I was looking forward to this year Songkran—Thai New Year Festival—since it would be my first one since 2016. It became sombre and stressful. But I learned how resilient one got to be to move on.
The anticipated celebration turned grim when the COVID-19 outbreak from nightspots hit Bangkok in early April. No parties, not the like the ones I had last time!
However, the disappointment diverted my energy to works. There were a couple of projects in DC, working remotely from Bangkok. And there’s also a YouTube project—SIDE DISH—we started developing just after I got out of the quarantine.
The first series is about surviving local business around the Khaosan Road area during the lockdown last year. The insights from the business owners are very inspiring. The outline of their stories is the resilience in their mindsets.
Fortunately, we filmed the videos in March before things went down. But I decided to exclude myself from the editing studio, feeling responsible as my movement has been risky: condo, co-work space, gym, and pub. (As I’m writing this post, the gym is closed, pubs aren’t allowed to sell alcohol, and I get back to work-from-home mode.)
Meanwhile, deadlines for the DC projects approached. So, I ended up working on those projects throughout the festival and just hanging out in my neighbourhood in Soi Pridi Banomyong 2. Even though there was no party on the soi, lives just kept going.
Apart from busy days in the grim Songkran, one just needs to adapt and get by. As those business owners in the Khaosan Road area. As people in the soi. They could, why wouldn’t we?
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