Me and my camera in someone else’s home town, my SE Asia trip, my Bangkok nites
The King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej, died a few weeks before we went out there and the entire nation was still very much in mourning. He was clearly very loved and as I got to learn more about him I could really start to see why.
He was a talented composer, musician, photographer, all round renaissance guy as well being a down-to-earth man of the people whilst still managing to perfectly maintain the regality and respect that such a role required. Much has been made of the law in Thailand that makes it illegal for anyone to say anything negative or disrespectful about him but with King Bhumibol you could see that it really wasn’t too much of a problem for anyone. They loved him. A waiter at one of the places we ate at even broke down in tears as he described how grief stricken he was.
Every building had a giant effigy of him in some shape or form and his image towered over you almost wherever you were. In honour of him being a clarinet & sax jazz player/composer all malls and shops played his style of jazz music and will do so for an entire year so it was as if the entire city had its own movie soundtrack wherever you went which was strangely apt as you really feel like you are in a living inside a film in Bangkok. Its kind of Blade Runner meets Soylent Green meets Taxi Driver just without the killer androids, psycho de Niro or enforced cannibalism. So not much like them at all really…