King of Thailand runs off to Germany.... with a harem

You have to be very careful in Thailand whenever you speak about a Royal and I am not trying to disrespect anyone but when the country that you are the Patriarch of is suffering a pandemic do you think it is very good PR for you to go into self-isolation in a ultra-luxury hotel in Europe and then have the public notice that you brought a team of servants with you and also a harem of 20 young women?

_{this is not a photo of the actual arrival}

Even talking about this in Thailand can get you in a lot of trouble. The lese majeste laws that exist here apply to foreigners as well as Thais and carry a 15 year prison sentence. Therefore it is easy to understand that no local publication is talking about this but the international media is awash with the story of how the King of Thailand was granted special permission to rent out the entire Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in Bavaria despite lockdown rules.

It certainly doesn't instill a great deal of confidence into the Kingdom of Thailand when despite having multiple palaces all throughout the country, not to mention free reign to do whatever he wants, the leader of this country has decided to leave it. While the reason might just be that he wants a vacation and is rich enough to violate international immigration rules with impunity, it has put a bit of a state of panic into the Thai people. They feel abandoned by their "father" so to speak.

It is widely perceived as him believing that it is too dangerous to remain in Thailand and therefore has decided to escape to a country that is "safer."

The King is a well known womanizer and people discuss this in private behind closed doors. It is an image that the country has spent a great deal of money as well as time producing propaganda to dispel. It doesn't help when the man in question turns up with a 20-woman harem to his new domicile now does it?

To make matters worse, over 100 of his entourage had to be returned to Thailand over fears that they might have the virus. Also, there was no sign of his actual family in the arrival party.

The rich get to do whatever they want, this is nothing new. It would have been nice to have seen a little bit of compassion out of the King who has struggled to obtain the trust and admiration of Thailand since his ascension to the throne just a few years ago.

It's a sad thing to see in the eyes of the Thais, who already only had a bit of trust for their King. The media has tried to suppress this information in Thailand, but the internet is too big of a place and yeah, everyone knows about it. The hashtag that translates to "why do we need a king" appeared on twitter over a million times since this story broke yesterday. The Thai people will still claim allegiance to the King, but is this because they really feel that way, or because they don't want to go to jail for 20 years?