The week that was in Thailand News: Cultural experiences

[rooster59]

The week that was in Thailand News: Cultural experiences

Gerry Carter

This week's round-up of the weird and wacky in Thailand News.

BANGKOK:-- And so the Owen's went home. Whether their Hua Hin holiday was one of a lifetime or one they would prefer to forget only the test of time will truly tell.

For the couple at the centre of the 'Battle of Bintabaht" soi attack at Songkran surely had a cultural experience to rival the best of them and, even if not in the fight itself, gave as good as they got.

Who comes to Thailand and gets feted as they were by all the tourist associations, politicians and sundry officialdom, even if it was in the rather less than salubrious surroundings of the local hospital with stitches and black eyes for company.

They gave evidence before the court Monday - details that were kept scrupulously secret as officials were mindful of the furore created over the "leaking" of the assault footage that occupied the world's media for several days prior.

Then it was those final touching goodbyes that tourists since time immemorial enjoy... 'Oh you must come back" "of course we will" "sorry about that bang on the head, hope it didn't spoil your holiday", "oh, not to worry, it could happen anywhere."

For while the sixty somethings had screamed in the British press that they would never deign to make the country's rather dark doors darker still, local reporters quoted them as saying they would gladly come back.

Here was ample evidence that their month in Thailand had been a cultural education....smiling nicely for the cameras, saying one thing and almost certainly going to do another......veterans now of the Thai way of life.

As Rosemary and Lewis boarded their flight Thailand settled back into a familiar repose of accidents, crackdowns, scams and those lovely quirky stories all washed down with the usual liberal sprinkling of abhorrent crime that would have made even the Owen's grey hairs stand on end.

Heading up the accidents was the explosion that sent six Burmese workers on their way. They were making fireworks with ping pong balls in a house in Suphan - don't ask; ping pong balls and Thailand is better left unsaid.

Very little was left of anything and it will be interesting what involvement, if any, the soldier who owned the house might have had in the illegal factory.

Storms were to blame for the power poles that fell like dominoes in Korat while houses and billboards continued to be destroyed in the hot weather though the population seemed to emerge remarkably unscathed. However, the stifling heat was to blame for some of the deaths reported this week from Chiang Mai to the south.

A buffalo farmer's last mobile call as he tended his herd resulted in a lightning strike though his height in relation to his surroundings and the fact that he was soaking from the rain may have been more of a contributing factor than the handset.

Top of the news this week was undoubtedly Sunday's attack on a handicapped man by a bunch of kids not entirely unrelated to the police. Four of the six are reported to be children of officers. Top brass reminded us sensitively not to be hard on the parents while most people's sympathies lay with the bread seller killed by swords for having the temerity to answer back when teased about his leg.

Naturally, there is more to this than meets the eye - as I am sure the Owen's were musing on as they flew back to Wales - but the public will be hoping that justice is done and that the miscreants get a just sentence no matter if pater packs a police pistol.

Police did however get a good result....especially in the eyes of Hua Hin-ites skeptical after recent events - when they rounded up almost a hundred kids for street racing on motorbikes. This time justice was swift with parents stumping up 3,500 baht as bail and assurance that their errant offspring would undergo 'driving attitude' training as ordered by the court.

Pal of the week or the "with friends like that who needs enemies" award went to the Krabi man who didn't like the tone of his Line app messages and went to his best mate's house to empty his gun not once but twice into the property and him.

And likewise proving once again that the love of lucre is the root of all evil we were treated to the fake monk of the week making us wonder what the world, even this one, is coming to. The orange clad charlatan went to see his local abbot, as you do, to shoot the breeze about what was hot in Buddhist teachings.

Funny thing was, the abbot said, that when his back was turned the previously interested visiting monk had left, later as it was found out with his ATM card.

Now call me a silly old sentimentalist out of touch with even a modicum of reality but I always thought it was the rejection of the material world that separated the Buddhist holy from the unholy. But he did have 300K in his bank for essentials - probably for nothing more sinister than paying gambling debts, bribe money or a little put aside for the odd massage, but it did seem a lot.

Anyway the ATM card was used and the thief was miraculously spotted 15 times pressing the ATM in those indistinct robes at a gas station. At least the abbot proved there was goodness in all of us by leaving the PIN number with the card.

Far less benevolent was the Ayutthaya monk who was owed some earthly dosh. When it was not forthcoming he took a scythe to his debtor in the temple car park before calmly waiting for police.

I wonder if monks have a special place reserved for them to sit in prison, though it may be rather hard to find a seat even if they do such are the numbers inside these days. Time was when an errant monk and a subsequent defrocking was real news....

Mixing the gruesome with the quirky was the appropriately termed 'rag and bone' man (a quaint British term for a collector of old stuff) who bashed his wife over the head with a torch - a kind of assault and batteries.

Realising at 2am that he had overdone it the previous evening he loaded her up on his cart and in the morning took her off to the temple for a quick cremation. Wouldn't it be easy if that was all one needed to do....murder could be available to everyone? No, alert undertakers saw bruises and called in the cops and the rag and bone man will soon be asking the monk with the scythe to budge up a bit so he can get a bit of floor space.

Still, both of them will doubtless be ignored by the prison vigilantes when the stepfather arrives who bludgeoned a two year old to death,even though the little one had pleaded with a 'wai' for her life. If Thaivisa posters were anything to go by there was a rapid increase in converts to the death penalty over that shocking crime.

Many hardened posters spoke of not being able to sleep with the image of the pleading toddler in their mind and this week's following true quirky stories are unlikely to be of much help in ridding that horrible image from many people's minds.

But some light relief was provided by the sheer stupidity of the non-meter using taxi driver who after fleecing his air hostess passenger clearly tried to chat her up and gave her his phone number. Police called him back instead and a different type of date was set up. The airhead and the air hostess indeed!

Finally, I really enjoyed the best online skulduggery of the week. It had been all over the national TV news that a shop had hot, hot season salesgirls selling air conditioners in skimpy bikinis. Maybe the goggle-eyed leering lechers who saw it failed to spot that it was all playing out in Vietnam, Hanoi to be precise. (Duh - as if Thailand would ever allow girls in bikinis).

Still online hoaxers posted that it was in fact just a song-thaew ride away in a Khon Kaen market. Security there couldn't believe it when so many men with bulges in their pants, not in the area of their wallets but in a forward location, wanted to look at pricy air conditioners. Especially as there was not even a shop selling such machines in the market at all. They all went home with their collective 'tails' between their legs.

The air con con indeed.

-- 2016-05-08

[KimSamui]

It's looking worse daily.

[BlindMagician]

Are more of these types of weird or extreme events and crimes happening, or are they just being reported more?

[razer]

IMO ... anyone who saw this child being brutally beaten with a cane and did not intervene, will carry the death of that child in their karma. Good luck in the next life.

[gemguy]

Are more of these types of weird or extreme events and crimes happening, or are they just being reported more?

Just being reported more while more often CCTV cameras are providing the odd and the bizarre and or the gruesome images that they were supposed to capture in the first place...and publicized like never before.

Remember something...all of this stuff makes money for most of the people who are involved while revenues are generated in various ways by the media folk who gladly pay for this stuff so they can publicized it and profit from all this stuff you see.

To make a point, have you noticed that Thai Visa .com is now over loaded with all kinds of irritating and useless advertisements and advertising banners popping up all over the place and crowding the pages.

They publicize what ever they think will garner the attentions of the public who subscribe to or follow Thai Visa.com. while corporations and businesses are eager to advertise on Thai Visa .com because of the flourishing readership and the potential increase in sales revenues from advertising on Thai Visa.com

It is business first.....but nothing unusual and standard practice anyhow.

Just saying...not criticizing...... rather just pointing out: How it is....Is the way it is.

Cheers

[Duvidl]

"Mixing the gruesome with the quirky was the appropriately termed 'rag and bone' man (a quaint British term for a collector of old stuff) who bashed his wife over the head with a torch - a kind of assault and batteries."

[thai3]

Not a very nice place these days, still a lot of nice people here but the country as a whole is unpleasant in so many ways.

[thai3]

IMO ... anyone who saw this child being brutally beaten with a cane and did not intervene, will carry the death of that child in their karma. Good luck in the next life.

Unfortunately karma does not exist any more than santa claus or the tooth fairy

[Bender]

every new tourists should read this articles, it pretty well summed everything that you need to know for a first trip here.

[admkkras]

Ok!