National Pride

The other day when I was at Bangkok's Railway station preparing to board the train for Chiang Mai, I was walking around indoors just checking out the little shops and food areas. At exactly 6pm, there was a loud siren noise in the station. I assumed it was just part of the daily happenings at a train station so I largely ignored it.

All of a sudden, loud music starts playing throughout the station, everybody in the entire area stands up and stares quietly into the distance (everybody who was moving around stops in place) while the song plays and then when it's over, the siren sounds again and everybody goes on with their business.

I was in shock when it happened because I thought it was some kind of social hoax on me, but later on I found out from somebody that every night at 6pm and in the morning at 8am in every public area of the country and all radio and tv, they play the national anthem and everyone stops what they are doing to stand up and show reverance to their country.

That was amazing to see. It made me feel like Thailand was a better country than the USA right at that moment. Not that it actually is or isn't, but that's how much difference I felt when I saw that.