{"id":20746,"date":"2025-10-29T04:36:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T04:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/20746\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T04:36:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T04:36:24","slug":"remembering-the-many-visits-with-thailands-queen-mother-sirikit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/20746\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the many visits with Thailand\u2019s Queen Mother Sirikit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Farewell to Thailand\u2019s gem<\/p>\n

The longer you live, the more friends you tell goodbye.<\/p>\n

A lifetime ago in Bangkok\u2019s Chitralada palace garden I met\u00a0Her Stunningly Gorgeous Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand<\/a>. Tiny perfect figure. Ebony black hair. The face marble. Swathed in Thai silk. We stayed friends all these years. She left us last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We had many visits \u2014 me there, she here. Once, in accented excellent English as we sat in the sweltering sun, she told me: \u201cDue to my country\u2019s blessed weather I have no lines in my face. It is because I perspire so often. This is what keeps my skin smooth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years we did for one another. She wanted Bloomingdale\u2019s to open a Thai department to sell her country\u2019s handicrafts and Thai silk. I would do interviews there. She\u2019d invite me to her parties here. We met in \u201961. We\u2019re talking a long friendship.<\/p>\n

Once, in the years I was on the TV news, she did an exclusive one-on-one sit-down interview with me. I specifically wore a white Thai silk suit in her honor. It was in a suite in the Plaza. The contingent was staying there. In comes Her Majesty flanked by more than the Thai army. And what\u2019s she wearing? A stunning white Thai silk suit. She certainly wouldn\u2019t change clothes and for me to schlep home would\u2019ve taken too long. I wanted to shoot myself but that needn\u2019t have been necessary because her staff would have done that for me.<\/p>\n

Or take the dinner she planned in my honor in upcountry Chiang Mai<\/a>. It was right off my plane\u2019s arrival and my hair looked like it had been ripped off a camel\u2019s behind. I was wearing this big floppy hat. The kind to protect you from the sun. I am chauffeured directly to this banquet for me. No stopping at the hotel for improvements.<\/p>\n

I am seated next to Her Majesty. Smack alongside this elegant stunning lady in a tightly packed table. From nerves, I dropped a utensil. Although 75 servants would have grabbed it for me, I stupidly bent to retrieve it. In doing so my wide straw brim scraped Her Majesty\u2019s face. She paid it no mind but half the country\u2019s soldiers \u2014 bayonets in place \u2014 raced to shoot me.<\/p>\n

Among her gifts to me were a handmade woven dark straw basket evening bag. The lining Thai silk. The handle 18-k gold. The bag trimmed in diamonds. I have it still. Another time a brooch. A 24-k gold beetle. Its sides laminated with an actual beetle\u2019s wings. Why? \u201cBecause,\u201d she said. \u201cBeetles are earth\u2019s longest lasting creatures.\u201d I have it still. And what had she wanted from me? A little drugstore packet of Kleenex.<\/p>\n

My last time with her was when Thailand suffered its massive tsunami<\/a>. People washed away. Homes destroyed. Lives lost. My friend\u00a0Geoffrey Weill, one of the world\u2019s most successful travel experts, and I had two longtime close South African friends \u2014 young teenage sisters, lost. Gone. We were crazed as to what happened to them.<\/p>\n

I flew with Geoffrey to Thailand. Queen Sirikit gave us a high-ranking air force officer. He commandeered an army plane. We flew to Phuket, where the Israeli army, accustomed to death, was in charge of bodies and their severed parts. One of our friends had the South Africa map tattooed on her side. Thus, they could identify her.<\/p>\n

After that Her Majesty was not well. She had stepped down. Her once gorgeous figure had taken on weight. She was receiving no more. I did not see her again. But I will love her always.<\/p>\n

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Speaking of international matters brings me to Saudi Arabia. Once, a violent sandstorm disrupted all wire services. This sign suddenly appeared: \u201cUntil further notice, please limit calls to four wives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only \u2014 so far \u2014 not in New York, kids, not in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farewell to Thailand\u2019s gem The longer you live, the more friends you tell goodbye. A lifetime ago in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[394,6715,9,24,63,299,122,124,123,9202],"class_list":{"0":"post-20746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-celebrity-deaths","9":"tag-celebrity-interviews","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-opinion","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news","17":"tag-thailand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}