Letters from Thailand – #8
Topics for this issue include:
Thailand Pass Updates and News
Loy Krathong Festival
The British War Memorial
Hidden Dangers of Taxis
International Lantern and Food Festival
Annual Monkey Party in Lopburi
Monks Doing Alms Round by Boat
Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market
The Grand Palace
Changing the Emerald Buddha Costume
Interesting Tweets
Bangkok Walking Maps – 5
Thailand Pass Updates and News
The Thailand Pass system seems to be improving with time. Certainly, less people complaining about server errors. In fact, quite a few people have told me that they were approved and received the QR Code within minutes. However, there are still people who are reporting it is taking up to a week or more to get approved. While there are some who have had their application rejected. According to the latest statistics, 214,251 people have now applied for the Thailand Pass with 167,415 being approved so far. They don’t say how many are rejected or still waiting. But they do say that 86,719 people had their applications accepted automatically.
There were some updates that we were hoping to see on the 15th November that haven’t been passed yet. For example, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) were pushing for the RT-PCR test on arrival to be changed to the faster and cheaper ATK test. But that was rejected by the CCSA at their last meeting. The TAT also wanted the age of exemption for unvaccinated children taking part in Test and Go to be raised to under 18, the same as for the Sandbox. But again, no sign of that happening. There will be another review before the 1st December and then again before 15th December. Incidentally, Cambodia is now allowing fully vaccinated tourists to go there without quarantine. Like Thailand, you have to do a RT-PCR test 72 hours before departure, but once you arrive, you only have to do a rapid antigen test.
Loy Krathong Festival
The Loy Krathong festival this year is on Friday 19th November 2021. This is one of my favourite Thai festivals that is celebrated on the full moon on the 12th lunar month according to the Thai calendar. This is usually in November but once it was on Halloween Day in October. Loy Krathong takes place all over the country. People will go down to their local river or even pond to float a small container which is traditionally made from banana leaves. In Thai, the word “loy” means to float. They will put a candle, incense sticks and often a few coins for good luck into their krathongs. They will then float this on the water asking for forgiveness from Mother Nature for polluting waterways. As they crouch there and watch their krathong float away under the gaze of the full moon, the Thai people believe that the krathong is also floating away their bad luck.
Where will you be celebrating this year? One of my favourite locations is at Sukhothai Historical Park. But this year, I don’t want to attend a major event. Loy Krathong is celebrated anywhere around Thailand where you can find water. I remember asking my students one year where they celebrated Loy Krathong, and one kid replied, in a tub of water in the back garden! If you are in Bangkok, the main areas are Khlong Ong Ang Walking Street (map) and under Rama VIII Bridge (map). The BMA are also allowing people to float their krathongs in 30 public parks in Bangkok. The most popular will most likely be Lumpinee Park.
If you are looking for more ideas about where to go around Thailand, then TAT Newsroom has just sent out this press release: TAT highlights unique locations throughout Thailand for Loi Krathong Festival 2021.
One final note about the Loy Krathong festival. Please think carefully about water pollution. Don’t use krathongs made from foam or plastic. Buy something that is biodegradable. These days you can buy traditional ones made from the trunk of a banana tree and banana leaves. But make sure they are pinned together with wooden pins and not metal. You can also buy krathongs made from bread. The BMA has been running a campaign for a number of years now to encourage people not to use foam and to also only float one krathong per family. Last year, the BMA collected 492,537 krathongs in Bangkok. 96.4% were made from natural materials and only 3.6% from foam which is good progress.
The British War Memorial
The annual Remembrance Sunday service took place on Sunday at the British Club in Bangkok. It was good to see the service well-attended by ambassadors and the expatriate community. The event does not only commemorate British, Commonwealth, and allied personnel, but all those who have been affected in all conflicts. According to the British embassy website, the Remembrance Day service “serves as a reminder that nations who fought so bitterly against each other can come together to promote peace and stability in the modern world”. The cenotaph was relocated here from the former site of the British Embassy about three years ago.
The war memorial used to be situated near the Ploenchit road gate at what was then the compound for the British Legation. In this old photo in the national archives, you can just see the Queen Victoria statue behind it and the ambassador’s residence at the back. Back in 1919, the British community in Bangkok wanted to erect a memorial in honour of the British subjects from Siam who had fallen during the Great War. The cenotaph was unveiled on 10th January 1923. The service was led by the Reverend R.J. Hitchcock. This was the first structure to be built in the new compound. The legation officially moved here in 1925, though most buildings weren’t finished until the following year.
After the sale of the front part of the British Embassy compound, to make way for Central Embassy shopping mall, the war memorial was moved from the front entrance on Ploenchit Road to a spot in front of the ambassador’s residence, and Queen Victoria’s statue was moved to the back. The “front entrance” of the embassy for the public was now on Wireless Road. However, the memorial still faced the same way with the front facing Ploenchit and the back facing the residence where the Remembrance Day service is held. This small mistake has now been corrected at the British Club. Twenty-five men of British descent living in Siam gave their lives during the Great War of 1914-1918. Their names are listed in alphabetical order clockwise around the four sides of the Cenotaph with “A” being at the front.
Hidden Dangers of Taxis
If you have been following me on Twitter, you would know that I’ve been highlighting the dangers of being in unventilated spaces during a global pandemic. This is because Covid-19 is airborne and aerosols with viruses can linger in the air for hours. There’s no cheap way of detecting if Covid-19 is present in a room, but you can use a CO2 meter as a proxy to work out the risks. For example, anything over 800 ppm means that you are breathing in the air that has already been in someone else’s lungs. You don’t need me to tell you of the risks you are taking if someone in the room has Covid-19 or any other airborne virus. And it doesn’t matter if they have already left as the aerosols will linger for several hours afterwards.
Of all of the places that I have tested for CO2 on my travels, the taxis in Bangkok are potentially the most dangerous. More so than cinemas, supermarkets and even long airplane flights. In the photo above, you can see that as soon as I got in the taxi, the reading went from around 500 ppm to 2778 ppm. I’ve been in taxis before where it went as high as 3200 ppm. You definitely need a tight fitting N95 masks for taxis. A regular surgical mask offers no protection. So, what can you do to lower your risk? The first thing is to ask the driver to turn off the “recirculation” button. This then brings in air from outside. As you can see in the photo, within ten minutes it had dropped to an acceptable 677 ppm. You could also open a window. But from my experiments, you need to open the front left and back right window which will change the air quicker than just one window alone.
International Lantern and Food Festival
This evening I’m at a press preview of the “Thailand International Lantern and Food Festival” at Ancient Siam in Samut Prakan. The event takes place from 12th November to 6th December 2021. There will be special activities on Loy Krathong Day and the King’s birthday. #Thailandhttps://t.co/UlOxmXJRME
The Thailand International Lantern and Food Festival is taking place from now until 6th December at Ancient Siam in Samut Prakan. I went for the press preview last week and it looked really great. They have over 1,000 lanterns. They have also lit up some of their buildings and monuments. The best days to go are for Loy Krathong on 19th November and King Rama IX’s birthday anniversary on 5th-6th December as there will be extra activities. It is easy to reach there now by taking the Skytrain to the end of the Green Line to BTS Keha station and then a ten-minute taxi or songtaew ride. Unfortunately, this is one of those places that have two prices, but if you live or work in Thailand, you can get the Thai price. I personally think it is worth it.
More information: villageofillumination.com
Annual Monkey Party in Loburi
The annual Monkey Party in Lopburi has been confirmed to take place on Sunday 28th November at Pra Prang Sam Yod in the city. There will be four rounds: 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm. If you are going up for the weekend, you might want to look out for the sunflower fields that are popular at this time of year. I might be going again this year and so look out for more trip details and photos on my social media. The State Railway of Thailand do weekend day excursions to Pasak Chonlasit Dam in Lopburi. I will try and get some confirmed information about this for you in the next newsletter.
Map: https://goo.gl/maps/1y2Wkt6978ZgNA837
Monks Doing Alms Round by Boat
Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market
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The Grand Palace
