So who is going to be in Bangkok for Culture One next week? I sure as heck am. I’m looking forward to it immensely. Culture One is touted as Thailand’s first outdoor international dance-music festival. There have actually been outdoor festivals before, such as the Fridae parties in Phuket, but none quite on this scale.

Culture One will take place at BITEC, Bang Na on January 19. There will be four arenas. The main arena is the one to watch and it will feature David Morales and Stanton Warriors. There will also be an Amnesia arena and a Godskitchen arena.

The lineup isn’t particularly inspiring, but the whole event looks like being a lot of fun. There will be a Dude/Sweet arena featuring performances by the likes of Slur, so the indie kids will have somewhere to kick about.

Tickets are 650 baht in advance or 850 baht on the door. The event is sponsored by Bacardi, so this will probably mean that dirty rum is the only drink available. The show kicks off at 4 pm, 5 pm or 6 pm, depending on which website you visit. It’s supposed to finish at midnight – most likely there will be an after party somewhere.

This is new territory for Bangkok. Many readers here (Roger) will be reading this and thinking, “What the heck is this all about?” To those readers, I make an apology of sorts, but I’m excited about this event. I can’t tell you how much I need a holiday after working solidly on Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

For anyone in Bangkok next weekend, drop me a line. Hopefully I’ll get to see Club 808 too.

I’m exhausted. Time to sleep.

The fallout from the election is fast becoming a shambles. On the plus side, the election took place, but even with free elections, somebody in Thailand will always find a way to fck things up and make a mockery of the whole process. From today’s Bangkok Post:

If the [Supreme] court rules against the PPP, its plans to form a coalition government will collapse, and the party will be dissolved.

Plans to set up a coalition government led by the People Power party (PPP) are hanging by a thread after the Supreme Court’s Election Section agreed to rule on whether the PPP is a nominee of the dissolved Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party.

The court has decided to consider all four points in a petition lodged by Democrat candidate Chaiwat Sinsuwong. The first hearing is scheduled for Jan 15.

Mr Chaiwat has accused the PPP of being a nominee of the TRT, which was dissolved last year by the Constitution Tribunal.

He has also demanded that advance votes on Dec 15-16 and the Dec 23 polls be nullified.

In the petition, he has asked the court to rule whether the PPP was qualified to field candidates in the Dec 23 general election, if its leader Samak Sundaravej was eligible to endorse party candidates, if advance votes on Dec 15-16 and the Dec 23 polls were valid and if the distribution of VCDs of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra were illegal.

Chaiwat is really going for it here. This comes after news that 397 out of the 480 poll winners have been endorsed. With the current situation in Thailand, I’d say we’re some way off clearing up the little matter of Thailand’s future government.

Thailand is in mourning at the moment. I haven’t seen such an occurrence since Princess Diana died 10 years ago. After the death of HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana yesterday, the Thai government declared 15 official days of mourning. Black is the color of choice for this period. Most newspapers incorporated black into their layouts today and the government has asked the public to wear black.

I went out and bought a black polo shirt to wear to work today. The dress code wasn’t strictly adhered to across Phuket. One recommendation that I won’t complain about came today when entertainment establishments were asked to tone it down and keep things quiet during the 15-day period.

In Phuket, Muang District Chief Wisit Kurattanavej said that any venues that do not keep calm things down during this time will be “blacklisted”. The basic premise is that bars and clubs are allowed to open, but they should not be too noisy. In Patong tonight, Seduction Discoteque is open as usual, apparently, but a ban on dancing has been imposed on partygoers.

Newspapers continue to be dominated by headlines relating to the death of HRH Princess Galyani. Some 10,000 people gathered on Wednesday at the Grand Palace to pay their respects. The unity of the nation at this time of unity is astonishing.

The recent elections have taken a back seat in the present climate, although today The Nation revealed that “the Election Commission Thursday endorsed election results in 397 constituencies and set aside 83 results for investigation of electoral fraud.”

Sad news from The Nation:

Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana passed away at Siriraj Hospital, announced the Royal Household Bureau. She was 84.

The Princess’ condition worsened on Tuesday night and she passed away at 2.54 am on Wednesday January 3, 2007 [Wednesday January 2, 2008].

The Princess had been received treatment for cancer at the hospital for months. Well-wishers had flocked to the hospital since the news spread that she was admitted.

The Princess is the elder sister of two kings of the Chakri Dynasty - King Rama Ananda and the present King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

May she rest in peace.

Another New Year’s Eve and another night of debauchery behind me, it’s time to gather my thoughts and look forward to the coming year. I had a great New Year’s Eve, spent with my girlfriend and a few good friends. After dinner at Indigo Pearl, we arrived at Patong for about 11:30 pm. We had vague plans to go to Laem Sing at some point, but these plans never materialised.

Patong was chaos, but the fireworks show was fantastic. Down by the beach, every now and then a rogue firework would launch itself into the crowd and explode. It was terrifying, but a lot of fun at the same time. Everybody was buying those large flying lanterns and launching them into the sky, only to see them become engulfed in flames and descend upon people’s heads.

We bought the cheapest bottle of “champagne” we could find – a brand called Splendid – and drank it on the beach. From midnight onwards, we were in and out of various bars all night, eventually opting to sit outside a 7-Eleven as the sun rose.

Arriving home at about 7:30 am, I slept solidly until about an hour ago – and now, at 5 pm, I’m at work lending a hand to help close the paper.

It’s possible I’m still drunk. I haven’t had so much fun on New Year’s Eve for a long time. Last year, there were the Bangkok bombs and the year before, I went to Santika to see Loso, but he didn’t show up – such a disappointment.

Happy New Year everyone.