Before Mamma Mia

When Katja and I saw Mamma Mia in Bangkok, I was delightfully surprised before the movie started during the previews. They showed a short video clip (~2 min) of specific scenes of the Thai King's history and the audio is the national anthem. Their national anthem sounds really really good. It encompasses the people's reverence very well.

The movie is done extremely well. After the movie was over I still didn't know anything more about the King (really) but I did feel like he really was a great person and it was obvious to me how much the King means to the people. It had a very optimistic effect on me, a very hopeful feeling that everything will get better with time because there are good people out there. It's very touching in that sense.

The thing I'm most amazed about is still the fact that these Thai people, even with all the chaos and random crap that happens outside in the streets and the cities, will stand up together quietly and watch this video together to salute their King, and then go back about their business (in this case it was watching Mamma Mia). Not a single person does not stand up. Every foreigner stands up as well because if you don't, you will stick out like a sore thumb. You get the feeling immediately that it's just really a bad idea to not join them.

From a social perspective I just felt like I had just witnessed something amazing. Something I would have never considered at any point in time would be something that I would see in a country like Thailand. Tears actually came to my eyes as I watched. I had to hold them back so that I wouldn't feel like a dork in the middle of a movie theater. haha

The Thai people love their current king. Apparently he's done some great things for them in recent years and they feel that he really takes care of them. Unfortunately he's getting old and not many people are happy about his son taking over.

If you want to see the video clip yourself, it can be found here.