Beer Suit

My attire here in Thailand generally consists of a pair of shorts and a polo or tee shirt. The fact that I've only had to wear slacks or jeans a handful of times since I've been here has probably helped make the heat much more bearable. If I had to wear a suit and tie every day, I would seat even more profusely.

As a consequence of the heat and the absence of a dress code in my current role in life, I did not bring a suit with me. It just didn't occur to me to bring one. When would I possibly need one?

Apparently "when" is today. Singha Beer is the king of beers in Thailand. It is produced by the Boon Rawd brewery. This year, Boon Rawd brewery is celebrating their 75th year anniversary.

At this point you might be trying to find the intersection of beer, which I don't drink, and a suit, which I don't have with me. Well, Boon Rawd is throwing a big party to celebrate three-quarters of a century brewing beer. My wife has been invited as a VIP to the party. Her bus station is a very good client of Singha (I'm hoping the passengers are drinking it and not the drivers, although one never knows here), so they invited her. Since I will accompany her to this event, I need to dress nicely.

If I knew a little more in advance, I probably could have had a suit made for me in fairly short order. There are a lot of places to have a suit made here in Bangkok, and many of them cater to tourists. If they are catering to tourists, that means that they need to be able to turn orders around pretty quickly. Since I've only been back a few days, however, I'm just going to borrow a jacket from my brother-in-law. We'll see how it goes.