Ubon, BKK and Laos 2018
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OCA were again participating in both the Ubon and BKK ceremonies. Normally the Ubon ceremony is held on the 11th, whilst the BKK Embassy ceremony is held on the official Sunday in line with the UK, this time they were on the same day. The itinerary was planned so that the overseas travellers attended BKK with Jim Curtis and myself in Ubon. The first to arrive in Thailand was Neil Campbell accompanied by son Hamish, they made good use of the extra time they had by visiting Kanchanaburi. |
The 2018 British Embassy Bangkok Remembrance Ceremony, is to be the last at the Wireless Road location. Apparently it's moving to some tower block, which is very sad as it seems to have been done as a short term fiscal saving. The OCA group were on Saturday evening (10th) invited to the Embassy Social Club by the ADA Derek Marx and partner Jayne Senior. There were some high jinks by all accounts, as the rollover picture above and the two to the right testify. It's rumoured that as the group exited the club, Neil's piping woke up some of the regulars. Check out the slideshow |
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The OCA wreathlayer this year was David Jardine. A commanding figure standing with other wreath layers, Dave certainly made his mark on the final Remembrance Ceremony at the Wireless Road Embassy. The rollover shows the OCA group at the Embassy grounds in front of Queen Victoria's statue. It includes young Hamish Campbell who was exploring his Dad's old stomping grounds from fifty odd years ago. The Social Club was opened specially, then the group went to The Black Swan to finish off the morning. |
Meanwhile in Ubon, Jim Curtis and myself were joined by Frank and Elsie Moggach who'd travelled quite some distance to be with us. Joining our party for the second year running was Khamma Sroikham, accompanied by her daughter who's attending Ubon University. Khamma is the wife of Ray Withnall. In past Ceremony's our wreath was escorted by a single representative. This year however, Jim Curtis and myself decided to jointly escort the OCA wreath. The pictures have been provided by Miss Ammy Bua. |
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I think an issue has developed over the years, which is that the Ceremony that started back in 2005, when a few ex-pats gathered together to pay respects to a group of POW's and their benefactor. Now it appears, and I could be wrong about this, to have been hijacked for political gain. If that is indeed the case, then I find that sad. But the hogging of the centre stage by a group of Thai's who appeared from nowhere, engulfed the mainstay participants. Having said that, a rendition of 'Auld Lang Syne' does need for people to come together. |
| A rendition of 'Auld Lang Syne' bought the Ceremony to a close, the Thai's have adopted the the traditional farewell since the first Governor to introduce it a few years ago. Little Mother Ubon's descendant's are just to right of centre on the front row. The young woman in the Army uniform centre front is Ammy Bua. Her father was a young civilian worker on the Japanese airfield. She had travelled up from Bangkok to participate in the Ceremony on behalf of her eighty year's plus Father, something she had done prevously in 2012. |
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Then as usual it was a frantic period of picture taking where there is a melee of Thai's wanting pictures with the foreigners. The Thai demanding the most attention from us was Ammy Bua, seen here with Khamma Sroikam (Ray Withnall's wife). Ammy has produced a e-book, mainly aimed at Thai people to let them know what happened in Ubon all those years ago. A copy of it can be downloaded by the link below. The rollover picture is of the Poppy I wore on the day. A batch of them were beautifully made for us by Mike Chapman's children.
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| Mike Chapman wanted to do something special for the one hundreth anniversary of the ending of WW1. Having recently opened a restaurant south of the River Mun. Mike approached the bugler who plays at the Remembrance Ceremony. Sgt Phongpitak Triamart who agreed to play The Last Post at dusk. As he did so Julian Strathern ex Rhodesian SAS lowered the flag and presented it to Mike. The Maggoch's, Jim Curtis and myself along with other ex-pat's, attended this private ceremony. The Sgt played beautifully and afterwards declared that he was proud to do so. Click on the picture right to view the video. |
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You can download Ammy Bua's e-book HERE. On Monday 12th November, the BKK group arrived in Ubon. Everyone including Jim Curtis, boarded a couple of Minibus's and headed north for Mukdahan. Page two continues with the story of what happened next. |
Slideshow
A slideshow of pictures are shown in chronological order. Place your cursor into the picture window to freeze the motion, remove it allow the slideshow to restart. Depending on your connection, it may take a while for the pictures to download and the slideshow to start |
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