They're Baaack!! Return of the Tourists

 

The foreign tourists have been starting to come back to Thailand.  Not the former great numbers of Chinese yet, but “farangs”, i.e., westerners, and some Middle Easterners are showing up. 

I have been extremely spoiled for two years, because the Covid pandemic shut down all incoming tourism.  I seemed to be the “only farang in town”, and I admit that I really liked that.  The trains, malls and theaters were empty and I roamed freely.  I didn’t have to witness crude behavior from farang (Euro-American types) or Chinese tourists.  There were only Thais and myself out and about, and I felt like I blended in.  But the dread tourists are trickling back.  I feel crowded now. 

We are all still expected to wear masks everywhere in public – it’s the social norm here as well as the law – but some tourists are arrogantly ignoring it, thumbing their noses at Thai values, and to me, as an expat, this is embarrassing to see. 

What I hate most is that public spaces are more crowded again.  Yes, that is selfish of me, but I am by nature a solitary rambler. 

“Ramble on; and now’s the time, the time is now, to sing my song...”. (Led Zeppelin). 

-Zenwind. 

.

Royal Ploughing Ceremony

 

The Royal Ploughing Ceremony was this morning, and I always try to watch it on TV.  It takes place around this time every year, to acknowledge the beginning of the rice-planting season, just before the Rainy Season begins.  It is an ancient ceremony introduced from India, its first mention being in the Ramayana.  Brahmins – Indian Hindu priests, these being historically attached to the Thai royal court – officiate at the ploughing field. 

After the Thai king has finished the Buddhist part of the ceremony at the Grand Palace, he arrives at the ploughing field.  Then two beautiful white oxen, huge with golden embellishments on their horns, are harnessed to an ornate wooden plough with a single blade.  Brahmins led the plough procession, followed by the oxen.  A chief Brahmin has his hand on the plough, and following are young ladies with baskets of rice seeds and flowers.  The Brahmin tosses seeds into the ploughed furrows as they go round and round. 

At the end of the ploughing, the oxen are fed.  Their given choices are:  rice, corn, green beans, grass, water, or rice whiskey.  Their choices are interpreted by Brahmin astrologers (who also have chosen the auspicious date for this ceremony) for predictions of the future harvest. 

Needless to say, my confidence in astrologers is zero.  But it is a beautiful ceremony to watch. 

-Zenwind. 

.