In my meandering I happened to be at the big Mae Nam temple one morning and saw a great festival. It looked like the dedication of a new statue of a monk. When I arrived there was a raucous procession going on with a group of drummers at the front all drumming and dancing around. They were lots of young people dressed in what looked like fancy dress and sporting brightly coloured fancy dress wigs. Behind them were lots of people all joined together by a loose white cord and bringing up the rear, carried on a palanquin was what looked like a very still, old monk sitting cross legged as he was carried. It was only after I had watched for a while, marvelling at the power of meditation to keep him so still amidst the noise and chaos that I realised he was a life sized statue! He was carried clockwise around one of the temple buildings a few times and then carried over to the other hall which is where I assume he was to stay. It was a really joyful occasion with lots and lots of noise and laughter and a big audience of kids from the local schools. So different from what I would imagine the dedication of a statue in a church.
The temples here so seem so workaday compared to churches, with people wandering around at will, dogs and cats resting under the trees and people dropping by and leaving goods for the monks. They are such colourful places as are the spirit houses here at each house. I assume a spirit house design is based on a temple and some are very impressive with two buildings and, like a rich child's doll's house, stuffed with all sorts of figures - princes and kings, princesses and dancing girls, lots of glittery furniture. There's also a table at the front for the offerings of food and drink and the ladder at the front. But not all are as glitzy, this rather home made effort is one of my favourites!
The temple shops are also going through a very colourful time of year. They are always bright with the floral garland offerings and the yellow packaging of the goods buckets for the monks, all beautifully wrapped in yellow cellophane and containing monkly necessities such as soap, toothpaste, soap powder - although I did see one the other day with shampoo in it. Somewhat surplus to requirements I would have thought as they all have shaved heads.... But now these temple shops have added the bright reds and golds of the lanterns and trimmings for Chinese New Year and the other pink and red heart shaped items and huge teddies and cuddly toys for Valentine's Day. Indeed one big teddy for sale in one was a whopping £85, a huge amount here when the minimum wage per day is around £6.
The military who are still running the country are generally accepted as doing a good job. A couple of notable laws have been changed. The first has put a whole tourist sector out of business. In the past if you wanted to extend your 30 day free tourist visa you needed to do a "visa run", i.e. get out of the country, re enter it the same day if you wanted and you got a further free 30 days. Whole businesses and fleets of minibuses were on hand to ease this process for you if you didn't want to fly out. Now, all you need to do is visit the local immigration office, queue for almost a day, pay £40 and your visa is extended for the extra 30 days. Good for the government coffers and the tourist but not so good for local employment... Now is probably the time to buy if you're looking for a second hand minibus here...
Another law that has finally been brought up to date is the breathalyser, and not before time, drink driving is a huge issue here, not least amongst Western tourists who wouldn't dream of doing it at home. In the past they could try and breathalyse you but if you refused to take it, there was little they could do. Now if you refuse, they can haul you off to the police station. The first case of them trying to do this was reported in the local paper. A woman, obviously under the influence was stopped but she refused to take the test. They tried to get her to the police station but she refused to get out of her car saying she was inappropriately dressed and stayed in her car for six hours.... One wonders if the alcohol had been processed by the time she gave in.....
There was also another interesting report in the Bangkok Times this morning. Some people in Bangkok were stopped from protesting about the military rule here under the banner of the "Stolen Election" referring to the one that never took place last year. They didn't try to hide what they were doing and promoted it on Facebook. 100 troops barricaded the place where it was due so it never really got going but they did manage to hand out copies of George Orwell's 1984 which made sense when you hear that the organisers were taken in for what authorities term as "attitude adjustment".
Ps - a pic of the clever coconut monkey guarding his haul which I missed out of the last blog.
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