Saturday, June 24, 2006: Suan Pakkad Museum

Today Sandy and I went to the Suan Pakkad Palace Museum. I have driven by where it is located hundreds of times but it is difficult to spot from the road as it is surrounded by trees. The Museum is on the site of the former residence of Prince Chumbhot Paribatra who was the Grandson of King Rama V. The Museum itself features a group of traditional Thai houses that date from the 18th Century. There is also a large modern building that features a gallery and archeological items that were discovered in the 1950s that date back 2500 years.

We walked over from the BTS and I wasn’t really one hundred percent sure where we were going. The Museum seems in an odd place but once we were inside there was the impression we were outside of the city. The old relics were only mildly interesting to me. Pottery has always bored me for a variety of reasons and the idea that something is thousands of years old is harder to fathom than something being a few hundred years old.

After we toured the old bits of stuff we went outside to the Thai houses. I think we actually went the wrong direction on our walk through as we started with this boat house that had a Royal Barge that belonged to Prince Chumbhot’s Father and would have been used in Royal River Processions during King Rama V’s reign.

Next we went into this 17th Century house called The Lacquer Pavilion. It was just beautiful, the inside walls covered in murals painted gold on black lacquer depicting the life of Lord Buddha and stories from the Ramayana. The house was originally in the old Thai Capital of Ayudhya but was moved and restored here. The best part of going in to it was that we were the only ones there.

As we moved on to the main group of buildings we were more aware of other tourists or visitors. We also became aware that photography was forbidden. I had been snapping away in the Lacquer Pavilion. We both had our cameras so even when we were aware that we weren’t supposed to take photos it was just so visually seductive that we couldn’t help ourselves.

Traditional Thai houses are built on stilts to protect from flooding in rainy season as well as animals but most importantly to allow the air to pass under to keep them cooler. The main group of houses was of course elevated in this manor and we had to go up these stairs and walk along these walk ways to move between them. Each house had a different theme of items ranging from prehistoric fossils to Thai Dance “Khon” masks and puppets. There were also plenty of Buddha images including this one amazing panel made of inlaid mother-of-pearl.

There was a great collection of traditional Thai instruments in one room which I broke the rules and took photos of. I am not sure exactly what the reason for the photography ban is. I would suspect that the pitter batter of the light damaging the items is a crock. I think the real reason must be the danger of forgery as DVDs aren’t the only thing pirated in Asia. Forgery of antiquities including fake Dinosaur bones is big business and even the National Geographic has been duped.

I couldn’t help but take photos though. The lack of Western style security guards might have been a factor as the only person to say “don’t” was a cleaner. There is also no way to describe what we say. I’m not that good a writer. The photos say more.

We ended up being at the Museum for about three hours. Afterwards we walked back to Phaya Thai BTS and took the sky train over to Asok. Sandy wanted to look at some new fitness club there. That was awful as it was like being trapped by a combination of high pressure Stock Brokers and Scientologists.

Afterwards we walked to The Rembrandt Hotel with the intent of having Indian food. The Raj Mahal wasn’t open until 6:30 pm so instead we went to Senor Rico or Casa Bonita or whatever the Mexican place is called. It was Sandy’s first Mexican food experience.

Friday, June 16, 2006: Friday Rain

The celebrations for the King’s 60th Anniversary have come to a close and the various Monarchs have gone back to where every they came from. The jihadaholics in the South have been busy this week. 72 bombs in three days, with 4 dead and many injured. I’m not sure why they love to target “tea shops” but they certainly do.

The weather has been actually quite nice this week. No big storms really until today. I got caught in it but I fortunately had my umbrella.

Monday, June 12, 2006: Royal Procession

Sandy got back at around 9:00 pm last night and had fresh corn on the cob as well as these amazing pastries with pineapple filling. Neither will last long I think.

Today was the big Royal Barge Procession for the King’s 60th Diamond Jubilee. This morning there was a reception at one of the newer halls where the various Monarchs from around the globe arrived and officially greeted His Royal Highness. The regal standouts of the event were the Japanese Emperor and his wife and of course Prince Andrew from the UK. There were about 27 Monarchs in all and the casual chit chat afterwards was all broadcast live. Afterwards all the Royals went over to the River near the Grand Palace and watched the Royal Barge Procession. Sandy tried to get over but all the roads were closed by noon so she came back very disappointed just in time to watch it all live on TV.

The procession featured 52 boats powered by 2,000 chanting oarsmen that made their way down the Chao Phraya River. Bangkok is only 300 hundred years old and canals were the main way to get around up until around one hundred years ago. The custom of the King going about on his “Royal Barge” dates back a long ways back and the word “Barge” isn’t a very good translation for a description of these boats. The boats are long thin vessels similar to a gondola. They have elaborately decorated prows and sterns and some sort of covered dais in the middle. The crews are made up of Royal guards who row in this precise and unusual manner while a signaler on the bow gives directions with either colored silk flags or large peacock feathers. There is a main caller who sings this song which the rowers answer back to in time at certain points.

The boats feature different characters on there bows such as “monkey warriors” who figure greatly in Thai mythology as well as various sea serpents or multi-headed mythical beasts. It was interesting to see that all the boats seemed to have a small 18th century style cannon mounted in its bow. The Kings vessel of course is the most amazing of them all with about forty men rowing both front and stern. The bow is in the form of the head of this mythical “bird” from Heaven that might be confused with a dragon but is actually better translated as a phoenix. The “Heavenly Bird” carries a lantern in its mouth and is a common image here. The King was not in his boat for this event as he was watching with the other Royal dignitaries.

The view of the boats passing in front of the Grand Palace at sun set was amazing to watch, even if only on TV. The angle excluded all the modern buildings and you could get a real sense of Siam from long ago. Absolutely magical…

Yet… Somehow this whole spectacular, once in a life time event has escaped the interest of CNN.

Sunday, June 11, 2006: Up All Night

Last night I ran out of room on the MRS8, meaning I have managed to fill the 1 gig memory card. I backed up the card and spent a while figuring out how to transmogrify the various tracks into WAV file using the MRS8 card reader software. I think the MRS4 card reader software is actually more logical. After many attempts I managed to pull it off and spent ages backing up the tracks as WAVs for future mousing. Then I fired up the MRS8 and continued on my journey in sound.

I stopped messing with the gear when I noticed that the sun was coming up.

I slept until about 10:00 am and headed out to eat at around 11:00. Sleep wasn’t the only thing I’d forgotten about last night. I hadn’t actually eaten in 24 hours. I was going to go for an Irish fry up at the Dubliner but Bonhomme called and was going to this American Rib joint on Soi 36 so I joined him there. The food was outstanding. I had this giant T-bone that was as good as it was big.

There was a big rain this afternoon. I managed to get back to the Redoubt ten minutes before it hit. Sandy should be home around 8:00 pm. Hopefully she’ll bring fresh corn on the cob.

Saturday, June 10, 2006: New Bass

Since Monday is a holiday Sandy’s family decided to go up to their parents for the weekend and Sandy has joined them. This was sort of a last moment thing so she headed out at around 11:30 am today to meet them. I headed out at the same time and did a tour of MBK, the Siam Center and Siam Discovery. I didn’t actually make it over to Siam Paragon today. I had a bite to eat then did my rounds, shopping in a bookstore and spending some time in Starbucks reading and enjoying an ice latte. Then I headed down to the Music Store in Siam Discovery. Foolishly I entered with $400 bucks in my pocket. Needless to say I didn’t exit with it. I tried out an Aria AS series “travel” bass guitar and fell in love then and there. So I bought it and headed back to the Redoubt.

Tonight I did a marathon of recording on the MRS8. I have actually wanted a bass guitar here for a long time as bass might be bass but there is a difference between synth generated bass and a proper bass guitar. This bass is outstanding. It has a beautiful sounding stereo pickup. The stereo field is low string to high from the left to right.

Friday, June 9, 2006: King's 60th Anniversary

Today was the 60th Anniversary of the King of Thailand’s ascension to the throne. This makes His Royal Highness the longest reining monarch in modern times. That might be an interesting bit of trivia for the Lonely Planet Guide Book except that here it even over shadows Brangalina’s Baby.

27 Monarch’s and or Royalty are here including Prince Andrew, The Emperor of Japan, and The Sultan of Brunei, members of the Danish, Swedish and other European Royal Families. Today being the Anniversary and the first in six days of holiday for the country businesses were closed, some roads were restricted for security reasons and even the pro and anti-Thaskin groups took a break from their squabbling.

All week people have been wearing yellow colored shirts with the Royal emblem on them and some venders have been selling unofficial approximations of them or variations on the theme including some rather gaudy looking yellow “I heart King” t-shirts. Sandy managed to actually get me a XXL Farang size one.

This morning was a major event at that Grand Palace that had the King speak to the hundreds of thousands of well wishers outside and in the streets. It was literally a sea of yellow flags and shirts and unlike anything I’ve ever seen anywhere else. The anti-Thaskin rallies had been drawing crowds in the thousands consistently since they began but this was even bigger.

The King has a special anthem that is separate from the Nation Anthem which they play at 8:00 am and 6:00 pm and causes everyone to stop in their tracks. The King’s song is actually a nicer piece although when they played it today they had a group of traditionally uniformed guards blowing on what I assume is the traditional horn which looked like something from Who’s Ville and sounded like Adrian Belew fighting with his Guitar Synthesizer. The Doctor Seuss horns were played at the same time as the European style Regimental brass band and the two were less than complimentary of each other.

There was a 21 gun salute and The Prince Regent spoke before the King came out and said his piece. It reminded me a bit of Pope John Paul II as you grow used to the photos of a younger fellow and then you see that he is older than you'd thought. I can't imagine what it will be like on the day he passes away. I'm sure the whole country will shut down for a week.

After His Royal Highness spoke he and other Royalty drove to another location in a motorcade of Mercedes limos, King Rama 9 leading in a gold colored one while the others followed in a fleet of burgundy models.

This evening was another event near the river. That included some prayers and speeches followed by the lighting of candles while a prayer was recited and then a The King’s Anthem sung. Sandy insisted that she and I both light candles while watching this on TV and she recited right along as well as singing the Kings song, another song and saying “chie yo” which I think roughly translates into “Huzzah”. This was followed by about 5000 pieces of fireworks being set off.

Thursday, June 8, 2006: Same Same

Five police killed in bomb blast

More than 100 government schools in the Muslim far south were closed for several weeks last month after villagers abducted and beat two women Buddhist teachers, leaving one in a coma.

Sunday, June 4, 2006: Hua Hin Jazz Festival

Saturday Sandy and I went down to Hua Hin for the Annual Jazz Festival. The ride down was okay. There was huge security along the highway which indicates someone in the Royal Family or possibly His Royal Highness the King was headed down that way. There were uniformed coppers every 100 meters or so on both sides of the highway all the way. That’s a three hour drive.

When we left it was stormy and started raining. The weather was actually crap all the way there. I slept a bit until we pulled into a rest stop to refuel and stock up on supplies. The store had an A&W in it so I got one of the sad little burgers they serve as I hadn’t eaten yet. Like most foreign fast food places here the bulk of their business is ice cream and weird local dishes that contain either pork or chicken so their dedication to the burger tradition is somewhat half hearted. There’s no onion rings either.

We headed on and ate in the van. We got into Hua Hin at around 5:00 pm. It was clear and quite lovely out. The Jazz Festival is on the beach near this one fancy hotel. We had to buy tickets to the French Gourmet Buffet in order to get in and park. We bought the tickets then had the driver drop us off. The hotel reminded me a lot of the place I used to go to the gym at in Samui. A sprawling resort with a low French Colonial style to it. The buffet was to be served out by the pool area but we were early so we went down to the beach for a while. By this point I was getting a migraine which wasn’t good.

There were several large stages set up along the beach. Some people had wisely staked their spots early and others were just milling around. There were three our four large navy patrol boats parked off shore indicated that there were some V.I.P.’s around. Sandy kept getting approached by locals who were renting horses either because she was with me or because of her cowboy hat. Heineken Beer had a big endorsement presence and there was beer and trinkets for sale everywhere.

We sat at a small sea side “restaurant” and I had some water while Sandy had a beer. We watched people go past. One Farang went by with a tattoo of Woody Allen caricature on his leg so I had to explain to Sandy who Woody Allen is. I couldn’t explain why someone would have a tattoo of him though. There was also one Thai fellow in his early twenties who swaggered by with sunglasses, no shirt and a rainbow colored sarong. All the Thais near us began laughing at him as he was giving it the large one, walking along as if he were Tom Cruise himself. Sandy wanted me to video him but I had left my video camera in the van. Then I remember I can shoot video with both my still camera and my phone. I caught a brief bit of him marching past the other way but sadly it looks more like a video of Big Foot than anything else as it’s all shaky and his swaggering doesn’t come across.

At 7:00 pm we went back up to the hotel zone and got our table. Sandy wanted me to tell her how to eat the French food (I think she was referring to the order in which to use the many forks and so forth) so I obliged by telling her you put it in your mouth and then chew it. We went to the buffet zone and I helped her avoid the beef. They had some excellent smoked salmon and some roast beef that I was sort of unenthused about until I put it in my mouth. There was also some brilliant cheeses and proper bread. We couldn’t see the stage from where we where but there were some big screens so all the jazz action was clearly visible. I felt sort of uncomfortable at first and eventually it dawned on me that the reason was the whole thing was like waiting to DJ some wedding. The buffet food, the “light jazz” and the chairs with the white cloth covers all brought back repressed memories of DJing.

The first band that played was that soft light jazz that really is more akin to well managed yuppie mullets and other things boomer than to do with Jazz as the music. You’re listening to E-Z Jazz never too black always to flaccid. Now here’s another old standard watered down and sanitized so as not to stain your Volvo station wagon’s fine upholstery. I managed to tune it out but I think it contributed to my growing migraine on some level.

The next band up was the JRP Little Big Band which despite their excellent musicianship and skill made me want to drive pencils in my ears. The problem wasn’t the band, it was the main vocalist. He had an outstanding voice but insisted on doing this cheese ball Mel Tormey style thing. They actually did a cover of (as Mel Thai-mey told us afterwards) “The Spiderman Theme from Spiderman”. Yes. The theme to a badly animated cartoon from 1970 done in the big band style with full cheeseaphonic vocals. I kept wishing my Dad and Sister Anne had been there to laugh at it with me.

Fortunately Mel went off and this other vocalist who teaches at some University here got up and things improved. He did a few old standards and could really belt them out with out sounding stupid or contrived. After the JPR band was done a band called Six Plays came on a did more modern Jazz Fusion type stuff including some old standards and even a Pat Matheney cover. At this point we moved to the beach and took a spot. My migraine had grown to biblical proportions so I lay back on this mat that we’d bought while Sandy talked Thai to those around us. The Stage was obstructed by a Heineken booth of some sort and the figures on it were ant sized so laying back was the best option.

We stayed until I could stand no more and we shuffled back to the van. The ride back to Bangkok was long. I thought I was going to vomit the whole way. Fortunately I didn’t. We got back to the Redoubt at 1:30 am and I was asleep in less than two minutes.

Thursday, June 1, 2006: Stinky

There are many things I don't miss about Canada. Things like this are a prime example of why it's so hard to come back...

Councillors vote to educate public on perils of perfume

Ottawa councillors voted Thursday to start a public education campaign to get people to voluntarily stop wearing scented products, but stopped short of calling for a scents ban.

A citizens' committee on the environment submitted a proposal that the city phase in a bylaw banning people from wearing perfumes and scented products such as deodorants and soaps.

First of all this is your tax dollars hard at work. Secondly why is the City's business to mandate what a person can and or can't do regarding dress or personal grooming.

"We your betters now decree eveyone must smell as bad as Europeans!"

One thing that struck me riding the death camp cattle train that is the TTC is the abundance of SCARY PUBLIC WARNING CAMPAIGN POSTERS! Now I'm sure the DANGERS OF SMELLING will be added to that. I can only imagine what sort of wart hog malcontents are behind this notion. Bunch of Luddites.

What Canada needs is a public education program on how to tell local officials and other public servants to shut up, do their jobs and mind their own business.