Spending several years growing up in Bangkok Thailand was unique to say the least. My dad was a Foreign Area Officer for the region -- which, in non-fancy terms, means that he did a lot of covert-type activities and that he knew a whole lot about the area...a lot. For example, I remember that he spent our first year there driving a white van all over the country with another faux civilian and he often wore tank tops and shorts and grew his hair longer. There are actually several times growing up when I remember my Dad not wearing a uniform and having longer hair. (A lot of kids of intelligence officers have that in common.) He liked to wear Birkenstocks during those times. (His hippy clothes.) Both of my parents learned to speak Thai. My mother was invited to join my Dad's Defense Language Institute class in Monterey, California. (She was the star of the class and kicked all of the guys' butts....cool.) Of course, my parents often used their new-found skills for evil. They used to discuss anything they didn't want my brother and I to know about in Thai -- right in front of us. It was pretty diabolical. When they were in class, our neighbor used to take care of me and my brother. Funny the things you remember.
I have to mention this. My mother's ability to speak Thai is one of my favorite things. I call it my favorite "parlor trick." I LOVE to hear her speak Thai and I love to take her to Thai restaurants because Thai people are so amazed that this petite blonde German lady can speak their language. My mother is really cool about my fascination and she always obliges my requests to speak. [I know I can be annoying about it sometimes.] Once when I was in Rome with my mother and Ray (my sweetheart of a stepfather), we were sitting on the rooftop lounge of the Hotel Eden and having cocktails. (By the way, when in Rome...you should definitely check it out...its a beautiful place with a wonderful view of Rome.) A delegation of Thai people came in and sat down at the table next to us. As with most Thai people, they were all elegantly dressed and the women were beautiful. Now I can recognize the Thai language and I can usually spot a Thai person from across a room (my Thai-dar). I immediately recognized the language and started bugging my mother to speak Thai to them. I couldn't wait to see the look on their faces. As you would expect, Thai people do not usually expect people in Rome (or the USA or anywhere outside of Thailand for that matter) to understand their language. My mother leaned over and greeted them. They were astonished (and I was thrilled). Now the extra cool part was that my mother can recognize Thai military rank. You see, she taught English to Thai cadets at the Chulalongkorn University (the Thai military academy). So, she knew all the ranks and she addressed the officers by their rank. Oh...the Thai people went crazy! They insisted on inviting us over to their table. IT WAS GREAT! Oh yeah...back to the story.
In Bangkok, my brother and I went to the International School Bangkok which was a very cool private school that had a bunch of diplomat's kids. I remember having to wear uniforms and the only criteria I remember was that they be all one color. In other words, you could wear whatever color you wanted but your shirt had to match your skirt/shorts/pants. So, I had a bunch of little matching tops and skorts. Skorts are shorts/skirts. They are basically shorts with a little flap over the top to make them look like skirts. (This was definitely a step up from the matching polyester halter tops and shorts I would wear later during summers in Virginia.) Then, as now, I needed my freedom to run and jump on things (and occasionally people). By the way, I currently find suits very constraining in that regard.
So...there was no TV to watch at that time. I think we had one but it was never on. I listened to a lot of eight tracks of Beatles or Wings songs (my parents favorite) and Gordon Lightfoot. I practically have the entire "Band on the Run" album memorized because of that time. My brother and I would go to movies almost every weekend with our maid. These weren't usually new movies, they were oldies that people would go see and they would be in English with Thai subtitles. So everyone won! I saw almost all of Elvis' movies during that time. "Blue Hawaii" is still my favorite. I remember seeing "Gone With The Wind" in the theater with my mother. Sometimes my brother and I would go see Thai movies as well. We could understand some Thai but you really didn't need to speak Thai to find these movies entertaining. The Thai people like to make superhero movies and, back then, there were two characters that my brother and I LOVED. Mot Dang and Hanuman. (I'm phonetically spelling these.)
Now, Mot Dang means Red Ant in Thai. And Hanuman is a Monkey God from the epic story about Thailand found in the ancient text called Ramayana. (Which is largely a collection of myths about Gods.) India has a Ramayana which has a lot of the same stories but the text is considered sacred in India. In Thailand....not so much. There are murals of the myths all over the place and there is evidence from the earliest kingdoms in Thailand that puppet shows were depicting the stories. One of the main dudes in these stories is Hanuman. He was a very fancy white monkey (from the pictures I've seen) that wore gold arm bands over his biceps and a brightly colored pants with gold thread embroidery. He also doesn't look too much like a monkey but he DOES have a tail.
I have to make a small remark right now about my lifelong desire to have a monkey tail. It would be so useful. I could hang off of trees and type (with both hands.....I've been known to type with one hand when really thirsty) while picking up a bottle of water to drink. You could hold a cell phone to your ear while driving and still keep both hands on the wheel. You could play that game where you tap someone on the shoulder and totally fool them into thinking that you didn't tap them. Hey! You saw both my hands right in front of me the whole time....it couldn't have been me. Ahhhhhh....monkey tail.
Anyway, it shouldn't be a surprise that the Thai people graduated from puppet shows to live action movies. Yes. Hanuman became a superhero and kicks people's butts. For example, he would be fine until someone came in and stole a Buddha or something and then he would do some Thai kick boxing and knock the guy out. There was also this red ant guy who (I believe) was a bad guy. (My brother and I really liked him though.) He had bug eyes and a red spandex suit and a helmet with antenna. My brother had a replica of his helmet that he wore around a lot. We also had a Hanuman mask (which was not as sturdy because it was made out of paper mache) but it served the purpose. For some reason, these two guys would often grow to about 10 times their size and have very Godzilla-like fights where buildings were destroyed and people went running. Whenever Mot Dang was going to charge or attack someone he would yell "MOT DANG!" Mot Dang looked like your more traditional martial arts guy. Hanuman was a little less obvious and he wouldn't necessarily announce himself like that. He did occasionally yell "HANUMAN" though (in case you forgot who the white monkey giant was). My brother and I would run around the neighborhood in our masks fighting each other after we'd seen a movie (we were inspired). Not that we needed any real inspiration to fight or anything....
My favorite Thai restaurant in Tucson, AZ has a large mural of the grand canyon on one of its walls and, peaking around the corner, is the white head of a giant Hanuman. Thai people are awesome.
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