Friday 11 May 2007

11th May 2007

Today's weather;

There are big blue patches in the sky with thin layers of clouds and over the ocean a thicker pack of clouds. It's already over 27C and it looks like another promising day, despite the weather predictions.

Yesterday it reached 33.3C, pretty warm.


Yesterday Samui also had a visit by one of the Royal Family, the first wife of the King's son.

When I finished working at World Resort for my current IDC, I left but was immediately waved off the road by a police guy. The police guys where posted about every 3 to 400 meter! I got out of the car and she cruised by in her creme coloured Mercedes as part of a large car convoy a few minutes later. All the Thais where sitting to pay their respect and I was asked by the police guy to sit down as well.

The whole road was cleared of cars and bikes all the way where she travelled. It's fascinating to see how the Thais respect and interact with their Royal Family.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's good that there is that much respect and admiration for the Royal Family in Thailand, especially when it seems a lot of the country is rife with corruption and problems

Camille Lemmens said...

Hi Dave,

Good observational skills!

Are you aware of the case of that Swiss guy that got a 15 year jail term for spraying a portrait of the King?

What he did is not good, don't get me wrong.

He got pardoned by said King after a month and a half, which is really good but the heavy conviction for Lese Majeste is not so good in my humble opinion (the sentence initially was 30 years, but got halfed, because he confessed to it) and doesn't send out the right message to the rest of the world that Thailand is catching up and participating in the 21st Century.

Anonymous said...

You'd probably get shot in a lot of places in America if you tried to spray a portrait of Dubya!

I did read that story about the Swiss guy. The question I would like to know is: why did he do it? Was he just trying to wind everyone up by doing it, or did he pick a portrait at random and it just happened to be the king?

Camille Lemmens said...

Hi Dave,

It was the King's birthday and bars are either closed or not allowed to serve alcohol.
He somehow got drunk that day and when he was refused more alcohol, he went home, got a can of paint and sprayed a portrait of the King. Not a very smart thing to do, especially considering that he already lived for 10 years in Thailand.