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Whose side am I on?

Posted in Daily Diary by Andrew Biggs on the September 5th, 2008

“Whose side are you on?” the taxi driver asked me last night.

It was 9.30 pm. I had just finished teaching and I was tired. As we drove down Sukhumvit Road, the taxi driver asked me the question. At first I didn’t understand.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Whose side are you on — the government’s or the PAD’s?” (The PAD is the People’s Alliance for Democracy or the ??�????????????????????????????????????)

“Why do I have to be on one side? Can I be in the middle?”

The taxi driver looked a little threatening. “Because if you don’t take a side, you are nothing.”

“I see,” I said, looking out the window, and wondering to myself: “Should I get out here, and find another taxi driver who won’t threaten me like this?”

“Well, I’m a farang,” I said. “I don’t get involved with Thai politics.”

“Yes you do,” he said. “I have seen you talking about Thai politics on TV. So who do you support — Samak or Sonthi?”

I was sick of this guy by this stage. “Listen to me,” I said nicely but firmly. “Why do you want Thailand split in two? Whatever happened to consensus, to talking things out, to finding solutions instead of dividing the country in two? Is that what you want with the country?”

“The PAD should be jailed,” he said. Ah, so now I knew (as if I didn’t know before) which side he was on.

“So? Whose side are you on?” Mr Belligerent Taxi Driver asked me again.

“I’m on the side of His Majesty the King,” I answered.

That, of course, confused him. But even better — it shut him up.

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Nakhon Sri Thammarat

Posted in Daily Diary by Andrew Biggs on the September 3rd, 2008

I just returned from a trip to Nakhon Sri Thammarat. Wow, it’s been about six years since I was there the last time. That was before the whole Jatukham Ramathep craze exploded across Thailand, and everybody was rushing to the city to buy or bless their amulets. Things have calmed down a little since then, and now Nakhon Sri Thammarat is the city it used to be, long and skinny, hugging the coastline of southern Thailand. As I told 600 students last Saturday, “This is a very skinny city and full of Dharma … which is kind of the opposite of me!”

I was in NST to give a speech for the Government Savings Bank. I had a very delicious dinner there at a restaurant … at the end of the dinner I accidentally dropped my mobile phone into the khlong behind our table! How stupid was I??? Somebody fished it out of the khlong and rushed it to a mobile phone technician but alas, the guy said it was broken forever. When I flew back last Saturday I bought myself a new mobile phone, which made me a little angry coz the other one I’d only had for six months.

On Sunday my old mobile phone was completely dry and guess what … it started working again!!! Now I have two mobile phones — and wonderful memories of Nakhon Sri Thammarat.

Next time I go to dinner I’ll sit on the other side of the khlong …

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Whose side am I on?

Nakhon Sri Thammarat