Today (Monday, August 12) is Queen Sirikit's birthday. Her Majesty was born on a Friday, so her royal color is blue. Due to this, we are required to wear blue every day in August. It's not so bad for the guys; I've got a few blue ties to rotate between. The girls have a harder time though. Basically everything is blue; the palace and all government buildings are flying the queen's blue flag.
The queen's birthday is a national holiday here in Thailand. It's also Mother's Day. Mother's Day is a really big deal here, and the queen is seen as the mother of the country.
A few weeks ago, my British boss Geoffrey invited me to come with him to Mae Sot over the weekend. Geoffrey is really involved with helping support a small school and clinic there. Mae Sot is located in the far north-west of the country, past the foothills of the Himalayas. In fact, it's the westernmost point in Thailand, and at one point I stood literally inches away from the very odd Burmese border. I waded through a garbage dump, introduced Geoffrey to iced coffee, met some orphaned Burmese refugees at the school, and ate at the most amazingly unexpected KFC I've ever seen.
I got back on Sunday evening, and despite fighting a pretty bad fever, I feel really good. Getting to see Mae Sot, a very different image of Thailand than the one I see in Bangkok, was a very rewarding and humbling experience. I will be writing about it in two parts.
Happy Birthday to Queen Sirikit!
Happy Thai Mother's Day to my mom!
Thanks for the day off!
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