Peaceful Water Town

If it wasn't a friend from Samut Songkhram, I wouldn't have the fortunate chance to visit Amphawa. The truth is, as a Malaysian, I had never heard of the name, let alone to visit. But to my pleasant surprise, Amphawa has turned out to be one of my favorite places that I have visited in Thailand.

Amphawa is a district located in the province of Samut Songkhram. It is about 60km away from Bangkok. It makes a nice day trip from Bangkok. The more popular Damnoen Saduak floating market is nearby. So, you can throw two birds with one stone if you pay a visit to Samut Songkhram.

The first time I visited Amphawa in May 2008. I visited Amphawa in mid afternoon, there wasn't many tourists at all. We parked our car and walked towards a coffee shop. I didn't know that the the back (or was it the front?) of the coffee shop actually opens to a canal. The canal is like the main street on the small town. On both sides of the canal, there are rows of old houses facing the canal. There is a walkway that links each houses and shops. Visitors can walk on the walkway from one shop to another. There are staircases that lead to the canal. My friend told me that the water level will rise in the late afternoon. Therefore, Amphawa floating market will start later in the afternoon. Well, due to time constrain, we didn't stay late enough to see the floating market. But I definitely enjoyed my 2 hours stay in Amphawa.

In November 2008, I visited Amphawa again. On my second visit, I still liked it. We walked in a market and had lunch by the canal. The atmosphere was relaxing and nostalgic. It was as if I had gone back to 20 or 30 years ago. In Amphawa, you can find old fashioned toys that were popular 20 years ago. There are some homestay at Amphawa. I saw on some pictures that monks row a small boat to collect food donation in the morning. I would like to see that one day. Perhaps I will stay for one night and get the relaxed weekend away from hustle and bustle of Bangkok. Although thee are many visitors in the weekend, I hope the town doesn't get overdeveloped. It is charming the way it is now.

Farewell to a Princess

Last Friday (14 Nov 2008) was the beginning of the 5 days long Royal Cremation Ceremony for Her Royal Highness the late Princess Galyani Vadhana (the elder sister of his Majesty King Bhumipol) of Thailand. In conjunction with the royal cremation, people of Thailand were told to wear black or white for 3 days as the mourning period for the late princess.

Even though I am a foreigner living in Bangkok, I also wore black shirt with grey pants to show my respect. I was glad that I did because as soon as I was on the street, I saw that almost 99.9% of the people wore black or white as told. It was amazing to me that Thai people really respect the royal family. Growing up in Malaysia, I never pay much attention to the royal family in my own country. But here in Thailand, the royal family is part of Thai life. You can walk in the streets of Bangkok without seeing photos of their Majesties the King and Queen.

In light of the late princess’ royal cremation ceremony, I can see that Thai people are very united. Although monarchy has become history in many countries today, it is good to still have a royal family in a country. Though the royal family may not have the power they possessed before, but it sort of unites the people in the period of political separation in Thailand. I cannot imagine any country in the world where almost all the people (including foreigners like myself) would wear black to bid farewell to a princess. To me, this is one of the precious experiences I have in Thailand.

By the way, when Bangkokian wear black, there are still fashionable. I saw black and white poker dots skirt, black lace skirt, or simply black dress with cool silver necklace, etc. From my observation, Bangkokian sure mourned in a fabulous way.

dwp Care 2008

Last Saturday, my company had a charity event called dwp Care. This is an annual event that dwp gives back to the community in need. This year, we invited children from House of Grace to our office in Bangkok and then brought them to Ocean World for a fun day. House of Grace is a charity organization for children with HIV. There were 50 children joined us last saturday. They ranged from 18 months to 19 years old. When the arrived at our office, we served them some juice and snacks. After that, they did some fun stuffs like painting on a large canvas that we had prepared for them, origami, some IQ games, and etc. One of the meeting room was converted into a game zone, and another meeting room had Cartoon Network to entertain them. For lunch, we had ordered KFC and Pizza Hut that the children seldom have the chance to eat. After lunch, we brought the children to Ocean World Bangkok.

Throughout the day, I tried to communicate with the children with body language and my very very limited Thai language. I tried to ask them ‘What is your name?’ etc, but it wasn’t successful at all. But with the help of my Thai colleague, I was able to play for a few minutes with some of the children.

When I thought about the children who looked so normal were actually HIV carrier really made me sad. These are innocent children who have been brought to the world to suffer. All of these are caused by the irresponsible parents. But all the damage had been done. All we can do is to hope that scientists can discover cure for AIDS patients. But for now, the least we can do is to have a fun day with the children.

At least I saw some happy face at the aquarium. It made it all worthwhile.