The King's 80th birthday

Written Dec. 7, 2007







Yesterday was the King of Thailand- Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 80th birthday.

Being an American, I have never experienced a collective allegence and love for one living figurehead as I did last night. If a city could be consumed by fire from the hearts of a totally engaged collective of people who are unified by a love for one person, the epicenter of that flame would have been right here in Bangkok last night. Calculations estimate around 1,000,000 in attendance. The massive crowd was repeatedly cheering “Son patcha yuen!!” (long live the King) and candle thrusting birthday toasts were followed by a world class fireworks display. No doubt everyone else in the country was in front of their TV sets doing the same cheering. I’d bet that there are puddles of hard yellow wax on every kitchen floor in the country this morning.








The smoky air of traffic jammed streets made me gasp for air, and the crowd of people was packed so tight that sometimes I wondered if I was going to just be picked up and carried around with my feet off of the ground…The masses were headed towards the park where the fireworks were going to be displayed. I was definitely in the thick of a very profound human experience and feeling very lucky about that.


Delicious aromas from the smoke of street food cooking everywhere was as intoxicating as the vivid colors of the night markets that dappled a massive backdrop of people in yellow shirts that flowed like a river toward a vast canary colored ocean.





I did manage to swim to shore long enough to be convinced that the local bug vendor had some pretty tasty goods and embibed on some pretty dang yummy fried silkworms! The 3" long fried cockroaches are still a little too chalanging for me.
I hear that they're kind of gooey...Yuk!









Roger and Kristi actually got up close enough to get a video of the King emerging from the palace with his Rolls Royce entarage as a Thai man told them in very broken English “ To Thai people, the King is everything”.

Then it was time for the fireworks and man it was like dynamite going off about 200 feet directly over head and then big pieces of coconut shells began to rain down everywhere on the crowd from the sky. That's what they load the explosives in! It was so loud that my ears are still ringing this morning. I was totally loving the way that as the bombs were going off, thousands of cell phones and tiny cameras would imediately rise and take aim & fire back at the massive boquets that bloomed a rainbow palette of sparks above us for a really long 30 minutes or so. what a trip!




Then afterwards, the yellow river of shirts began to run off, back down the sparkling Boulevards back home.

I met a Burmese mannamed O, who asked me to take his photo in front of one of the many Thai flag arrangements. I said Aung Sang Suu Kyi is #1! He shook my hand and cheered in a very gentle Burmese way and then I told him that I was headed to Burma and he looked very puzzled as he was in exile. He asked me why I'd go there..I told him that I wanted to tell his people that the whole world has seen and knows about the terrible oppresion that the Junta government inflicted lately on innocent people. He took my hand and kissed it in gratitude. I could cry right now writing about this. These people will steal your heart. They are so dear. I can't wait untill it's time to go.




Photos aren't uploading right now for some reason, so I'll make a big photo blog ASAP....I have some real doozies..