellers, the occasional elephant, and horribly uneven sidewalks. Don't even try it in high heels; one of my co-workers has had at least 3 horrible accidents on the sidewalk; not just breaking a heel or stubbing her toe, but smashing her shin and puncturing her foot. I understand that the Bangkok administration is attempting to resolve the problem, but the question is (as you can see in the picture above) where are the detour signs? WHERE ARE THE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS?

Basil Thief!

So I guess it finally had to happen to me. As I was walking from the subway to the gym down one of Bangkok's craziest streets last week, I got to the gym and noticed that the flap of my backpack was open and my wallet was missing. Filled with emotion, it was hard to think in another language and instead of telling the security guard "my wallet's been taken", I was saying to him "Basil Thief!" In Thai, basil and wallet/bag are very similar words (at least in the foreigner's mind), and I couldn't remember the verb for lost or stolen so I just said "thief" instead. No wonder he didn't understand me. I really need to improve my Thai pronunciation.

Seeing Red

Thanks to everyone who commented on the censorship post, especially my computer geek friends who pointed out that someone must have gone in and changed the HTML code so the font size of the post was 0. What baffles me is why a blog with a weekly viewing audience of 30 people would be censored, yet far more incisive letters are written in the Bangkok Post every day? But then again, that's Thailand, where the police can stop you while driving if you look like a foreigner, but you can open up a gambling den as long as you pay protection money to the correct authorities.

Enough social commentary, back to the things that make Thailand unique, like gas stations out in the countryside - not the blue oil barrels, but the Fanta bottles on top. These are usually bought by passing motorcyclists, and cost less than a dollar per bottle. But the signs could be clearer since one of my friends thought this was actually red Fanta!

Some very clever marketing.Acutally, I don't. It was by the expressway on the way to school last year. Photo courtesy of my friend Antoinette Go.

Mobile Stores


I don't mean cell phones, I mean you never really have to leave your neighbourhood to go shopping. Just wait for the appropriate pick-up truck to come along and sell what you were needing, whether it's fresh vegetables, brooms, plastic chairs, dishwasher soap, batteries...



Photos courtesy of my friend Antoinette Go, who lived here in Thailand for 4 years and took many great pictures of these sorts of things. Her awesome website is at http://vaughn-go.com/

Censorship

Thailand is notorious for having the only punishable lese-majeste law in the world, which forbids by threat of jail any negative mention of the Royal Family. In recent months, The Economist magazine has been banned three times for some rather negative perspectives on the Royal Family's role in the current political crisis. This past Sunday was World Press Freedom Day and many Thai newspapers lamented the statistic that Thailand had dropped to 111th place in a ranking of all nations' freedom of press.

Now it seems censorship is getting worse. Recently in movie theatres, censors have blurred out written alcohol labels (though we can still clearly see someone drinking), and cigarettes (though we still see the smoke), and just outright banned movies that show Buddhist monks in a bad light, or some sex-based comedies.

Finally, it seems censorship has caught up with me. My posting on April 13th has been removed on all Thai computers, presumably because of negative comments I made about the endemic hypocrisy and corruption in Thai politics and society. I had heard that the Information Ministry (does this sound like 1984?) was trolling through the Internet looking for anti-monarchy sites, but I wasn't aware that our freedom of speech was also being curtailed. I'm glad I noticed it in time, since my next blog entry was going to be entitled "A Royal Inconvenience", about the traffic jams caused when the princesses decide to visit the malls.

But just to make sure this is true, I'd like to know if anybody outside of Thailand can read my blog entry dated April 13th? On some computers it's been scrunched down to size 3 font, on others, it has just disappeared. Please let me know! Thanks, Darryl

Actually, I just discovered that if you click on the 5 comments of that posting, then click on "read original post" you can still see what I wrote if interested. I guess the censors aren't that intelligent.

Etiquette courses for gay monks
from the BBC news- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8020311.stm

A Buddhist preacher in Thailand has announced plans for new guidelines aimed at curbing the flamboyant behaviour of gay and transgender monks.

The "good manners" curriculum - the country's first - is being introduced in the northern province of Chiang Rai.

The senior monk told the BBC he was particularly concerned by effeminate activities among novices such as the wearing of make-up and tight robes.

More than 90% of the Thai population are followers of Buddhism.

The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok says tales of monks behaving badly are nothing new in Thailand.

In recent years, they have been accused of abuses of their exalted position in society that range from amassing dozens of luxury cars, to running fake amulet scams, to violating their vows of celibacy, our correspondent says.

Senior monk Phra Maha Wudhijaya Vajiramedhi told the BBC he would address issues like smoking, drinking alcohol, walking and going to the toilet properly, which are all detailed in the traditional 75 Dharma principles of Buddhism, and the 227 precepts for monks.

He was especially concerned, he said, by the flamboyant behaviour of gay and transgender monks, who can often be seen wearing revealingly tight robes, carrying pink purses and having effeminately-shaped eyebrows.

Thailand has a very large and visible population of transgender men, and Phra Vajiramedhi acknowledged that it was difficult to exclude them from the monkhood but he hoped his course could at least persuade them to curb their more extrovert habits.

If successful, the "good manners" course, at the Novice Demonstration School, would be replicated at other Buddhist monasteries and seminaries, he said.

On most driveway gates, beside the Thai national flag, most Thais also place a yellow or blue royal flag, to announce their loyalty to the King (yellow) or Queen (blue). Some also have the royal emblem, shown below between the two flags in the first picture. Such is the omnipresent worship of the Thai monarchy.

Naked Women Bumper Stickers
I really have no idea what they're supposed to mean (why do naked women who are dressing themselves need to be rescued by firemen?), and I see them on pick-up trucks all over the city.