Dec 8, 2009
Thai rich people
Saturday was the King’s Birthday. We have three-day vacation, Sat, Sun, and Mon.
My friend Hansa took me to her friends. It was a 3 h drive from our University. We were invited to come Friday by lunch, but cannot. I had to present a seminar and Hansa had a meeting. We left at 4pm and came too late. We lost a part of the program: visiting the family farm.
I wrote about Hansa in my first letter. Then I went with her to the Chula University alumni party. As I wrote before, Chula University is similar to American Harvard. Harvard admits star students as well as children from the rich and famous families (example W. Bush). So do Chula.
Now I know much more about Chula.
The Chula graduates receive jobs at the highest levels of the Thai Establishment. They help and promote each other. Now you guessed that our host was a Chula graduate.
He is a doctor. After graduation from Chula, he continued his studies at Pennsylvania State and his residency at Yale. Now at 63, he occupies an important government position. His wife is also a doctor.
Now it was his birthday. All family, around 30 persons, and a few guests gathered at the host’s mountain residence. The residence consists of a big house and very modern bungalows. I numbered about 13 of them. All this is in a huge park with a mountain river running through. There are bridges, waterfalls, music and flowers, flowers, flowers as you go through the park.
There is also a farm with 50 employees. We did not see the farm, because we came late. The fruits, vegetables and flowers are grown there. All are organic.
In the evening we had dinner in a special building with a huge hall and a kitchen nearby. The next day we had breakfast at another hall by the river, and later a Buddhist service was performed by 9 Buddhist monks. It would take me too long to describe the service. Maybe I do it sometime later. Anyway, it was very impressive. In the evening we had a Birthday party, for the King and for the Doctor. King’s Birthday was shown on tv.
Before the party, the family gathered and sang. They know a lot of beautiful English and Thai songs. All this reminded me of our Belarusian and student parties (pirushki) at Leningrad with singing all night to the morning. After the dinner, the family sang and danced. Young people participated in karaoke. Later it was Birthday cake and fireworks.
The family lives in Bangkok and comes to the farm three times a year at the family's important days. Anyone of family and friends can come anytime during the year.
I asked Hansa why they do not do a resort here and rent the bungalows during the year when no one of the family is there. Hansa told me: “Why would they do that, they are rich”. That means that a person or a family may be rich enough. I think such an idea is not admitted in America. In America everyone should try to be richer and richer.
There were two generations: the Doctor, his brother, two sisters with their spouses and all their children. All family lives in Bangkok in a gated community which is a huge park. They call it compound. Everyone has his/her own house. All of them studied in the US and all speak English. No one of the family remained in the US.
I understood what good have the poor and the rich in common, and what I and maybe some of you did lose being not rich and not poor. The poor people have big families and live together, at least in one village as I lived as a child. There is a lot of love and attention for children, a lot of family gatherings with songs, dance and some time gossip. I and my siblings went to the Universities and were scattered over the word. No one of us was rich enough to build a compound.
Hansa and I left the farm after breakfast on Sunday and went to another party at the bank of the Mekong river on the border with Laos. There was a Hansa’s school mate A.
H and A know each other from the first grade of primary school. They went to an expensive girl school in Bangkok. They studied there to the 10th grade. After that, the girls moved to the Shula Preparatory school for two years. Hansa was admitted to Shula. A was not. So A went to study in a US college. Hansa studied in the US after graduation from Shula.
There was all the family, about 30 persons, three generations. All of them live in their compound in Bangkok, exactly like the first family. The whole family studied in the US and all speak English. They had not Thai, but European food. They come to the Mekong river residence quite frequently. At the residence in the Mekong, 20 women mates of Hansa and A from the girl’s school gather frequently at birthdays and other occasions.
Thai rich people
Saturday was the King’s Birthday. We have three-day vacation, Sat, Sun, and Mon.
My friend Hansa took me to her friends. It was a 3 h drive from our University. We were invited to come Friday by lunch, but cannot. I had to present a seminar and Hansa had a meeting. We left at 4pm and came too late. We lost a part of the program: visiting the family farm.
I wrote about Hansa in my first letter. Then I went with her to the Chula University alumni party. As I wrote before, Chula University is similar to American Harvard. Harvard admits star students as well as children from the rich and famous families (example W. Bush). So do Chula.
Now I know much more about Chula.
The Chula graduates receive jobs at the highest levels of the Thai Establishment. They help and promote each other. Now you guessed that our host was a Chula graduate.
He is a doctor. After graduation from Chula, he continued his studies at Pennsylvania State and his residency at Yale. Now at 63, he occupies an important government position. His wife is also a doctor.
Now it was his birthday. All family, around 30 persons, and a few guests gathered at the host’s mountain residence. The residence consists of a big house and very modern bungalows. I numbered about 13 of them. All this is in a huge park with a mountain river running through. There are bridges, waterfalls, music and flowers, flowers, flowers as you go through the park.
There is also a farm with 50 employees. We did not see the farm, because we came late. The fruits, vegetables and flowers are grown there. All are organic.
In the evening we had dinner in a special building with a huge hall and a kitchen nearby. The next day we had breakfast at another hall by the river, and later a Buddhist service was performed by 9 Buddhist monks. It would take me too long to describe the service. Maybe I do it sometime later. Anyway, it was very impressive. In the evening we had a Birthday party, for the King and for the Doctor. King’s Birthday was shown on tv.
Chairs prepared for the monk service
Monk service
Before the party, the family gathered and sang. They know a lot of beautiful English and Thai songs. All this reminded me of our Belarusian and student parties (pirushki) at Leningrad with singing all night to the morning. After the dinner, the family sang and danced. Young people participated in karaoke. Later it was Birthday cake and fireworks.
The family lives in Bangkok and comes to the farm three times a year at the family's important days. Anyone of family and friends can come anytime during the year.
I asked Hansa why they do not do a resort here and rent the bungalows during the year when no one of the family is there. Hansa told me: “Why would they do that, they are rich”. That means that a person or a family may be rich enough. I think such an idea is not admitted in America. In America everyone should try to be richer and richer.
There were two generations: the Doctor, his brother, two sisters with their spouses and all their children. All family lives in Bangkok in a gated community which is a huge park. They call it compound. Everyone has his/her own house. All of them studied in the US and all speak English. No one of the family remained in the US.
I understood what good have the poor and the rich in common, and what I and maybe some of you did lose being not rich and not poor. The poor people have big families and live together, at least in one village as I lived as a child. There is a lot of love and attention for children, a lot of family gatherings with songs, dance and some time gossip. I and my siblings went to the Universities and were scattered over the word. No one of us was rich enough to build a compound.
Hansa and I left the farm after breakfast on Sunday and went to another party at the bank of the Mekong river on the border with Laos. There was a Hansa’s school mate A.
H and A know each other from the first grade of primary school. They went to an expensive girl school in Bangkok. They studied there to the 10th grade. After that, the girls moved to the Shula Preparatory school for two years. Hansa was admitted to Shula. A was not. So A went to study in a US college. Hansa studied in the US after graduation from Shula.
There was all the family, about 30 persons, three generations. All of them live in their compound in Bangkok, exactly like the first family. The whole family studied in the US and all speak English. They had not Thai, but European food. They come to the Mekong river residence quite frequently. At the residence in the Mekong, 20 women mates of Hansa and A from the girl’s school gather frequently at birthdays and other occasions.
Mekong River
A's Mekong residence
Banana flower
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