Songkran 2007 at The FARANG Speaks 2 Much (tfs2m)

Hi all and a Happy Thai New Year to you. We have a Songkran 2007 Daily Pics and Update web page now available for your amusement at: http://www.bigmangobar.com/songkran2007.html . Enjoy. Also, feel free to post any Comments about Songkran to this blog entry.

Songkran runs from April 12-15th this year. More general information can be found at the Tourism Authority of Thailand website: http://www.tatnews.org/tourism_news/2103.asp

10 Responses to “Songkran 2007”

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1 mrpc12 Apr 13th, 2007 at 12:15 am

Tell Wan she looks good in a wet shirt!
View all comments by mrpc12
2 DJ Apr 13th, 2007 at 11:17 am

Don’t tell her she also looks good OUT of a shirt also; we don’t want her getting the big head.
View all comments by DJ
3 werewolf Apr 13th, 2007 at 11:19 am

The King is celebrating Songkran:

http://www.bangkokpost.co.th/News/13Apr2007_news02.php
View all comments by werewolf
4 pmmp Apr 13th, 2007 at 1:52 pm

werewolf: They let him go so people can get him back by smearing his face with powder mud and dumping ice cold water down his back. Just punishment I would say.

DJ and mrpc12: Big head pic of Wan coming
View all comments by pmmp
5 smitty Apr 13th, 2007 at 4:36 pm

Following on to that is some good articles today in the IHT editorial section. Both are online now.

Cool how they IHT continue to be allowed to speak their mind.

About the abuses of Les-Majeste:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/12/opinion/edbowring.php

About Thailand censoring YouTube:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/12/opinion/edalamp.php

great stuff.
View all comments by smitty
6 PB Apr 14th, 2007 at 5:14 pm

Re: IHT articles. I may be mistaken, but I believe that IHT is owned by the New York Times. Thailand not only would not, it could not effectively censor the NYT.
View all comments by PB
7 smitty Apr 14th, 2007 at 6:05 pm

Yes - they are owned by the New York Times. Thailand has a right supposedly to censor any publication in their country. Look at what they are doing to the net lately. Probably censoring the net more than China is at this point. Also look at the debacle with the far eastern economic times.

If you read “the book”, basically every local newspaper is somewhat owned by a holding company that is controlled by the palace. So they use this shareholder influence to make sure everyone says good things. This was their strategy over the last 30 years. Thaksin was the one who messed it up a bit with his TV thing - the first channel to not do the royal broadcasts.

So as I understood it the IHT was told to tone it down over the years but after the coup the Junta wanted to put on a good freedom of speech face and gave the IHT a little more leash. Seems they are running with it a bit lately which I think is good stuff! This info a got from a hong kong guy who writes for them.
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8 smitty Apr 15th, 2007 at 9:42 am

Thought this was funny given that YouTube won’t take down the offending Thai videos:

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/04/youtube_will_ob.html
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9 werewolf Apr 16th, 2007 at 4:41 am

I guess UTOOB is more concerned with copyright infringmeent than lese majeste
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10 Smitty from the USA Apr 22nd, 2007 at 8:55 pm

Hey Smitty,
Did you get the handwritten message I left with the cashier on the 9th. Met Kai, Lek and Wan. Lovely place, nice atmosphere and a great burger. Was extremely impressed with Kai’s intelligence.
Cool bathroom too.
See you next time perhaps.
Smitty
View all comments by Smitty from the USA