royal flush

in my short time in thailand, i've already had a few run-ins, or near run-ins with the royal family. that's right, thailand is technically a kingdom, and everyone here is just ga-ga for their king. in fact, they have to be. despite having one of the more liberal media stances in the region, people are absolutely forbidden to say anything bad about the king. stories circulate of individuals who've spoken their mind, only to end up spending years behind bars.

pictures of the king + queen appear everywhere in public. gigantic pictures, in fancy, gilded frames. there are also numerous tributes to his sister, who passed away on january 2nd. in bangkok a few nights ago, i was trying to cross one of the major streets when i noticed all traffic was missing from one side. there were several policemen around, making sure pedestrians + traffic did not block the road. within a few minutes, the royal entourage passed by. i'm not sure if it was the king and queen, or just the queen (apparently the king almost never leaves his residence these days. he's 80, but you'd never know it, as most of the giant pictures you see are severely dated. but i digress.), but the amount of cars and people involved in the procession was astounding. there were a few cops at the start, followed by a maybach ($400,000 sweet, sweet ride), a few rolls-royce limos, a bunch more cops, yet another maybach, more rolls-royces, and then scores and scores of red mercedes coupes. naturally, these were followed by scores and scores of red BMW coupes. amongst all these official-looking cars were plenty more cops, on bikes and in cars + trucks.

in all, it took at least 5 minutes to pass. the cars in back had to have been a couple kilometers behind the lead. if something were to happen, there was nothing they could do other than block off the roads. in all, it was an amazing sight. i wish i had more details on what the procession entailed. and oddly enough, there were several military vehicles trailing about 15 minutes behind, once the road was re-opened. this group featured trucks full of soldiers similar to what you'd see at home, but also the occasional armored popemobile-like vehicle full of soldiers dressed like the foot guards of the u.k. you know, the ones who wear those red uniforms and puffy black hats. as regal as they look standing solitary guard in england, they look downright foolish when packed like sardines in the popemobile. they really resembled colored q-tips.

besides the monstrous procession, there was also a near-sighting of the queen the next day. it was buddhist lent, and she'd chosen to worship at the wat (temple) adjacent to the backpacker's ghetto in bangkok. a string of limos was parked in the middle of the street, and all traffic was stopped, including the bus i was waiting for. there were scores of people waiting for her to emerge, but no one knew how long she'd take. i waited for a little while, but only had so much time to spare (i was supposed to catch a bus, remember?). though the crowds of people waiting for her were 10 thick, i was elated to notice they didn't really impede my view. as far as the thai are concerned, i am a freaking giant. crap, i wish i'd gone to jr. high out here.*

well, if two almost-sightings of the kingfolk weren't enough, i took a boat that passed by the king's residence today. it's a fine looking place, tucked away on the lush, remote end of a peninsula near the town of ao nang. apparently, the king isn't staying there now ('cause he's busy parading through bangkok? i don't know), but it was still quite a sight to behold.

i'm leaving the country soon, but who knows, maybe i'll have another run-in, one with an actual sighting of thailand's a-list.

-sg

* actually, i still would've been tiny.