We had a relatively late departure from our hotel this morning, 9:30. We started by driving to the flower market which was similar to the flower market in a Hong Kong in that it was one flower store after another but different in the flowers they sold. In Hong Kong we saw a lot of orchids while in Bangkok it was lots of marigolds. We walked through the flower market and ended at the Chao Phraya river, the main river that flows through Bangkok.
We boarded a long tail boat and drove along the river to a canal. The river flows to the Gulf of Thailand and is influenced by the tides. Bangkok is only 3.5 ft above sea level so during high tide the river would flood the canals. The entrance to the canal is controlled by a lock to prevent flooding. Over the years erosion has widened the canal. People built houses on the edge of the canal, but due to the erosion those houses are today on the verge of being overcome by water. The king owns the land in and along the canal. If the people living there could afford to buy the land from the King, those people generally have taken care and renovated their house as needed. Others have a house that is on the king’s land and the king can repossess the land at anytime, so they do not invest in their house. Consequently many of the houses in and along the canal are in a questionable state.
We rode for about 20 minutes before arriving at a nice home where we had a cooking demonstration. A very nice Thai lady showed us how to make red curry. Rick helped with the cooking.
After the demonstration we had lunch, including the chicken in red curry. We also took this opportunity to visit the happy room. Apparently the Thai word for bathroom translates to happy room, so throughout the trip Lin has talked about the next happy room stop. 😁
After lunch we were supposed to have free time but Lin took those of us who were interested to the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was an American businessman who helped revitalise the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and 1960s. He mysteriously disappeared in 1967 and was never found. There are various theories on what happened to him, one suggests he was working for the CIA when he disappeared. He was trained as an architect and had a really lovely house that he designed and had built out of teak purchased from other houses in the region. There was a silk store at the house with many lovely things, but we didn’t buy anything.
That evening a journalist took some time out of her job to speak with us. In Thailand the press and the people do not have free speech. Thai people can not criticize the King or the government. People can get a 15 year jail sentence for each criticism posted on social media. The website this journalist works for walks a narrow line between stating the facts and being critical. S/he (I don’t want to identify the gender of the person) would potentially be harassed by government personnel just for talking to us. Here’s some of what the journalist told us.
The current government was established by a coup in 2014. Since May 2014 Thailand has been ruled by a military junta, the National Council for Peace and Order, which has partially repealed in the 2007 constitution, declared martial law and nationwide curfew, banned political gatherings, arrested and detained politicians and anti-coup activists, imposed internet censorship and taken control of the media.
They also have a king who does not have a lot of political power, but is an important moral leader to the people. The last king who died in 2016 was very popular due to his kind and gentle nature. His son is destined to assume the role of king, but has not yet been coronated. The queen of England, along with a number of other democratically lead countries, would likely boycott his coronation until proper elections for prime minister are held. Therefore the government has announced elections in May, but it’s questionable if they will actually happen. The government is giving out payments of 500 baht, about $16, to farmers to essentially buy their votes. The King is living in Germany until he is coronated. The King is very unpopular here because people believe he is spoiled.
It was a very sobering discussion and I thanked the journalist for his/her bravery to speak out against the current situation.
After the discussion Lin took us to a local restaurant and we had a very nice dinner.