Thailand on Screen: Where Paradise Meets the Movies

Thailand has always looked ready for its close-up. With jungle-clad mountains, gleaming temples, tropical islands and Bangkok streets buzzing with neon, tuk-tuks and organised chaos, the country has become one of the world’s favourite filming locations.

TITANIC Exhibition Bangkok, Amazing Thailand

The Unsinkable Titanic ... so far, so good.

Brrrrr! I am frickin' freezing standing on the promenade deck of the Titanic, staring out at a clear starry night. A couple shuffle past me, headed to their plush first class cabin just inside the large heavy doorway. I should get out of this Arctic freezer cabinet myself ...

The experience at this exhibition is scarily realistic - too realistic! - given they have turned the air-conditioning to a ridiculously cold degree. I am sure most of will be on our deathbeds with pneumonia this time next week.

Still, our fate would be far better than the poor sods who set sail that April day exactly 100 years ago, which is why this show, officially called TITANIC; THE ARTIFACT EXHIBITION is now being staged.

Before you come aboard, you should know it is an expensive voyage at 500 baht per person. But really worth it if you want to soak yourself in the evocative and emotive side of the incident. Firstly, you are given a White Star Line boarding pass with a passenger's name on it and a few facts. So I am now Mr Benjamin Hart as I step aboard the grandest ship ever constructed (far too grand for me to afford 1st class which would cost today the equivalent of between $50-$100,000 for the trip.)

That grand staircase ...

The size and scale of the exhibition is truly impressive ... not just a few rusty things on show, rather to-scale reproductions of entire 1st and 3rd class cabin sections, the massive wooden staircase, the boiler rooms, and of course the bow section where you can do that whole Jack and Mary (Leonardo diCaprio/ Kate Winslet) 'My Heart Will Go On' thing. That Titanic theme song video by the way has already had more than 82,000,000 hits on YouTube. Celine Dion has a looooot to answer for and some have even cruelly suggested it was a pity she didn't go down on the original ship.

It starts off with a detailed overview of the painstaking hot-rivet construction process, introduces you to the key crew (including the captain who was supposed to have retired but brought back for one last hurrah before sailing off into the sunset), and then into details of the journey itself.

Did you know that the Titanic burned 850 tons of coal per day, jing jing.

Menus are reprinted. Stacks of crockery, wallets, coins, jewellery all robotically retrieved from miles under the surface are on show. Ice warnings from other ships in the area rebroadcast and strangely ignored, as the Titanic sailed on at virtually full speed as other ships told of how they were stopped and surrounded by ice floes. (Or perhaps it's not that strange when the skipper is being feted with the finest champagnes on account of another successful crossing even though they were two days' sailing out of New York still).

This, folks, is the actual iceberg that did the damage.

You can even touch an iceberg. Yes it's real, and frozen, but they explain that the seawater that night was even colder because salt water freezes at a lower point. Bet you didn't know that! So most people drowned not from, er, drowning, but from hypothermia.

The cruel fate of several passengers is spelled out. I, Mr Hart, for example was a talented builder travelling with my wife, Esther, and seven year old daughter, Eve. I had packed up my family and was heading for Canada to get a job in the booming town of Manitoba to get out of the financially-strapped problems I had found myself in back in Essex, England.

Poor Esther had misgivings about this ship and stayed up each night concerned for us, then slept through the day.

Feel for Frederick Goodwin though, who was on board with his family including six kids. They were booked on another liner, but their booking was changed over to put them on the Titanic instead. None of them survived.

Apart from sadness and melancholy, I emerge into the 34-degree celsius Bangkok afternoon feeling a little angry. Angry at the ineptitude of things. How, for instance, when the ship had taken 3 years to build, had the two lookouts been too busy to remember to pack simple equipment such as binoculars. Pretty simply thing, really.

Row, row, row your boat ...

And although the original plan had allowed for 32 lifeboats, this had been whittled down to just 20 for better aesthetics on the deck. Even this number was above the legal requirement but still woefully short as there was really only provision for about half of all the passengers anyway. This was not helped by the fact that the first 7 boats launched virtually empty carrying only 160 passengers out of a possible capacity of 430. And the menfolk stood around the decks desperately puffing away on their cigars while the orchestra played 'Nearer My God to Thee' (the final request of the conductor himself who'd always wanted that song to be played at his funeral).

As for me, Benjamin Hart? I never lived to tell this tale.




The Titanic 100th Anniversary Exhibition 1912-2012 is on at CentralWorld Live, CentralWorld, 8th Floor, Bangkok (get off at Siam or Chitlom BTS stations) from 10am-10pm daily until September 02, 2012. Tickets at the door or from Thai Ticket Major.

All stand (still) for The Royal Anthem Thailand

The Royal Family is venerated in Amazing Thailand, and rightly so, the King and Queen are not only the longest reigning monarchs in the world, jing jing, but they have done untold great things for this country and its people. Just last month he celebrated 66 years on the throne, a world record.

In just about every office you will see pictures of the King and Queen in the lobby, even giant posters several stories tall outside office buildings in Bangkok.

Travellers should also be aware that the Royal Anthem is played often at 8am and 6pm daily. You will notice that Thais will stop dead in their tracks and listen quietly and attentively while it plays for a couple of minutes. You are expected to do the same (just yesterday, it was quite funny to watch those tourists who were not in the loop wandering about and wondering why suddenly everyone has frozen stiff in the spot where they were).

If you go to a movie in Thailand - and the cinemas in Bangkok, Samui, Phuket, Pattaya, etc are excellent and cheap and play new release* movies that are on the same time schedule as the rest of the world - they will also play the anthem before the movie starts.

You should stand and listen quietly. I have seen farangs not do this, and it is openly disrespectful to local customs and to the locals who have genuine adoration for the Royals.

So if you're sitting, get off your fat ass and stand up. If you're walking, just stop where you are. And enjoy the fact that at least one country has a stately figure head who is actually worth respecting.


* Spiderman, Abraham Lincoln and The Dictator are currently showing in Bangkok cinemas and around the country.

Bangkok situation update and, er, the best rooftop bars.

Please see http://www.thailandjingjing.blogspot.com for more recent up-to-the-minute updates on the Bangkok situation and the situation in Thailand as the Thai election draws nearer. Thanks.


'Oim roolly glared we caaaim,' said a middle-aged female Aussie tourist, as the group chinked glasses at Vertigo, on the 61st floor of the Banyan Tree Hotel. It's funny how the Aussie accent at home is just the endearing Aussie accent we all know. But somehow on this romantic night it cut through the air like a chinesaw. I mean chainsaw. The group was saying how they nearly cancelled their flights after hearing 'the news' about Bangkok, but here they are enjoying a truly stunning 360-degree city night vista and quenching their thirsts with cocktails.

In fact this blog was supposed to be about 'all the bad stuff' going on in Bangkok at the moment (no, no, I'm not talking about Patpong). So we caught the Skytrain to Sala Deang station right in the middle of the Silom District. You might remember that as being one of the places I indicated might be best to avoid around this time.

Anyway, we enjoyed a really authentic Thai meal at a restaurant called Banana Leaf in Silom Complex, adjoining the BTS, before getting a tuk-tuk to the Sukhothai Hotel. Apart from a car accident, there was no sign of anything untoward, and certainly not an out of place policeman, soldier nor Red Shirt to be seen anywhere. So ...

From there we strolled to the Banyan Tree. And, boy, is Vertigo well named. I swear the skinny building was swaying in the evening breeze as we emerged on the top deck. And busy! We finally found a cushioned bench at the far end adjacent the railing. Bangkok seemed right in our faces, as we picked out the major buildings and got our bearings. Cocktails are a bit punchy at around 300-350 baht, but, hey this is a five star hotel rated by Conde Naste as one of the world's very finest. The special Jamaican coffees only added to the swaying sensation.

In a similar vein, check out Skybar and Sirroco on top of the Lebua Hotel. On the 63rd the latter holds the distinction of being the world's highest al fresco restaurant. Woah -- this is high! What an amazing difference those two floors make ... it seems like we are set well back from the action, looking at Bangkok from afar -- more like we're in a low-flying airplane -- although it is easy to pick out the Chao Phraya River coursing below. The Skybar itself is a circular bar that glows radioactively amid the plush surroundings, seeming to levitate transcendentally.

Continuing the sky theme, try Red Sky at Centara Grand Hotel, which is a chic urban bistro and lounge style set up (see photo). The lighting on the roof is one of the most amazing lights on the Bangkok skyline, as it looks like some sort of extreme Rollercoast of Death arcing over the roof of the building, glowing red and all the colours of the rainbow. Here, you are only 55 stories up, but being right downtown in the Siam area, gives you a different perspective of Bangkok again.

Anyway, we finished our night with a deliberately long and slow walk from Banyan Tree hotel down Silom Road to the MRT station Silom. Under a perfect half moon sky, with stars and the odd cloud for character, it was a lovely, peaceful night.

Now I am reading this morning's Bangkok Post (Thursday 25 March 2010) and I read where the nationwide rally in support of Thaksin, widely tipped to beheld on Verdict Day (tomorrow) -- and the subject of so much media bleating and over-reaction -- has now been deferred. Furthermore Red Shirt leader Veera Musikhapong is quoted as saying whatever their moves may be, they will be adhering to a strict code of 'non-violence, peaceful, unarmed.'

Certainly not the story I thought I was going to be writing, but, that folks, is what Bangkok is like right now. Jing jing! So another beautiful day writing around the pool then ... Oim roolly glared I caaaim, too.

PS: Footnote (May 2011): Sirroco Bar features prominently in the Hollywood movie Hangover 2 ... complete with gangsters, CI agents and helicopters. That doesn't happen there every day, trust me!