"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old AK"

Image, Kalandrakas (and more where that came from)

Note: I'm having trouble with my photos; the colors in the photos below do not match the colors and (in my opinion) do not look nearly as good as they do as displayed in my photo-editing software. I'm not sure what the problem is. Hopefully I can figure it out soon enough & you will humor me & suffer through the lesser versions of the images.

Taste & See: Starting in 2006, to mark the 60th anniversary of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej's ascension to the throne, the Thai people began wearing yellow shirts en masse on Mondays. Yellow is the color of Mondays, the day on which HM was born, and thus auspicious. When the military coup ousted the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, the soon-to-be-banned Thai Rak Thai ("Thais love Thai land/people") party, it came festively, bearing yellow ribbons and guns.

Pink became the new yellow in 2007, when HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana Kroma Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra (how's that for a mouthful) of Thailand was admitted to the hospital for cancer treatment, and her brother, HM the King, was spotted visiting her in a pink shirt. Pink was soon traded for green when HM left the hospital in a green blazer a few days later.

Black was exchanged for green a few months later, in January 2008, during the traditional 16 day ritual of HRH's state funeral. I was back in Bangkok at that time, doing research for WITP at some Thai markets near the palace. One minute I was photographing porridge, the next minute the market was mobbed with middle age ladies in black lace, stopping by to mop up some noodles after paying respects to HRH at Dusit Maha Prasart Throne Hall.






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I love the Thai street markets because they are where everyone comes together. My high society Bangkok host family would plunk me down on plastic stools at makeshift tables with the same ease as my rural Hmong family or community development co-workers. Kids weave soccer balls around the fruit vendors, who peel mangoes for the noodle makers, who dish up bowls of goey-teow for the moto cabbies to slurp up in between ferrying college students to and from classes to the only other activity that matters, eating in the market in between classes.

Political chaos and mourning HRH doesn't stop the everyday goings-on of the market:



Sales of some items probably go up; fragrant floral wreathes used as offerings/expressions of honor or sympathy:


Cheerfully buying & selling lottery tickets:


A rainbow of seasonal produce for sale, including chompoo (rose apple), grapes, green mangoes, and tamarind:



Fruit vendor waits for customers:


A woman waits with buckets of crab and fish to sell:


A shoe vendor relaxes in the shade:


A pair of motos waits for the owners to finish lunch:


Luk Krung ("half Thai") sells desserts (See the hair? I'd bet my britches he's the progeny of a Thai woman & an American soldier during Vietnam et al.):


Bags of chili paste, steamed vegetables, and roasted chickens ready for an easy dinner:


Man cutting fish to order for moto driver:


Woman sips nam dang (red juice made with a flavored sugar syrup) and sells various kinds of pak (vegetables):


Elderly woman waits to weigh fish:


Vegetable vendor makes a sale:


Mobile orange vendor:


Woman roasts fat bananas and chilies for nam prik (chili paste); pounds nam prik:


School boy wheels little girl down a Bangkok sidewalk:



Even as the coup threw democracy out the window (again) and a series of political disputes (see also, an almost comical prosecution) of Constitutional proportions rocked the polarized country into a series of showdowns and violent protests (escalating still), the market continues to be a festive middle ground. (Not that people don't show their stripes at the market; TRT signs used to be present in abundance on vendor carts.)

Ice Cream vendor demonstrates his loyalty to the People Power Party (PPP) through the sticker on his cart:


Satay vendor uses stickers to show pork, chicken, and been skewers, and patriotism:


After all, whether you favor the TRT leadership's ongoing grip on power under a different name, or whether you demand a new election, everyone has to eat.

On a more personal note, I wish I could be there now. My heart is heavy for my beloved Prathet Thai. Keetung jang loey. (I miss Thailand alot.) It is killing me to have to read about the continuing developments from this distance, so hard to get an accurate picture of what is happening and how people are responding. I suppose it is my sense of wistful nostalgia that led me to post the idyllic pictures above when one could just easily show images like these.