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June 13, 2006
Smile! Candid!
[I wrote this on Saturday, but could not post it until today because I didn't have internet access over the holiday.]
Bangkok is yellow, in celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the king’s accession to the throne. We have a long weekend, so some of my coworkers invited me to go to Samut Songkhram with them. We did a home stay, which means we stayed at a family’s house because it is cheaper than a hotel. The house was beautiful, and on the river. At night, they took us out on boat to see the fireflies. The trees looked like they were wrapped in blinking Christmas lights, that’s how many fireflies there were. It was amazing. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures because it was too dark.
We spent the morning lounging around the house, taking pictures and playing cards. I was taught a card game called Slave. The rest of the day we toured around Samut Songkrhram. First we went to Bang Krung Camp, a historical Thai fort famous for defending Siam against the Burmese in the late 18th century. Across the street is a temple in a tree, made famous by Unseen Thailand. Then we went to this woman’s house. She makes a Thai musical instrument called a saw, which she played for us very beautifully. I tried, and not surprisingly failed miserably because I have no musical talents what so ever.
We wanted to go to the floating market, but it didn’t really open until 4:30, so we still had some time to kill. We drove around, and found the Rama II Memorial Park. We talked around the beautiful gardens, and tried not to melt in the heat. The park is built around an house where Rama II lived for a period of time, and is now a museum filled with historical items like furniture and musical instruments. While we were there, it started pouring, so we hung out in the pavilion of the house and sung Row Row Row Your Boat. When the rain finally let up, we went to the floating market to have dinner. We sat on the stairs leading down to the canal as our food was prepared on a boat. At seven, candles were lit for the king to officially begin the celebrations that will last until Tuesday.
On the work front, I wrote a short article on trade and the environment for the ITD website’s ITD Monitor, a section where they keep track of current trade issues. In addition, I have been in touch with someone from the economic division of the US Embassy, and I going to call him on Monday to discuss the status of the US-Thai FTA. I plan to get in touch with my contacts from FTA Watch and Focus on the Global South this week as well and try to set up interviews, although I can’t do anything until Wednesday, when everyone goes back to work.
Posted by abbysmit at June 13, 2006 10:24 PM