July 3, 2004


The Subject Heading may be familiar to some. For the rest of you, it's what the tinkly little voice says when you enter or exit the London Tube.

Got a ride on the new subway in Bangkok tonight- they actually say, "Mind the Gap" when the train pulls in!

Long day: arrived at Hua Lamphong Station at 3:40 for the festivities. Bought two small Thai flags on sticks, with words to the effect of "Long Live the King". GF said she couldn't translate it directly, but that it meant, "...something special very very much" for her King.

Everybody watched the minor dignitaries who pulled up with their police escorts- and the taxis and tuk-tuks that pulled up with their surprised customers, who would get out and see the 10,000 eyes watching them. Highlight of the wait- the grotty looking OLD fa-rang guy who got out of a taxi with his very obvious, granddaughter aged "catch-of-the-day" - and stood for a few confused, wavering, bleary-eyed seconds staring at the crowd, which was staring back at them, in silence. Had to be the absolutely worst walk of shame!

After sitting in a rapidly growing throng for about 1.5 hours, the police started barking orders and moving people around. Actually, there was one guy who was the "Screamer", just sounding like he'd totally lost it- running back and forth, making people move ˝ centimeter because they were beyond some imaginary line he'd drawn in the road.

Lots of pomp running about. Plenty of bright white uniforms, lotsa stars and bars, gold braid, red carpet by the yard, a welcoming band, a cadre of those Royal Guards with the Gurka style hats that you see at the Grand Palace, hoi polloi police, military brass and a group of big guys with bell-shaped blue hats with gold braid running vertically on them.

Thaksin (the not-beloved PM of Thailand- we usually spell his name Toxin) and his wife arrived with a huge entourage around them. Oh well, everything can't be fun and games, can it?

Steady stream of police cars with lights, big, nice police bikes, flashing lights and assorted level dignitaries disembarking. Then the streets got quiet for about 1/2 an hour, signaling that HM the King was arriving soon.

Orders were given to the crowd- no standing, no photos. The cops standing in front of us were actually pretty funny, saying things like, "If this old lady can sit, so can every-body", "Don't complain you can't see- I always work HM the King and I never see him- I have to watch you people" and a little bit of good natured picking on the farang, me.

Then HM the King arrived. Must say, I was quite impressed. A pair of vintage yellow Rolls Royces pull up about 30 yards from me. Guys with these huge umbrellas surround the cars and out step, in a simple but glorious way, HM the King, HRH the Queen and their eld-est daughter, HRH the Princess. They stood outside on the red carpet for a minute, being greeted by the dignitaries.

Quite a serene, dignified, and striking presence HM has. Easy to see part of the reason for the most deserved respect that the Thai people have for him. People did not speak, "the King is here”, - they spoke, "MY King is here." The Royal Family then went inside the station and the Rolls Royces pulled up about 8 feet away from me. I did get some movies and stills on the sly, as did many of the Thai people around me.

So, it's now about 6:00. The subway is supposed to open at 7:00, so we wander over and edge up to the gate at Hua Lamphong Station, the southern terminus of the new, 20 Km line. After about 25 minutes, the police chased everybody back from the gates at the en-trance, with a bogus Thai-bull**** reason: too many people standing here. Big hole under-neath ground, maybe cave-in if too many people stand here. Yeah, right. If the system is that ****e, they should just keep the damn gates closed forever.

We pretended to be reading the subway map and ignored the police, as did many others, and we ended up being about 7 people back from the front of the entrance line. By 7:40, people are getting a bit antsy. An old woman in front of me pukes and collapses, which opened up an empty circle with a 3-foot radius right next to me. She was taken inside and tended to, along with her rather frail and elderly husband. People were actually still ex-tremely orderly. Some nuns pushed through the crowd and made their way to the front.

Then the word came down and they said they would start to let people in. BIG mis-take- the crowd rushed the gates, sweeping along me and everything else in their path. The gatekeepers locked arms in a comically futile attempt to restrain the crowd. People yelling, rushing at the Maginot line, ducking under their arms, making end runs, yelling, screaming, rushing the escalator.

At the bottom, three token sellers were open- a little stand setup independently and two of the 6(?) token windows. Good planning, dudes- didn't you kind of suspect that tens of thousands of people might show up to both see HM the King AND to ride the new subway?

After buying the tokens- 10 baht (25 cents) to ride the full 20 Kms, with the pro-ceeds from now through August 12 (Queen's b-day?) going to the Royal Family for distribu-tion to worthy causes, we proceeded to the remarkably orderly lines.

GREAT system- the stations are set off from the tracks by glass walls, so the en-tire station is cool! The trains pull in, the doors in the walls open, the train doors open, we get "Mind the Gap”, and we enter the trains peaceably.

The cars are very similar to the BTS, except that there is only one row of ceiling handholds and NOTHING to hold overhead around the doors, making for some bobbing and weaving passengers... Biggest complaint- as far as I can tell, there are no signs at the sta-tions that tell you the name of the station.

Anyway, that's that. Ended up disembarking at Asoke/Suk, just up from Soi Cowboy. Walked to Nana and took the BTS back to my home at Anusawori chai.


Some photos (well, maybe about 1000) posted at http://community.webshots.com/user/peab0dy