Thai Patriotism Law Seeks to Halt Cars for Anthem

From Reuters, published 23 November 2007:

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A proposed new law to boost patriotism in Thailand would be “chaotic” because it would require motorists to stop when the national anthem is played twice a day, lawmakers said on Friday.

A vote on the Flag Bill proposed by a group of retired and active duty generals in the army-appointed parliament was deferred on Thursday to allow a committee to study it.

“It would be chaotic if the bill had passed as it is now. So the National Legislative Assembly decided to set up a panel to review it,” NLA member Wallop Tangkananurak told Reuters.

The bill’s supporters say road traffic should stop nationwide when the anthem is played during the raising and lowering of the flag “to preserve tradition and instill patriotism in Thais”.

“The national anthem lasts only one minute and eight seconds, so why can’t motorists stop their cars for the sake of the country?,” retired General and NLA member Pricha Rochanasena, 70, told Reuters.

“They already spend more time in traffic jams anyway,” he said, referring to Bangkok’s notoriously congested streets.

Most Thais already stop what they are doing and stand still when the national anthem is played on loudspeakers in train stations, parks and office buildings at 8 a.m and 6 p.m.

Pricha said the bill, which did not propose penalties for violators, would allow motorists to be patriotic too.

More information about this issue can be found on the Paknam Web Forums. I previously wrote about Thailand’s national and royal anthems back in June; I sing along as the former is played every morning during our school’s assembly.

Loy Krathong

Loy Krathong (ลอยกระทง) is considered to be one of the most beautiful and popular festivals in Thailand, taking place on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. This year, that translates to this Saturday — 24 November. This time of year (usually) has fine weather as the rainy season has ended and there are high water levels throughout the country.

The floating of a krathong — a small boat made usually of banana leaf and containing a flower, a candle, and three lighted incense sticks — is intended to float away ill fortune as well as to express apologies to Khongkha or Ganga, the River Goddess. Government offices and large companies build much bigger and more elaborate boats which are then judged in contests.

Also during Loy Krathong, numerous beauty pageants are held to honor Noppomas, who was a consort of the Sukothai king Loethai in the 14th century. According to legend, she was the first to float decorated krathongs. The festival itself is Brahmin in origin. In 1863, HRH King Mongkut (Rama IV) wrote an interesting account about the first Loy Krathong Festival.

When floating a krathong, people make a wish as they set it in the water. It is believed that if the candle remains burning until the krathong is out of sight then their wish will come true. By the end of the evening, there are hundreds of flickering lights bobbing up and down on the numerous waterways of Thailand.

This Friday, our school will hold it’s Loy Krathong activity. Teachers, as well as the students, are to dress in simple Thai costumes and everyone will spend the afternoon making their own krathongs using natural, environmentally-friendly materials (no styrofoam allowed). After a competition to judge the most beautiful krathongs, we will proceed to the paddling pool in order to float the boats. It promises to be a most colorful day! I plan to make an extra krathong to float on Saturday evening.

Last year was my first experience with this particular Thai holiday and I had a wonderful time, despite heavy downpours most of the actual Krathong Day evening. My wife had purchased several cases of beer to sell on the beach in Patong, along with a number of krathongs donated by various friends. It was so rainy that there was a severe lack of customers; she and her friends ended up drinking most of the beer themselves. There was a fair on Bangla Road (including Miss Bar Girl and Lady Boy contests in addition to the Noppamas Queen pageants) .

But the best event we attended was a three-night Loy Krathong Festival at the lake in the northern part of Karon. We went two of the three nights and literally danced until dawn (they had one of those 20-baht-per-dance stage setups). Our “second daughter” Nadia was still staying with us; she and I floated a krathong together but the candle was so waterlogged that we couldn’t get it lit at all (so, I suppose that would explain any bad luck we’ve had over the past year). There were fireworks off-and-on each night and we also lit and sent up one of those paper lanterns the Thais insist are hot-air balloons (coming from Albuquerque — the ballooning capital of the world — I beg to differ). Another good friend, Opat, was also there to dance with us. It will be different this year with our son and Tim’s brother (Nadia is currently in Hollywood and I believe Opat is in Krabi now) but I’m sure we’ll have a great time.

Happy Thanksgiving

Baan Jochim would like to send out Thanksgiving wishes to all those friends and family we have scattered throughout the world (not just the Americans and Canadians).

This will be second Thanksgiving away from the States; last year, we spent the day sweating in Bangkok while looking for a car to buy. I believe we had pizza for dinner with Nadia and Opat. For tonight, I’ve been invited out to dinner by another American teacher at my school. The famous Don’s Mall in Rawai (owned by a former astronaut) is hosting an all-you-can-eat Thanksgiving buffet with turkey and full trimmings flown in from America. I’ve fasted for the last two days to prepare for the feast!

Thai Climbers Abandon Everest

From Bangkok Post, published 18 November 2007:

A nine-member Thai team trying to climb Mount Everest has been forced to abandon the climb less than 350 metres from the summit.

Reports from Kathmandu said on Wednesday evening the expedition, with four staffers of TiTV, three members of the Royal Thai Navy and two others, was forced to turn back by bad weather.

“The safety of our members is our first concern,” the Thai Embassy in Kathmandu told the Indian news agency IANS. “The team is now coming down.”

The climb was devised as part of a tribute to His Majesty the King on his 80th birthday.

The Thai Everest Expedition reached the 8,500-metre mark on the climb before being forced off the mountain.

It is also the only team so far to attempt to scale Mt Everest from the Nepal side this autumn, in sharp contrast to last spring, when dozens of climbers had headed for the 8,848-metre summit. (From agency reports)

Weeks 2 & 3

I’m finally feeling well enough to blog after a long two weeks. And my workload is set to increase tremendously on Monday so this may be my only chance to catch up on the happenings of the past two weeks. I don’t plan to go into the amount of detail you may be accustomed to, however.

As we have gotten into the “swing of things” for Term 2, my lessons and class-prep had settled into a well-oiled routine. I was even able to incorporate visits to the library during my Reading classes which the children certainly enjoyed. With the addition of a new helper (a fellow American) for my Monday afternoon Cub Scout meetings, those are starting to be enjoyable with plenty of games and other activities. (My co-Scout leader during Term 1 wasn’t very enthusiastic which made it difficult for me to get motivated as well.)

At the end of Week 2, I developed near-constant severe migraine headaches. I visited a number of different pharmacies (these aren’t regulated as in America so many times the “pharmacists” will prescribe something which has no relation to what ails you) and a couple of Thai health clinics in search of relief. The headaches became so debilitating that I actually had to leave school early this past Wednesday in order to go to the hospital (I thought my head was going to explode but I persevered long enough to teach my double-English class that morning). The current diagnosis is TMD (temporal-mandicular disorder), coupled with a magnesium deficiency. Basically, as another teacher succinctly commented, this means I’m just getting old and have too much stress. At any rate, my current medication is keeping the migraines at bay and I’m actually able to sleep through the night without waking in excruciating pain; I can concentrate on the thinking required to put together my lesson plans and I can teach without every loud noise from the students (and Thai teachers’ microphones) bringing tears to my eyes.

Unfortunately, my trip to the hospital caused me to miss Parent’s Night for our level. My co-teacher was also ill and he also missed seeing the parents. I was so looking forward to the evening as I’m extremely excited about my plans for Term 2 and have wanted to discuss these with the parents. Perhaps we can arrange an informal gathering at some point.

Upon my return to work Thursday morning, I was informed that they were adding five ESL classes to my schedule effective Monday. I was (still am) disappointed that I wasn’t informed by the school’s director; I learned of my new duties from other teachers in the English Teachers Room. I attempted to see the director numerous times that afternoon and yesterday to no avail. I have never taught ESL before — it’s significantly different from teaching second-language learners English in a classroom setting and requires substantially more preparation time than for Grammar, etc. lessons. ESL also requires quite a bit of game-playing which is definitely my weakest teaching skill. There are a couple of days when I don’t have ANY non-teaching periods (which are needed for photocopying and lesson-prep time) so I’ll be running ragged I’m sure.

I’ve also been asked to teach English to one of the new Thai teachers. She’s a helper in one of the Primary 3 classes and specifically requested me after watching me teach one of my Reading classes. Her English skills consist of just four or five words at this point. On Monday, I will begin teaching her every weekday from 6:00 to 8:00 in the evening for 200฿ per hour (USD$6.35; the going rate for private English tutoring on Phuket averages 500฿/hour). It will bring in an extra 8,000 baht each month (in addition to the 2,500฿ I receive for my 4:00-5:00 one-on-one extra lesson) on top of my 30,000-baht salary. Hopefully, we’ll be able to save some of that extra income as I would like to purchase a car (a fellow teacher has offered to sell me his Mira when he returns to his home country at the end of March).

The week ended on a positive note with the school (finally) distributing our health insurance (through BUPA) cards. I’d enrolled myself, my wife, and my son back in May. It’s nice to know we are now covered for our medical expenses.

I’m going to try and relax this weekend as much as I can (although I have a lot of reading I need to do on how to teach ESL) because I certainly won’t have anytime once Monday arrives!

Have a good weekend, everybody.

Week 1 - Term 2/2007

The first week of Term 2 was highlighted by the school’s celebration of Halloween on Wednesday (it is a bilingual school, after all). The Thai people really do embrace this particular holiday because it fits right in with their love of anything sanuk (fun). We had a costume contest for the students and teachers after the morning assembly; my class won the prize for “Best Dressed” and I appeared as Bruce Springsteen (blue jeans, jean jacket — which happened to be from Springsteen’s Madison Square Garden concert stand of 2000 — and an American flag headband). The gathered school body was delighted when my name was called and I jumped out of the line of teachers with my fist raised above my head, singing “Born In The U.S.A.!” There was also trick-or-treating from class to class in the afternoon, followed by various spooky activities (including a haunted house and Monster Mash disco). I helped out with the broomstick races in the playground.

GOODNIGHT, PHUKET….HELLO, BAAN JOCHIM

As I am no longer actively maintaining this blog, please direct your bookmarks to Baan Jochim Phuket. This is an alternate blog I created in late May when the government of Thailand was blocking the entire Blogspot domain.

Initially, I used the WordPress-hosted blog to reprint interesting news items concerning Thailand or Southeast Asia in general with occasional entries relating to Thai history, culture, and holidays. But lately it has developed into a complete replacement for Goodnight Phuket.

Of course all of my previous entries here will remain available in the Archives. And, should there be another sweeping blockage of WordPress that lasts more than a couple of days, I will post here once again (currently, my ISP — TOT — tries to blog the domain but it’s haphazard at best).

I hope to see most of you over at Baan Jochim Phuket.