coup (take two)

I was thinking about the Thai coup and decided to dig through old pictures that I took while spending a short time volunteering on an elephant reserve that is run by the Thai military. Sounds a bit weird, I know, but the military is sometimes used for grunt labor like that, and this reserve was created by the king, who in many ways has the military at his disposal.

Anyway, the theme that came through the pictires I had: not so scary. Really, I think the PM should just go on back to Thailand, look the generals straight in the eyes, and say "oh come on." That will likely clear the way for him to be reinstated. How do I know this? Allow me to submit exhibit A:



You bet. That's elephant shrubbery. And also my wife, with the Venus de Milo's head superimposed on her own. But pay attention to the elephant shrubbery. Not very threatening, is it?

Now, exhibit B:

Yes, as a matter of fact that is the commanding officer of the camp. With a scarf. And pretty flowers behind him. Again, not so scary, is he?

Still not convinced? Fine, I'll submit exhibit C:

Now I know your initial reaction. "But isn't that an assault rifle? Those things can be scary." Yeah, but not when being held by a 16 year old soldier. Then again, maybe that makes it even scarier. OK. One scary photo, but that's still the minority.

So my advice to PM Thaksin? Go on back to Thailand. It's mostly just flowers and shrubbery.

*****

Clearly the above entry was just an excuse to show you pictures of me and the Thai military. I'm not ashamed of that. I am, however, ashamed of the fact that I still have two more pictures that I wanted to show but wasn't able to work in. So here you are anyway:

That one there is me doing my JFK impression and standing with a couple soldiers. I wanted to pay them five bucks to let me fire their assault rifles, but the wife said no.



That's me with some big general whose name I didn't know, but who must be a bigshot because he flew in on a helicopter. He also must be losing his touch, however, because he didn't even notice that I was pulling off a killer Alexander Hamilton impersonation right behind him the whole time.

And that's it. Hope this was more enjoyable than when your grandma asks you to look at photos from her trip to Palm Springs.