You experience everything in Thailand (61)
Another episode of a series of stories, telling how Thailand enthusiasts have experienced something special, funny, curious, moving, strange or ordinary in Thailand.
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Today Flemish Michel dreams away with memories of how he received his first geography lessons as a "snotter", a wonderful story!
Thai flags and Dutch ironing boards
Slurping profitably from a fresh Singha on a terrace in Hua Hin and still enjoying a soothing massage, I see a Thai flag fluttering and I dream away to my sweet childhood.
Every self-respecting country has a boundless bond with a symbol somewhere. Usually a private flag is the most commonly used form to show his enthusiasm for his country on special occasions.
I still vividly remember that as a little boy I always used my drinking money to roll a chewing gum from one of those old-fashioned red machines. For 1 Belgian franc, not only did the multicolored bubble gum come out, but you also received a photo with information from a football player or…..of a colorful flag from some exotic country.
Love that collection, which turned out to be my first geography lessons. After a while I could name all the countries without hesitation. It was the time when Korea was separated by Russians and Americans on the 38th parallel. I knew exactly how to tell my buddies that the flag of North Korea (according to Father Blessed "the bad one") was the one with the red star, and that South Korea had a yin-yang symbol in the middle.
It was wonderful to be able to boast to friends that the flag of Yugoslavia was blue-white-red with a red star, and not blue-red-blue with a red star like North Korea. And that our Belgian flag was vertically black-yellow-red and the fanatical Germans kept it horizontally at black-red-yellow. I was then a "snotter" of about 8 years old (for the Dutch friends this is the West Flemish dialect for "little boy") and it would be another 30 years before I first set foot in Bangkok.
And yet there was one picture that I coddled: the Thai flag! The flag with that white elephant (royal symbol) in a Chakra (Buddhist symbol) with its red-white-blue stripes already attracted me as an 8-year-old like a swarm of bees on a honeycomb. Even when exchanging “doubles” at school, I invariably refused to exchange my Thai flag for roughly three other flags… or the photos of three Club Brugge players, let alone six Anderlecht – necks.
No, they didn't get Thailand, not even when, to my amazement, I suddenly twirled a bright yellow gum with another flag of Thailand coming out of the slot. I was completely upset: gone elephant; only stripes in red-white-double blue-white-red.
Father's Elsevier encyclopedia brought the enlightenment. He informed me that a beloved staff member of King Rama IV had once reversed the Thai flag (which was then still Thong Trairong = tricolor flag in red-white-blue) during a flood. Normally, this patriotic sacrilege was supposed to lead to the execution of the unfortunate, but the king introduced a new flag as a symbol with a double blue stripe, so that it was just hung upside down, even upside down.
In the meantime I have been staying in Thailand every winter for 25 years, and to my greatest surprise I recently found a photo of a gifted and wealthy Dutchman, who is so obsessed with Thailand and flag display that he even thinks he should flag his house in the three colors at the arrival of a noble lady.
But he also arranges his multicolored trousers on the ironing tables with such precision that they imitate the Thai flag. Or would it be about the flag of “over de Moerdijk”? Perhaps it is the work of one of his many Thai "cleaning ladies" who relieves him of the ironing and starching of his trousers, in order to pay tribute to them and his country.
To what extent, and how many “Ladydrinks” are paid for this, I leave in the middle of the double blue line. I cherish the photo like that simple bubble gum photo from the past.
Thailand and the Netherlands: small difference when it comes to flag colors, but oh so sweet to each other.
I spent a lot of time on foreign ships during my working life. I always saw the Dutch flag hanging with pride on the mast above the ship's bridge. Sometimes upside down. I pointed this out to the Captain. Of course, with the announcement that it was an insult to the Dutch state. Immediately action was taken and the flag was turned over. The Captain was happy that this did not cause any further problems. A delicious bottle was ready upon departure.
I sometimes jokingly say that everything is copied in Thailand.
They even took the Dutch flag and duplicated it. 🙂
Yes Singtoo, that's right.
Because I cycle a lot, I want to be noticed while cycling, for my own safety.
That's why I have a Brabant flag on the back of my bicycle next to the Thai one.
I lose them regularly, but because I cut a large Thai flag in half and twice lengthwise, I have 2 extra copies. Has nothing to do with our frugality! Brabant inventiveness indeed.
Good story. I was at the '58 world fair in Brussels as an 8/9 year old and outside the pavilions of France, America, Russia and Iraq with that iconic loose-hanging reinforced concrete column, I was very impressed by the country's pavilion Siam which I didn't know of course. We passed it on the way back home, so never visited inside, but from street level I could see dancers in the back outside in indigo colors and silk multi-colored garments dancing to a weird kind of music with very long gold fingernails. This in combination with a beautiful dark brown skin and black hair made an indelible impression on me that I will never forget.
Years later, when I had even visited Thailand, my “franc” fell. Only then did I realize that this must have been the pavilion of Thailand and my preference for that dark brown “skin” and that black hair has still remained haha! .
As a français born in the Netherlands, I find myself in the Thai banner…
Think I know the guy from the flag display. Seems like a tribute to his foreign dignitaries when they come to visit him. He really won't do it for everyone! That he even irons his trousers impeccably and also neatly arranges the colors red, white and blue shows good taste. Apparently he is somewhat Republican because the color orange is missing. Must be a Southern Dutchman. Is it time for the Southern Netherlands to become one separate country together with the Flemish, including the merger of PSV with Club Brugge. Think about the club colours.