Thailand photos in no particular order

Well, I'm not sure why my photos are so terribly out of order but perhaps it reflects the way I feel at the end of the Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program: like it was a three month blur that I'm just now trying to sort out. Below are some of my sweet memories from a wonderful three months with great new friends. I'll post more soon, including some of our numerous Rotary functions and class activities.


A little elephant love for mattias in Chiang Mai


My Kohsamet beach friends, the soi dogs


My favorite spot in Thailnd: Kohsamet


near the end of our program we decided we needed more more out of class time together. This was one of several "block parties" held in alternating rooms.

One of my favorite field trips was our journey to the Burma Thai border to look at a gas pipeline. The sign in the background marks the dividing line.


"Miss Universe" and the future president of Liberia at a very fun evening Rotary function.


Our last field trip was to the south. This mermaid is the symbol at Songklah.


Deft and Kim, from Thailand and Korea respectively, hamming up over the river Kwai.
















The Colonel tries out a little spontaneous aerobics in Lumpini park.















During one of our trips we stopped at this Khmer temple, similar, though much smaller, than Angkor wat in Cambodia















This was the fine bus we traveled in for hours on end for our first trip to visit dams all over the northeast. Good colors, no?















I was so thrilled to finally discover the presence of oxygen in Bangkok! we were so happy, we went on a boat tour of the lake.














Well, it didn't take long for me to tire of Thai food, so you can imagine my joy when I discovered a Mexican Buffet held every Tuesday night. This night I even found a few converts!



















One of our group outings in Bangkok was to the Grand Palace.














Because world Cup soccer played such a big part of my early days in Thailand, I had to include this one shot of the World Cup final at an outdoor space near the trade tower. I walked home at 4 a.m. as the revelers were getting wild!














But most of our time was spent in this room listening to lecturers from around the world. The great info made up for the bleak decoration scheme! :)

By the end of our time, even I had become a convert to the school canteen where we could get a great stir fry for only 15 baht (about $ .50)

Nothing like a good coup!

I guess it takes a political coup to get me excited enough to write these days. I’ve been in Thailand almost three months now, watching this “calm, peaceful democracy” at work and wondering at what moment the hairline crack will open, sending the country into chaos. It is peaceful here – and calm, held together by a king who is revered to the point of piety. As we celebrate his 60th year on the throne, the streets of Thailand swarm with Thais clad in yellow T-shirts, yellow apparently being the king’s favorite color. Mondays - the day he was born - are an especially golden day. Twice a day everything stops to sing the king’s anthem; every movie begins with the same standing song. But the king is getting older and – God grant him good health forever – no one knows who might follow. His son is not as popular as his father and despite a change in law to allow his daughter – a very popular and smart MIT-educated woman – the possibility of ruling, people say the son will be the likely heir.

At the same time the country since 2001 has been led by a prime minister whose conflicts of interest are extraordinary; they make Dick Cheney’s Halliburton connections look almost ethical! Thais accuse him of using the country to amass extreme wealth, which some say was first multiplied during the market crash in 1998. Conspiracy theorists suggest he knew of it beforehand, tipped off by the Finance Minister who – surprise – remains in a plush government position. This is speculation, of course, but what we do know is that he sold his massive telecommunications company to Singapore to avoid taxes – that is, after changing the laws to allow foreign companies to own Thai telecommunications businesses.

Dr Amara, the head of this Rotary program and the previous dean of the Political Science Department at Chulalongkorn University, was one of the first to publicly speak out against the Prime Minister, calling his actions unethical and bad for Thailand; she and a collection of academics called for him to step down. That was the beginning of the ground swell against him that led to a discussion of new elections to be held this October or November. It culminated Sept 19 in a political coup led by the combined military and police forces of the country, and with the blessing of the king. PM Thaksin, or Toxin, as one pronouciation-challenged Indian participant always calls him (truth be told, it’s catching on!), was in New York at the United Nations General Assembly at the time, one stop on his whirlwind PR tour, despite his own call for no campaigning before the October elections.

The news flashed on BBC around 9pm, just as Kofi Annan was preparing to address the General Assembly. Tanks were gathering in front of government offices in Bangkok, the headlines read. Thaksin, who got wind of something happening back home, fired his head of army and immediately declared a state of emergency. Dr Amara got a call that members of the armed forces had earlier entered an extraordinary session with the king. By 10pm it was official: a military coup was underway. Thaksin said he would return from the US early, but if he does he risks being arrested for corruption upon arrival. His bank assets – hundreds of millions of Baht and only a fraction of what he really owns – would be seized.

At this point, all I wanted was a one-way ticket back to Bangkok. Imagine, I’m just an hour away from a real live military coup. Who knew a girl could get so lucky? By 10:30pm the Thai “democratic” government cut off satellite TV – i.e. BBC – and on all channels ran continuous coverage of the king and his good deeds with a backdrop of every patriotic song in the book. Finally, one statement was issued declaring that a “political reformation” was underway, supported by all arms of the military and police, but not signed. At the time no one knew it if was led by anti or pro Thaksin supporters. By 11:30pm the statement appeared with a signature by an anti Thaksin official, but still no one knew who would lead the country. By 9:30a.m. the next morning there was an official appearance by the military and police leaders of the coup, led by Thaksin’s head of the army. But still no word on who would lead the country. We waited until late that night to hear which interim leader would be put in place until elections could be held. Still no word.

The next morning we were asked to cancel all travels and stay inside the hotel; we weren’t in Bangkok, but in the notorious “deep south” conflict zone and no one knew what the coup would inspire. With the country now under Marshall Law, no more than five people were allowed to gather in one place at a time. So we invited two speakers into the hotel and crammed into our professor’s room. During a session on helping trauma victims of southern conflict we got word that Thaksin might try to enter the country through Laos in the north where his strongest support base had always been. It appeared the coup would not go over without some resistance. But Thaksin underestimated the support the coup had among Thai people.

By evening the army leader, one of the few Muslims in a high government position, announced that a new leader would be appointed within two weeks, and that leader would rule until October 2007 when the next elections could be held.
Otherwise, the coup was already shunted to the back pages. It was bloodless and had hardly a resister. In fact, regular Thai citizens were seen giving soldiers flowers as they passed the guarded buildings. Go Go dancers pulled up a truck and performed for the soldiers; parents snapped photos of their children on the tanks. For someone studying conflict this was a very odd coup. But as numerous people would tell me: “This isn’t the way we would have wanted it, but it’s the only way it could have happened.”

And maybe they’re right. It’s a peaceful government transition claimed through a military coup. How do you define that one? It’s not as if this is new to Thai politics. Though it’s the first coup in fifteen years, the country has gone through more than a dozen military coups – some not quite as peaceful as this – and had numerous different constitutions. Not amendments, entirely new constitutions! People worried about the continued presence of the army but within two weeks, as promised, a new leader was chosen and the tanks were put back in storage. The man chosen is a retired military General but I suppose it’s the closest thing to a civilian they could find. And the most important thing is that he’s respected by the king and by the Thai people. Can’t ask for much more than that I suppose. But no one will say that Thaksin is out for good. He’s too smart and too resilient; most Thais I spoke to were certain he’d be back in the future. Stay tuned…

(P.s. I will start to work backwards and detail what's new, and as always, a lot is new!)