Sri Nakhon Khuean Khan Park: relax and enjoy the tranquility

We are not yet finished with exploring parks and gardens in Bangkok. Today we went to another jewel of natural habitat: The Sri Kakhon Khuen Khan park. The current King himself gave the park the garden. Although it looks on the map bigger at it actually is, the park is worth a stop. If you are on a organised bike tour you most probably make a visit here anyway, if not, mark it as a way point.

Located on the northern end of the small peninsula the Chao Phraya river forms here, it is open daily from 6am to 8pm and you don't need to buy a ticket. It is also a botanical garden, so expect a lot of signs explaining the plants you see. You can walk around or take a bike (a bike rental is right next to the entrance).

Enjoy the shadows of the huge trees, watch the lizards crawling trough the gras (they are harmless, just keep some distance) or climb up the birdwatching tower (better bring binoculars with you). Have a seat in the wooden pavilions and listen to the sound of nature just a few kilometers from the buzzing city. 

We didn't see a restaurants there, but you are allowed to bring your own food and drinks and have a picnic. Just clean the place afterwards. Toilets are available on the right when you enter the park.


Once you finished you can also visit the nearby Siamese Fighting Fish Gallery, unfortunately it's open only on weekends.

The rainwater people

It seems that the northeast and the north are the match-winners in Thailand. The red shirts like them because they are their people, and the "Democrats" make them so important that they want to pull their right to vote. So it seems decisions are made on the countryside.

In last weekends Bangkok Post Andrew Biggs wrote in his Sunday column about vote-buying and the people upcountry. He better had not done this. What followed was a shitstorm as we call it in German. In front Andrew Marshall, the out-of-country-but-still-knowing-it-all-journalist, and right next to him @forestmat who tweeted this gem: "can you check for me if he's spent time in a rural NE village, drinking rainwater, cooking on a charcoal fire?"

So I learned today that only if you had your cup of coffee made of rainwater and your pork steak made on a charcoal grill you are qualified to understand and analyse the Isan folks.

Here is the thing: As long as we refer to the people in North- and Northeast Thailand as countryside guys, Isan people, farmers or even worst "the uneducated", we discriminate them. They are as Thai as everyone else. Actually the fact that there is less education shows that the oh so smart Bangkokians aren't able to provide education in the whole country. And look whats graduating from the universities in the capital? Generation selfie. While at the same time Thailands best programmers and finest vets are educated in Khon Kaen.

All my friends in the Isan part of Thailand have nice houses, and yes they may drink rainwater because they built a sophisticated rainwater-recycling system that cleans the water and makes it drinkable. And yes, they use a charcoal grill, because that's how you do BBQ. Only the rice is done in the rice-cooker, and the cake got a warm-up in the microwave.

See, of course there are some very poor people on the countryside. And some very uneducated. But they are everywhere, in Bangkok, in Phuket, in Chang Mai, Ubon Ratchathami and Hat Yai. That's how the world is - different. Smart guys and stupid guys, eductated and not educated, with knowledge and without knowledge.

We should stop thinking what makes a differences between people living in different parts of Thailand and start thinking of what they have in common. It is more than some advocates of either side of politics may think.

Suan Luang Rama 9 Park - another jewel in Bangkok

Lumphini park is renown within the expat community as the best place for exercising and for tourists who want to spend some time in kind of fresh air and surrounded by green. But there are more parks in Bangkok, and the Suan Luang Rama IX park might be a bit outside but is worth a visit.

The area is huge, with a big lake and ten of thousands of flowers. It is a paradise for photographers but also for families, since you have so many opportunities to just sit down and have a picnic - either with your own food or some dishes you bought at the stalls.

Entry fee is 5 Baht for people and 10 baht for the car. The park opens every day at 5am and closes at 6pm.

From the parking lot behind Paradise Park shopping mall at Srinakarin road you just start walking. A walk around the lake get you to the main building that looks like a star trek assembly hall. It hosts a lot of pictures and information about the current King of Thailand, Rama IX or better know as King Bhumiphol.

The park is considered the biggest in Bangkok and the botanical gardening is outstanding. Lots of signs tell you the name of the plant, special places like the English garden give you some impressions of international garden architecture.

Find some impressions in pictures and video below.

Bang Nam Phueng Floating market

The jungle that's build through the sling of the Chao Phraya river and makes ut the green lung of Bangkok was unknown territory for me until last week. We heard about the Bangkok Tree house just across the river and wanted to see it with our own eyes. A nice small eco-friendly boutique hotel, build treehouse style but with all luxury you need. 

For those who think they stayed everywhere in BKK already, they missed this one propably. 

Studying Google maps while there I saw a floating market and we decided to take a mototaxi and check it out.  A good decision: The Bang Nam Phueng floating market is a hidden gem, at least for foreigners. We didnt see many Falang there although its a well designed, well maintained and well operated place. Of course the boats are gone and nothing is floating anymore, but that makes the market even better.  

You have Boss Coffee, a tiny coffee shop serving delicious coffee for 25 Baht, and offers a seat on the canal. You have restaurants there, small and big, a lot of very cheap but good food, plants, souvenirs etc. 

The market is open on the weekend from 7am to 2pm. Best time to come is early morning. From the Udom Suk BTS go to pier at Wat Bang Na Nok, it costs just 4 Baht to take the ferry and from there 15 Baht for the motocycle taxi.

Victory or not? The situation in Bangkok (3.12.2013, 12.30 pm)

While gambling is certainly a habit in Thailand you shouldn't do it on politics. Just because the outcome is so difficult to predict. Yesterday we had a record number of more then hundred injuries in clashes with the police, today we had more than a hundred roses offered to protesters by police while opening the gates to their HQ and the government house. There wasn't much of a storm, more a walk in. The CMD as they want to be called internationally declared victory, and they are right at least regarding to their goals announced yesterday: Seize Metro police and Government house.

But what happened to this other goal: getting rid of the government? It seems that Yingluck is playing an odd game. She is ready for negotiations, even for dissolving the parliament. But her first priority was to avoid any violence. Otherwise violent clashes would have given the wrong (third?) power arguments to intervene.  Also, with the upcoming celebrations of  Kings birthday, nobody wants to have protests in the capital.

What's now? This is kind of trending on twitter, at least around the political observers. Yingluck is still Prime Minister, just with an virtual office, while Suthep is ready to go into government house, but still as a visitor.

It seems there is a truce now for the next few days to celebrate Kings birthday. After that, we will see. The army seems to be keen to get both parties on the table to negotiate. Yingluck offers a lot, her political future, but also the risk of losing an election (not so likely). Suthep fears elections since he always lost, but knows that his utopia with only his unelected peoples committee as a government and no parties or elections at all will never happen.

For now, please enjoy the midnight sale in the shopping malls, celebrate Kings birthday on Thursday and wish his Majesty all the best, good health and a long life.

World Film Festival of Bangkok: Shepherds, karaoke girls and a rocket

It's been a while since the last blogpost but I was at the Bangkok International Filmfestival 2013 and decided to wait until the end with a blogpost.First of all big applause to the organizers. Well well done, great selection of movies, well selected venue, fair prizes. I will be back next year.The first movie I saw was I Have Loved from Singapore. The summary says:

 In Siem Reap, a young woman, haunted by loss, mourning, melancholia and the imperfections of memory, dances with two men–one of whom she is married to, while the other is engaged to be married.

Good to have at least these few words, otherwise the movie would be confusing. As a visitor afterwards said: It's this kind of movie you always have at a film festival. A bit to artistic, a bit too long, a bit to much focussed to please a imaginary jury. On the other hand, technically well done, beautiful shots, good location and well recorded sound.Second movie was a film I was really looking forward to: Boundary. The description is a bit misleading:

In the past decade, political conflict has shaken its social and cultural structure. Recently created history, which was understood more than half-a-century is now questioned. Some traces of history being re-interpreted.   The connection of belief, society, culture and history of a country amazingly has an effect on a neighboring country and the whole region.

It is actually a documentary about a soldier who was stationed in the south of Thailand as well as on the Cambodian border during the Prehar Vihear conflict. He was also on duty during the red shirt protests. Director  Nontawat Numbenchapol was really lucky to have found Sitthipong Junthasuk and got permission to tell his story. It gives a good insight in how these political events are received by ordinary people. The film also tells us about the life on the country side during this time, in particular at the Thai-Cambodian border. For those who are familiar with life in Thailand and political developments the movie might have scratched only the surface. But if you watch this movie as a outsider, it gives you quite a good picture from a very different angle. Still, there were some technical flaws, mainly due to the lack of proper equipment I guess, and editing mistakes. 15-20 minutes less would not have done any harm to the movie.

"Karaoke Girl" is a catching title and the synopsis sounds very promising:

Part fiction, part reality, Karaoke Girl follows Sa, a young country girl, working at a bar in Bangkok as an escort to support her family back home. 

So we follow Sa to the market, to the Karaoke Bar, a soup seller, and to the countryside of course. We get a glimpse into the Karaoke Bar business, but thats it. We are with her when she fights with the boyfriend without knowing his real status: Is he just a "gig" (lover), a "fan" (Boyfriend) or a customer?Although the movie starts quite emotional with the leading character crying while telling her story, for the rest of the film it is missing this bonding. Maybe because of the camera angle we follow her more than observing her, rushing from scene to scene. Maybe many people have different expectations (or no at all) when they read the title. Personally I would have expected a bit more profundity. Again, as a independent movie director Visra Vichit-Vadakan apparently had not enough budget (or discipline) to shoot in a consistent quality. At lot of mainly zoom shots were out of focus, the night shots mainly with too low ISO, and on the other hand some beautiful pictures during Sonkran, when the kids play or when she wakes up with her boyfriend in her apartment.

"The Last Shepherd" was a surprise and in a positive way. When you do a documentary about certain people and/or their jobs, you heavily rely on their ability to perform on camera, even then they just play themself. Director Marco Bonfanti had this luck finding not just a interesting story about one of the last moving shepherds in Italy, but also a fascinating character, an almost Italian stereotype person, yet someone you love from the first seconds of the movie. At the end, when he made it to Milan with his herd to show the animals to kids, you may start crying out of empathy with Renato Zucchelli, the shepherd. Well told, well photographed, edited and recorded. A movie that isn't to long and isn't to short. A role model for documentary filmmakers.




Finally I watched The Rocket, one of the stars at the festival. The films synopsis:

A boy who is believed to bring bad luck to everyone around him leads his family and two new friends through Laos to find a new home. After a calamity-filled journey through a land scarred by the legacy of war, to prove he's not bad luck he builds a giant rocket to enter the most exciting and dangerous competition of the year: the Rocket Festival.

The movie is in Lao language with English subtitles, but Thai people usually understand Lao since it is quite similar to the Isan dialect. What the synopsis doesn't tell are the different layers of the movie that makes it so extraordinary.

There is the old Lao (or in this case Aka tribe) culture, were twins are usually killed after birth because one has always a curse. The movie shows this ancient tradition in all of its disgust and brutality. A second layer is the issue of hydropower dams and their effect for the people. Instead of new houses the evicted family has to live in makeshift shelters, with no fertile land and no jobs. 
There is also Purple, a symbol of the transition from Laos past to the future. A former soldier with the US forces he is an outlaw and outsider, but also the one who mentors the young boy and shows him the right way.

The Rocket has some very necessary criticism, in particular about ancient tradition and evictions, but its still not a political movie. It is beautifully shot, the kids and the grandma are amazing actors, and you see clearly that this is production that meets international standards. By the way, this is a reason why the Lao production team was quite small: Laos has not yet the resources for a movie in this league. A surprise was that the Lao government even allowed to shoot the movie.
Sylvia Wilczynski, who is in charge of PR for the movie told me about the production circumstances:

We did go through the official permission process, which took many many months through the Media Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).  We paid large government filming fees and had 20 government officials on set at all times while filming in Laos. Every single one of our team who came from Thailand and Australia had to be have a full media visa, and our local Lao cast and crew also had to be cleared though the Lao government.  Every piece of our filming equipment that was brought in from Thailand had to be listed and photographed and cleared through the government.  We of course had to bring camera, grip, gaffer and special FX  equipment in from Thailand as most of this is not available in Laos.We had a large crew of over 50 people (Australian, Thai and Lao), around 30 cast, 200 extras in crowd scenes, large amounts of complex filming equipment and our shooting involved firing large explosive Special FX rockets into the sky.... It was also important to us, having had a very long relationship with Laos, to make a film which openly explored both thebeauty and challenges of life in Laos.  From our extensive time in Laos over the last 10 years we have seen that the construction of hydro-electric dams and relocation of people is a major issue affecting numerous communities, just as it is in many countries.

Lao production companies like New Wave Cinema or Lao art Media can only learn from a movie like this. although the movie is banned in Laos (I guess mainly because of the dam issue), I would be surprised if it is not available through the usual channels (Princess of Laos was also shipped to Vientiane, although not publicly screened). Lao filmmakers need to understand that a movie that plays in Laos does not have the mission to show the beauty of Laos. It basically rents the landscape. The Rocket did Laos a favor in showing the positive parts of a tradition and culture (the rocket festival)-  as well as the negative (the ancient, inhumane and disgusting traditions). 

One more thing: The downside of filmfestivals is that only few people go there and watch the movies. I do know that some festivals don't allow a film be online before it is screened, but it is bullshit. Dear filmmakers, please let the audience watch your movies, not just some enthusiast, journalists and jurors. Take it online, choose a paid version as it is available on iTunes and Vimea, but please, get a bigger audience. Thank you!

World Film Festival of Bangkok

From November 15th to 24th film enthusiasts will gather at SF World Cinema at Central World. The schedule is long and expect numerous interesting and mostly independent movies to be screened.
The program is available online.

One particular movie could get a lot of attention: Boundary tells the story of a soldier who was deployed to the south of Thailand, the Prehar Vihear area and to Bangkok during the red shirt protests. Director is Nontawat Numbenchapol.

From the description:

In the past decade, political conflict has shaken its social and cultural structure. Recently created history, which was understood more than half a century is now questioned.Some traces of history is being re-interpreted.
The connection of belief, society, culture and history of a country amazingly has an effect on a neighboring country and the whole region.

You can see the trailer below.

I was told that the movie has English subtitles and will be screened 17.11. and 18.11 at 13.00 in SF WORLD Cinema 5.