Getting Lost

As you may recall from yesterday, I had planned to visit the Wat Suthat and the Giant Swing since I always see pictures of it and looked forward to seeing it. I had decided that the simplest way was to take a taxi so I had no chance of getting lost. What a mistake this was. After about an hour in the cab (roads were blocked… I will tell you why later) I saw a pile of people and cars heading into what I thought must have been some fabulous park. I asked the cab driver if it was fun to walk through and he said yes so I jumped out of the cab and followed the crowd. Unfortunately, after paying for my ticket I found out it was the zoo which I have already visited but it was a back entrance so there was no signage. Not to worry, I thought, how far away could the giant swing be so I walked all the way around the outside of the Zoo looking for the ephemeral Wat Suthat.

As I mentioned, all the roads were blocked because the the military forces were literally out in force as you can see by the pictures. They were practicing for a performance for the king’s birthday on December 5 and I will describe what I saw in a moment, but on the way I passed the Parliament buildings. Like Kuala Lumpur, which was also a Sunday, I believe, I could not even get close to the building. In a quasi totalitarian state, things like Parliaments are not open to the public and public debate and discussion are not welcome, especially if you cannot even get inside the building or anywhere close to it. I am constantly reminded how lucky we are to be living in Canada.

Not being able to go inside Parliament, I continued walking and saw about a thousand soldiers in army gear, some wearing ornamental red hats, some in marching fatigues, low slung cars and a bad playing in a huge parade ground, all in preparation for the king’s birthday. I know this because a fellow who played the French Horn told me in English. I guess there is some correlation between playing a musical instrument and speaking a foreign language. The skills that the brain is called upon to make are probably very similar.

Anyway, even more interesting, in the military parade grounds there was a scene from the Middle Ages. There seemed to be a green team and a red team of little pixies and they were sword fighting, soldiers in medieval armour were riding horses around with lances and flags and others were wrestling and engaged in military combat of some sort. I tried to take pictures but was stopped twice.

As I continued to walk towards Wat Benchama Bophit, everyone was engaged in painting the road and fences, sprucing up the neighbourhood and doing a good job of getting ready for the big day. Soldiers were roaring up and down the empty streets in their motorcycles, probably never in their life having a street so empty where they could really open the engine.

After seeing this very peaceful wat ( there was no-one there but me and the monks), probably because all the roads were blocked because of the parade practice and I was walking, I followed a sign for the royal turf club which I saw in the taxi coming up and but could not find again. Instead a fell in to a university graduation which was really interesting and probably nothing like we have in Canada.

I got a bus home, paid my 10 baht and was asked for more ( the bus was air conditioned) and stayed home for about 10 minutes before I went to play golf at the Windmill, just a spectacular course. To-night I played with a Bangladeshi business man who said he only paid $25,000 to join the course. What a bargain! He owned about 10 business but found Bangkok way too expensive and even though he owned a few homes here he preferred Calcutta because things were cheaper. He said, interestingly enough, that he preferred living in a country poorer than Bangladesh because his money would go further.

I guess this week I better get down to some work since I have a seminar/workshop to prepare for the Bangkok teacher’s network next week-end. When am I going to get a chance to get away for the week-end again?