The King in Yellow

Friday, December 5th, was the King's birthday.  His Majesty King Bhumibol turned 87, though sadly he spent this national holiday in a hospital room and did not make an appearance.  I asked our driver if Thai people have big parties for the King's birthday, and he responded very seriously that they don't have big parties, but sedate, respectful gatherings with lighted candles - more reverential than festive.  The king is much loved by his people, and his image is seen everywhere - as plentiful as the Buddhas in the spirit houses.  The display here is at the entrance of a hotel, and it is representative of the size and grandeur of similar displays throughout the city.

  The King's color is yellow (I later learned this is because he was born on a Monday, and yellow is the color for Monday), so we wore our yellow shirts to honor the king.  The king's birthday is also their national Father's Day, but it doesn't seem to have the same meaning here as it does in the US.   Our driver explained that all the bars are closed on the king's birthday, and no loud music is supposed to be played, although we learned that some restaurants would still serve you a bit of wine in a tea cup if you wanted it! Our driver also let us know that everyone had the day off for the King's birthday, so I said we should probably do grocery shopping the day before.  Oh, no, the food store was still open.  In fact, it is open 24 hours a day, every day.  So I did my grocery shopping on the holiday.

This was my first time going to Foodland, the grocery store I'd heard about from others, and one that was highly touted by our driver that "it have everything for you"(meaning farangs!).  The store was full of farangs, and a few Thais. The grocery store was small, maybe twice the size of Yorkshire Market, and had very much the same feel to me.  Not a huge variety of choices, but things you mightn't find in the other, bigger stores - things like Campbell's soup, or Lawry's seasonings.  The best part is that most of the items are labelled in English, so I didn't have to guess what I was buying.  It still had its share of mystery fruits and vegetables - labelled, but unrecognizable.  I was happy to find a loaf of bread (not a big part of the Thai diet), and a head of lettuce.

On our way to the store we pulled up behind a pick-up truck with six monks in the back!  When Tim and I headed down to Central Festival, we found some sort of "Namaste" celebration going on.  Not sure if it was related to the king's birthday or not, but there were many monks in gold and saffron robes (some playing music and singing), as well as many Indians dancing in their colorful saris.  We had time before the movie (we were determined to see "Interstellar"), so we went for a bite to eat at a restaurant called the Hippopotamus up on the fifth level of the mall with a fantastic view of Beach road.  (This restaurant provided us with our favorite "Thai-English word of the week - "smothies"). As we were eating, we heard music and chanting, and looked over the railing to see a mini parade of the colorful Indians we'd seen earlier, and a large decorated cart being pulled by about twenty people.  This is just another example of the pleasures of living in an international city!

We were still quite early for the movie, so we bought our tickets and joined the crowd of people waiting in the lobby.  When it got to be about 15 minutes before the movie time, 6:30, we decided to go in and find our seats.  The "ticket nazi" manning the entrance had other ideas - she politely but firmly instructed us to go back and wait until 6:30.  Well, we were sure she didn't really mean 6:30 exactly, so after seven or eight minutes, we casually approached the entrance again - no admittance, no way!  So, here, whatever time is listed for the movie is the time you may go into the theater.  Once you are seated (in your assigned seats), you may enjoy nearly 30 minutes of previews, commercials, and of course the tribute to the king.  Then, and only then, may you enjoy your movie :)

Good movie - worth the wait.  This is one I definitely want to see again when it comes out on video.

• What I'm reading:  my hold for Grisham's newest e-book came in, "Gray Mountain."  This is really my first reserved e-book I've gotten, and I gotta say I'm feeling a little pressure to finish it before the two weeks is up,  Can't say I don't have time to read it, though - I've got nothing but...