I had decided to have breakfast instead of going to see King Bhumibol of Thailand on his 85th birthday celebration. We were told that if we wanted to attend that we should be there at 8am. Here it was 10am, and people were waiting for the King to appear.
I went to see Tom 35, who scolded me, told me to get a yellow shirt from a street vendor, put on some long pants out of respect, and for me to go and see the King.
I did, took at motorcycle taxi (its the fastest way in Bangkok) for 150 baht. I saw a few walking away, and I thought I was too late. But I kept moving forward, photographing along the way through the ever more dense crowd.
I had arrived to the long street full of people, saw the King on the giant tv monitors, and stopped to photograph. Every time the King was shown on the monitors, everyone would wave their flags. It was very emotional.
I trekked on until I was about half way, almost to the statue of the King on the horse. And then it ended. I continued on to the front, photographing the people being photographed, the band and guards parading in front, the television crews, and everyone filing away from the scene. I too walked away along the hundreds of others. Found another motorcycle taxi race me back to my neighborhood as fast as he could in hopes of the driver to be able to return to get another customer.
Long Live The King.
(photos by Randy Magnus)
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