Have no fear, the soldiers are here

The coupe?

In order to avoid the usual evening competition with the two young adults of the house, I decided to use the Internet while eating my morning breakfast. After being in Thailand for only a few days I was shocked to read that I had 15 new messages. “Are you okay?” was the common headline. I was eating yogurt with bananas and felt quite fine. I was puzzled by the sudden dramatic concern for my well being.

“Did you pledge allegiance to the military yet?” was the line that got my head spinning. Unbeknownst to me, the military had taken over Thailand. I left my e-mail and started surfing for news. As I was reading the top stories about the military coupe, the house phone rang.
“School is closed,” my hostess, Noi, stated in accented English. When I inquired as to why, she simply said, “They are fixing something.” I posted the latest information to my blog before continuing with reading the news coverage.

Noi turned on the Thai news channel, the only one we were receiving, as all others had been blocked. Over and over the national anthem played to a video montage of the King’s greatness. It played again and again and again. I continued checking the real news on the Internet.

As I read I learned that school was actually canceled because of the military coupe, I was not shocked. I wondered if Noi knew the real reason. It confused me that she could be so accepting of her lack of information. Maybe ignorance really is bliss. In honor of the takeover, Wednesday was ordered to be a national holiday. No school, no banks, and no government offices.

I hurried to change my blog entry to reflect the truth and asked Noi if we were safe. Her words were so confident, they still echo in my ears. “Is okay, the Thai people trust in the King. He will make sure this is solved.” Feeling at ease with her words, I called home and told my parents I was safe and I would stay far away from Bangkok.

“So what do we do with our day off?” I inquired.
“We go to Future World” Noi replied. I was thinking that an amusement park was the last place I wanted to be in a time of crisis. Seeing my look of puzzlement, she continued, “a big shopping mall. We go to buy things.” True to me American heritage, I do love a good shopping trip. Sorry mom I was going to leave the house.

No more than five miles down the road toward Bangkok I started feeling very uneasy. Traffic was being moved over one lane and men with guns were enforcing the merge. As we approached, I saw the reason for the merge; military tanks were lined up along the street. The tourist in me wanted to take a picture, but I was afraid it would inspire an inspection of the car or an even worse fate.
I peeked timidly from the backseat of the Nissan truck, trying to mask my concern. I choked back my plea to go home as I noticed soldiers with guns watching traffic from the pedestrian bridge. They looked like snipers. Once I regained my composure, I looked around to see how the Thai people were reacting to the situation.
Traffic was moving at a normal clip. The backs of trucks were still overflowing with people and heaps of produce. I watched as a Thai man handed a bag of bottled water to one soldier. The soldier smiled in thanks. We drove on.

Future World looked as if it had been dropped from the future onto an abandoned field. Unlike my stomping ground at the Mall of America, we were literally in the middle of nowhere. From the main road, there was no English indication that a mall was nearby. We took our parking card, navigated the lot and found ourselves inside.
I was stunned. Future World is a four-story mega mall. I saw the familiar sights of KFC, Dunkin Donuts, electronics stores and discount clothing stores. It was like any American mall except that most advertisements were in Thai.
The only thing I needed to purchase was a SIM card for my cell phone so that it would work in Thailand. I had no idea what a SIM card was, but I was told it was the way to go. With some confusion I learned that my American Samsung would not take a SIM card. I needed to start from scratch.

Noi did all of the talking for me. I still didn’t understand how a SIM card worked, or the Thai words needed to purchase one. Thirty eight dollars later I had a new phone, a phone number from the outside of the box and fifty baht of credit. Now I just need some friends to call.

Noi went to purchase a pair of shorts from a kiosk style clothing shop. They had no fitting room, only a large skirt. The skirt was worn so that clothing could be changed underneath it. I flipped through racks of clothing I could never dream of fitting into as Noi paraded around in her shorts. They were knee length, almost the only style of shorts found in Thailand. Happy with her new purchase, Noi wore the shorts as we continued on in search of food.

This would be my first experience eating indoors at a restaurant. So far I had eaten only at the open-air stands. The menu was in English, but I still had no idea what to order. Noi took charge and ordered more food than the two of us could eat in an entire day. We had fried rice, som-tam, and pork and tofu soup. It was spicy and delicious. The leftovers were packaged into plastic containers for us to take home for dinner. Noi was expecting company, so we headed out.

Although I was expecting the soldiers on the way home, their presence still made me very uneasy. I relaxed when I realized how the Thai people were interacting with the soldiers. Despite the rain, the citizens were having their pictures taken with smiling soldiers. Camera phones were everywhere. The rain kept me from getting a clear shot from our speeding truck. Pictures take forever to load anyway, so maybe it is for the best.