Crowds start amassing in front of Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall
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Thais began to occupy the Royal Plaza in front of Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall on Tuesday in order to get the best view of His Majesty the King's birthday audience scheduled for tomorrow.
All were wearing yellow, the colour representing Monday, the day of his birth. Throughout his more than 60 years on the throne, the King has granted a grand public audience on only five previous occasions.
Tomorrow, he will turn 85 and will receive best wishes directly from his people when he appears on a balcony of the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall.
The last time he granted the grand audience at the Ananta Samakhom was in June 2006.
To celebrate HM the King’s birthday, also Father’s Day, various public transport services will tomorrow offer free rides or discounted fares to fathers and children wearing yellow shirts in honour of the King. A total of free 22,071 rides on 2,530 city buses are available today and tomorrow, while 350 city buses and some interprovincial coaches will carry wellwishers from nine locations to the event venue at the Royal Plaza.
Fathers and children with yellow shirts and proof of kinship are entitled to halfprice tickets on interprovincial buses except services from Bangkok to Ayutthaya, Saraburi or Kamphaeng Saen in Nakhon Pathom, whose fares are already low. The discount is 30 per cent for routes longer than 300 kilometres.
