On my last morning in Bangkok, my parents picked me up to go make merit on the 29th anniversary of my grandfather's death. The traffic was terrible because two major demonstrations were taking place in the heart of Bangkok. The first, which we were unfortunate enough to drive by, was a parade to the German Embassy to protest the sacking of the employee and union leader of a German corporation called Triumph. The second was a march on the British Embassy to urge the British government not to grant asylum to Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's ex PM. The current political situation in Thailand is a bit of a mess and you can read more about it here. Now traffic in Bangkok is already legendary - throw a few hundred marching protestors into the mix and you have a disaster. This explains the concept of "Thai Time' - where Thai people treat a rendezvous time rather loosely ;)
As we were stuck at a major intersection, I saw a policeman pull a car over for god-knows-what infraction. At the same time, there was some sort of fashion shoot going on across the road by Lumpini Park - a rather scantily clad (for Thailand!) beautiful Indian girl was surrounded by people with umbrellas and holding large reflectors.
All of a sudden, a swarm of other policemen appear to converge on the one hapless car and at the same time, the Indian girl and the man next to her start doing the bhangra in unison very vigorously by the side of the road. If you're not familiar with that, it's basically the Bollywood style of dancing - screw the lightbulb, pat the dog (to quote "Bride & Prejudice"). I had to laugh - the chaos of Bangkok!
We finally made it to the hall at Chulalongkorn Hospital where most of my extended family on my mother's side were congregated. We had ten monks chant blessings for my grandfather and then we offered them various items of food, drink and three kinds of dessert for lunch.
It was a fitting end to my long stay in Bangkok.
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