Buhay Bangkok

There’s a craze going on among Thai drivers. There’s no single word to label it yet, but it involves hanging a stuffed toy at the rear of the vehicle, alongside the exhaust pipe, and drag the poor thing as one goes his daily business.

At first, I told myself what a waste of toys. Doraemons, Pikachus, Hello Kittys, and other generic stuffed bears and dogs and other fauna are dragged through dust and grime. I even saw a Mask Rider Black stuff toy once. A photo in the newspaper featured a taxi’s rear end festooned with a dozen or so teddies, some as big as a four-year-old child!

I thought these stuff are hung from the rear-view mirror inside the vehicle (except the huge ones, of course!), not the rear of the vehicle?

It turns out that this latest trend has some supernatural and superstitious reasons. According to a news report that I read, Thai drivers do this to be safe from evil spirits. They claim that these malevolent spirits possess drivers thereby causing road accidents. Solution, hand all these stuffed toys from the rear end of your vehicle and let the evil spirits possess these inanimate objects instead.

Reminds me of the Biblical story of Jesus casting out a legion of demons from a man and having them possess a herd of pigs, instead. The difference is that the pigs were alive while the stuffed toys are…well, stuffed.

Police are not amused though. They announced they will arrest drivers whose vehicles have these adornments. “They might cause road accidents,” police said. Indeed.

What I find amusing is the supposed involvement of these supernatural spirits in road accidents that are often caused by spirits of an altogether different variety, especially those from bottles labeled Johnny Walker or Singha.

Newspaper reports have always carried news of vehicular accidents in Thailand caused by drunk drivers. Perhaps these drivers should have let the stuffed toys drink all the intoxicating liquor instead? That way, the ‘evil spirits’ will not lead these drivers off the right track.

I made a brief round-up of interesting stories both here in Thailand and in the Philippines (especially those dealing with OFWs). I’ll try to make this a regular feature of this blog.

Gen. Sonthi in mufti? Why not?

http://www.bangkokpost.net/topstories/topstories.php?id=120059

But don’t dare touch MBK DVD stores!

http://www.bangkokpost.net/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=120061

Even as study shows that majority of OFWs are investing in real estate, some developers are scamming this new niche group:

http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Opinion&p=49&type=2&sec=25&aid=20070710167

Over-employed yet underpaid? One more reason for Filipinos to join the Diaspora.

http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Headlines&p=49&type=2&sec=24&aid=20070710209

The rainy season here has begun. Unlike in the Philippines, Thailand is spared from typhoons. No wind whistling, wrenching GI sheets from houses. No suspension of classes when PAGASA announces Signal No. 3. Instead, what we have here is monsoon rain. Not even the phrase ‘raining cats and dogs’ is enough to describe how heavy the downpour can be. The rains come only during late afternoons and early evenings. First would be the solitary raindrops that would then give way to the bigger ones that go tap-tap-tap on the apartment’s GI sheet media agua. Soon, curtains of rainwater would cascade, drenching everything not under cover. Most of the time, it would halt after an hour or so, leaving in its wake the smell of wet earth and fresh breeze. Floodwaters rise only up to one’s ankles here, unless one lives along the banks of the Chao Phrya, in which case, houses are submerged and people drown. Otherwise, the waters recede from the street in a few minutes, leaving only mud the color of monks’ robes.

***

Lizl and I brought Paulo, Isabelle and Pia to church last Sunday. Leah, Lizl’s youngest sister, also came along. It has been two months since we last attended church services at the Evangelical Church of Bangkok.

Paulo and Isabelle missed Sunday School. When I fetched them at their class at the end of the service, they were in rapt attention while watching cartoons on TV featuring Biblical stories. Except for two or three Thais, Paulo and Isabelle’s classmates were all farang kids. By this time, they’re getting used to farangs, though Chubby is the one who feels more at ease speaking with them; Paulo just keeps quiet.

Rev. Teschan did not preach last Sunday. Instead, a pastor from New Jersey delivered the sermon. He dwelled on changes in our lives. An appropriate topic as we marked our first year in a foreign land.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Siam Paragon. We browsed books at Kinokuniya. The kids really loved reading books there. We bought Chubby a book. Paulo preferred a toy, so he got another Hot Wheels car later.

Earlier, we had a food trip of sorts for lunch. Lizl had latna, noodles with a thick soup, pork slices and kana, a popular leafy vegetable in Thailand. I had chicken mataba, an Indian version of chicken pie (though this one is square-shaped) while Leah had chicken curry. The kids stuck to KFC. We also had chicken barbecue and for dessert, we sampled small round waffles with coconut filling. No wonder, I felt sleepy while reading a book at Kino.