As the skytrain pulled into Siam station tonight, I noticed a lot of decorative lights adorning the nearby shopping malls. "Ahhh," I thought. "Decorations for the King's Birthday next week."
Then, to my horror, I looked closer at the flashing lights to read "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."
Sure enough, as I walked through Siam Center and Discovery Center on the way home, green wreaths and white lights and gold and silver and red bows were going up all over the place. Over the loudspeakers, dance versions of Christmas carols were blasting.
What? Dance versions of Christmas carols? I had to stop and listen to see if it was true. Sure enough, throughout "O Come All Ye Faithful" a "diva" was moaning, "Ooh... Come... Come... Ay!".
I wish I was kidding.
Just now the restaurant scene at the end of "Christmas Story" popped in my head. "Deck the halls with bowrs of horry. Fa ra ra ra ra..."
Several years ago in Bangkok all of the holiday season banners put up by Central department stores read "We wish you a Merry 'Chirstmas'"! Of course the farangs caught it right away, but I'm wondering how many of the English-challenged local population even noticed it.