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Yesterday evening on December 26th, we went out to have lunch.  The Christmas decoration still remained along the streets and the department stores here in Bangkok.  I know that Thailand is an eminent Buddhist country.  According to the official, only 1% of the population is Catholic.  Nevertheless, it is said that in fact it is at least 5% of Thai population are Catholic.  During the special festivals of Christmas and the forthcoming new year all department stores are really crowded due to a lot of people are doing shopping for presents.  The department stores have organized the small corners to help their customers on packing the presents and all the gift corners are very busy too.
After we had finished our lunch, we decided to go to The Lumpinee Park, a Public Garden in Bangkok downtown. Many food stalls are seen at the street fair along the way we were walking.Once at the park, I actually felt myself in a quiet paradise.  I say this not only because the park is surrounded by many old, tall and green trees but also the park is located in the heart of Bangkok city and on a large, crowded and noisy avenue.   Nevertheless the heavy traffic and traffic jam, inside the park is really quiet.  In the middle of this park, there is also a beautiful lake which is home of large number of fish shoal. There were many couples sitting along the lake under the shade of the trees, at the lake’s edge.  In this faraway country I saw a group of Western guys playing soccer not far away from this lake; this sport is not common here in Thailand.  While we were on our way to catch a bus to go back home, we saw a demonstration of the “Red Shirt” protesting peacefully in front of the park.  Actually I don't like Thai music, but the music that they were playing was really quite good at the point that I even wanted to dance.  I asked my wife to translate for me the lyrics and she told me that "these songs are really hearten"… Just the demonstrators want a 100% Democratic Country where it is free from the coup d’etat of the military.