When it comes to love, there's no other district that surpasses the auspicious designation of Bang Rak. Due to its namesake, which means "love quarters" in Thai, the Bang Rak District Office is the country's most popular place for couples to have their marriage registered, believing it's a good omen for a thriving matrimonial life.
The average number of couples registering their marriage at the Bang Rak District Office is 6,500 annually, or around 25 per day. On St Valentine's Day, the traffic of romance is naturally heavy. During the past eight years, the office has certified approximately 800 couples on that specific date.
Although the Bang Rak District Office is known as a love depot, it is still a district office: unimposing, unattractive, and humming with bureaucratic vibe. Working there as marriage registrars is no romantic job either.
"To wish people have a good marriage is easy, but to grant them an official certification within their tight schedule is always pressure," said Tanit Tanbuaklee, chief officer of local affairs registration department.
Tanit, one of the four registrars at the office, said that most of the challenge here involve the speed of the process as the office is popular not just among Thais but also foreigners; this is not just because of the lover-friendly namesake but also for its proximity to many embassies. "We have had a number of couples applying for the marriage registration before rushing to catch their flights. So it's our job to accommodate them, through lots of document approvals and legalities, even though it means we have to skip our lunch."
On Monday -- the week leading up to St Valentine's Day -- each of the three officers at the registration desks had only two bananas for lunch.
"Unless we have a quick lunch, the work wouldn't finish in time," said Prachong Chulawong, one of the registrars.
According to chief officer Tanit, Bang Rak is the only district office to have an official agreement to link the marriage data directly to the German embassy in Bangkok. So Germans getting married here aren't required to have the affidavits certified and translated by the consular office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and such convenience is part of the popularity of the district among couples.
"We can register up to 25 couples per day, with the limit for eight to 10 applications for foreigners.
"It may take less than 30 minutes for Thais to get their marriage licence here, but when the application involves a foreign spouse it can take up to an hour-and-a-half to finish," he noted.
This year on Feb 14, Sunday, the office will open a special service at the General Post Office on Charoen Krung Road, where hundreds of people are expected to make their love official. But St Valentine's Day is not the only popular day for wedding registration. Other propitious dates include those with "lucky" numbers such as 09/09/2009, Christmas Day and Chinese New Year. On these days love birds are reported to arrive as early as 4am to get the first appointment.
"We once had a couple arrive at midnight on Christmas Eve and wait until morning so they could be the first to lawfully wed on Christmas Day."
THE PROOF OF LOVE
Though the workload is always a burden at Bang Rak District's registration office, which is on Nares Road, the scene in the office hall tends to be full of smiles.
"We don't have much time for recess and usually only get to leave the office long after the closing hours," registrar Prachong said. Before moving to Bang Rak, he used to work at Bang Kok Noi District Office, where he did as little as five to six marriage registrations in a week.
"Customer happiness is our happiness. And I would say we are lucky to have the opportunity to witness many beautiful incidents happen before us. There have been ring exchanges, flower presenting and passionate kissing right here in the office," he said.
Tanit recalled a recent incident when a registrar announced to a Thai-foreign pair that they were officially a married couple, and they burst into tears.
"It had been a long and torturous process for them to obtain the documents and affidavits. So they felt a big relief and cried tears of joy," Tanit said.
Prachong added: "There's also another couple who wed here six years ago and felt so thankful for what we did for them that they came back to visit us with a gift and at the same time to introduce to us their fruit of love -- their four-year-old son."
It is common at the registration desk that, with the language barrier, not all the couples of different nationalities seem able to communicate well with each other. Sometimes the registrars have to ask them how they got together.
"As an authority to certify their marriage, we tend to have good eyes for spotting foul play. It's our job also to ensure the applicants have marriageable status, or are in a romantic relationship and that the marriage is not for any wrongful purposes.
"Whenever we find one of them still married to another person, normally it's the man who tends to have a double marriage, we will inform him privately to save his face and to protect the feelings of the woman," Tanit explained.
So the registrars, especially at Bang Rak District Office, not only serve as certifying authorities, witnesses of love and impromptu photographers for the big moment, in some cases they have to work as a marriage counsellors, as well.
Marriage counsellors
There is no historical data to verify the origins of the name Bang Rak, though it's suspected that it has something to do with the flower called dok rak, or crown flower, which was once grown in profusion in the area. It doesn't refer to love, and yet the homonym later became the blessing of the area. On the other hand, some of the less popular district names include Bang Plat (plat meaning separate or fall) and Bang Jak (jak meaning to leave). And yet, Bang Rak might not be any better than Las Vegas should you wonder if marriages registered here last longer or are smoother than those registered at other district offices.
Where there's a marriage, there's a divorce, said the registrars at Bang Rak District Office.
"We even had a couple who came to wed on Feb 14 and back again on Feb 17 for a divorce," said Prachong.
"But it's our job to compromise and try to talk them into working out the marriage especially when there are children in the picture.
"I once talked a couple into reconsidering their divorce and they insisted they couldn't stand each other anymore. The husband said, 'If I stay with her any longer we'll probably kill each other. You want that to happen?'. So I had to let them divorce," he recalled.
"Men and women are so independent these days. The don't have to depend on each other. Meanwhile, the birth rate is low, thus without children it's getting more and more difficult to keep married couples together. No matter how I try to persuade them, usually the only response is no."
The registrar explained that if the people fight before the officers, their request will not be granted. It's a normal procedure at every district office that the applicants must act properly in order to get their application approved.
There have been a few successful cases, fortunately.
"Last week, a couple came to file for divorce. They have a seven-year-old child so I urged them to work things out for the sake of the kid.
"After I let them share with me their painful stories of living together, the couple decided to listen to me and ended up with a written promise from the husband not to talk rudely to the wife again and with me as a signed witness. I was more than pleased to do this for them," Prachong said.
With only three officers handling family registration, Prachong said he can't help fix every couple's problems as much as he would like to.
"We hold the highest statistics for marriage applications. Just in a month-and-a-half, the number of applications by the Bang Rak District Office is almost 600, whereas at other districts you might have three applications per week," Prachong added.
Bang Rak District Office is a good place to prove the love and endurance of couples. If they are able to gleefully deal with long boring queues here, everything else ahead should be easy for them.
Bang Rak District will provide marriage registration service on Sunday at the General Post Office on Charoen Krung Road.
Playing the role of wedding photographer.
Bang Rak is popular with foreigners as it is close to many embassies.
