Tesco Lotus on Rama IV Road has been torched. That is right smack across the street from an English friend of mine. He’s been working from home all week. Hope his building is okay.
TV Channel 3 is burning and is now off the air. The reds seem to be targeting the media now. Besides The Nation, I hear Bangkok Post staff have been eveacuated.
Sorry I haven’t chimed in before now, but I really haven’t had anything to add to Siam Sam and Ale’s commentary on the situation.
We’re holed up in our condo between Sukhumvit Sois 3 and 11, with a great view of the smoke pillars from Chitlom and Siam Square. There’s a checkpoint with troops down at the end of our lane (parallel to Sukhumvit), and they’ve been restricting traffic, probably just to keep things under control. No signs of looting from where we are, but we’re back from the main street a ways.
Total insanity.
That’s about where we lived (in Thana City) when we were in country. This is getting pretty freaky.
In Mrs Shibb’s family, there are a couple of Aunties who aren’t speaking to each other now because one is sympathetic to Thaksin/Reds and the other is critical of them. Most of her family is critical of Thaksin and the Reds to one extent or another. I’ve never met the aunt who isn’t, she’s an aunt through marriage to my wife’s uncle. Most of her family live in the United States and are extremely well educated - the Aunt mentioned above is a doctor. They’ve been worried that something like this would occur in Bangkok.
Holy cow! :eek:
I’ve spent most of the day in my apartment and from here the windows only look north, but I went out to take a peek around the corner of the building and I saw the fires in central Bangkok, I’ve never seen something like this.
Photo 1, Central World funerary pyre.
Photo 2, the whole Eastern horizon is covered in smoke.
I must be 4 kilometers away from the fires but I could smell the smoke.
Ah, FlyingRat. So you’re still in Bangkok.
Yes, the huge CentralWorld shopping center has been completely destroyed. Completely gutted. Impressive! For those of you who don’t know CentralWorld, that would be about the same as burning down, say, Liechtenstein, which I think is only slightly larger. One report I saw called it the largest shopping center in Bangkok and the second-largest in Asia, but I don’t think that’s true. At least, Siam Paragon was billed as the largest in East and Southeast Asia when it started. They must have set devices thoughout the place; you can’t just light a match and burn it down. I had mentioned to a friend my concerns about the animals in that aquarium in Siam Paragon, and he thought staff were allowed in for maintenance and stuff. Said rather than being completely locked up, he thought a deal had been worked out whereby the protesters could enter the shoping centers to use the toilets and sleep and such. I’ll bet they also strategically placed a few devices around while they were about it. The local TV news just said the entire structure was in danger of collapsing.
I mentioned earlier the torching of a Bangkok Bank branch on Sathu Pradit Road. There was another one on Chan Road, also near us. We actually heard that one being attacked. We were up on our roof, checking out the city, and we heard a blast followed by all these popping sounds. Then we noticed all the traffic on one side of Narathiwat Road seemed to reverse direction. You can see photos of that bank burning at 2bangkok.com (not my photos).
It finally seemed safe enough for me to venture out onto Narathiwat Soi 24 about 7pm. We’re under curfew now, since 8pm, and I thought I’d see if any shops were still open. Everything was shut tighter than a drum, except for one convenience store. We have enough stuff at home to last a day or three, but I thought I’d see what I could pick up. But Man! The place was packed with panicking Indians. We have a large Indian community in the neighborhood, and this is freaking them out. They were clearing off the shelves. I could see it would take forever for me to make even the smallest purchase, so I just left. And as packed as it was, there were more Indians waiting outside. I just blundered in, and thinking back, I recall hearing someone go: “Hey!” I think now he was the guy supposed to keep me out until it was my batch’s turn, but I didn’t quite realize what was going on. 
The curfew runs from 8pm-6am for two nights.
Just heard 27 locations were set on fire throughout the city today.
10:15pm and reports are the streets are deserted. We can see the Expressway from our unit, and it is empty except for the occasional rogue vehicle. They do say foreigners needing to fly out can be allowed through if they show their passports and flight tickets; I wonder how incoming passengers are accommodated. Could be them we see on the Expressway.
Arrest warrants were issued for Thaksin and nine others on terrorism charges. Good! Thaksin financed the whole shebang. But then the Criminal Court delayed Thaksin’s warrant for further review until next Monday. Possibly they want to make absolutely sure it’s absolutely air tight.
Off for some rest. Tomorrow is another exciting day in Paradise. I am always fond of quoting local American author Wiliam Warrren: “The gift of Bangkok is that it never bores.” Truer words have never been spoken. I honestly can’t remember the last time I was bored.
Ah, one more update for the Bangok Dopers. They just said on the news that ATMs would not work for the next two days, so you should be sure of having enough cash. Luckily, I just pulled some out downstairs this evening.
Interesting just how uneven some of the international coverage of this mess seems to be. PRI’s The World did an interview last night with, of all people, crime novelist John Burdett. There was some token mention of the fact that there’s been violence, but the emphasis was on how remarkably peaceful the demonstrators had been “until recently.” No mention of incendiaries set up around your hospital, for example. And the rich/poor narrative was also emphasized, explained in terms of “well, Thaksin was the first PM to really pay attention to the poor.”
Thanks for the update. Was this all ATMs, or just certain branches? Fortunately, I also made a withdrawal the other day, so we’re set.
Ah… but is Bangkok still there? :dubious:
Seems that Central World is collapsing. Eerie seeing the huge plume of smoke in the sky and knowing that the place used to be called the World Trade Center.
shudder I had forgotten about that.
We’re pretty close to Central World, and are still seeing the plume, behind Bumrungrad. Earlier in the evening we were also seeing flashes in the clouds from that area, and were getting worried…but after we headed up to the top floor of our building for a better view, it turns out it was only heat lightning! Shame the storm hasn’t materialized, it would have cooled things off and helped with the fires.
I just checked, and amazingly, the Baht is still very stable against the dollar. Wonder if that will last?
Also wonder if those Indian folks weren’t all running in to buy things to resell versus for their own use?
Someone (you Sam?) is editing Wikipedia promptly. Googling just now I see (emphasis mine)
This seems quite sad. I’ve spent several days there, once or twice even happening on visiting Royals.
How about the Siam Paragon/Siam Discovery/Siam Whatever (I get them confused). Are they OK?
From what I’ve heard this random acts of arsonism just happened to target interests belonging to Thaksin enemies. Central World belonging to the same family that own the newspaper The Nation.
More pictures of today’s turmoil at the Boston Globe’s The Big Picture page.
#22 should put an end to the “But they are peaceful protesters armed only with slingshots and bamboo sticks!” canard.
In case anyone wonders if the torchings were some spontaneous event.
Those two are up for terrorism changes, death penalty is a possibility. Sam, the government dropped the charges of terrorism for Thaksin though, I suspect they did so because European countries wouldn’t approve an extradition if Thaksin could end up executed.
Sam, I know this is extremely shallow of me, but when you said that red shirts had been seen in your area, my first thought was “I hope the pidgees will be alright.”
So, what would a foreigner do if they actually lived in that area that was being held by the red shirts? would they have been allowed to leave or something nasty happen to them? I had a couple of cousins in Haiti back during their insurrection, and they got knocked around a fair amount before they managed to get over the border to DR.
All ATMs apparently.
They seemed pretty worried. But you never know. 
Ah, no, it’s the same family that owns the Bangkok Post, not The Nation. At least, they’re the main shareholders. My friends at both newspapers reported mass evacuations from their premises. The Post had to operate out of their printing press far outside of the city, and they were working into the night, so I guess they were stuck out there, because of the curfew. At The Nation, a fw staff stayed to put out a slim, almost all-photo edition for today, then left at 6pm.
Yes, Central World was until only a few years ago called the World Trade Center. It’s only been in the last couple of years we finally became comfortable calling it Central World. But it is doubly ironic, because there used to be a slum area on that site. The slums were razed in – I’m relying on memory here – 1990 in a beautification campaign ahead of a big IMF and/or World Bank meeting in the city. So Central World is meeting the same fate as the shacks of the slum dwellers who were all kicked out into the street.
No, I don’t do Wikipedia. I think I did correct one entry one time long ago that had Rangsit a district of Bangkok, but I’ve not checked out Wikipedia on this crisis.
I’ve not heard anything about Siam Discovery Center, Siam Center or Siam Paragon. I guess no news is good news. I’m worried about all those animals in the aquarium myself. The poor penguins! But with Siam Square looted and Siam Theater collapsed right across the street, it doesn’t sound good.
They’re okay. Little Susie took a bath this morning. Yesterday, we pointed at the smoke plumes in the distance and kept asking “See? See? Aren’t you worried?” But they just kept looking at us like “What? What? Say, you got any food?”
Meanwhile, we’re out of our first night of curfew, but the situation is not back to normal. The number of places torched has risen to 34. Big C Supercenter, immediately across the street from the collapsing Central World, was torched this morning and is now burning out of control. The curfew will be in place again tonight, and they’re considering extending it to more nights. A fine idea, I think. Until they can get this wrapped up.
The US State Department spokesman is calling on the arrested red-shirt leaders to tell their followers to stand down.
All ATMs apparently.
They seemed pretty worried. But you never know.
Ah, no, it’s the same family that owns the Bangkok Post, not The Nation. At least, they’re the main shareholders. My friends at both newspapers reported mass evacuations from their premises. The Post had to operate out of their printing press far outside of the city, and they were working into the night, so I guess they were stuck out there, because of the curfew. At The Nation, a few staff stayed to put out a slim, almost all-photo edition for today, then left at 6pm.
Yes, Central World was until only a few years ago called the World Trade Center. It’s only been in the last couple of years we finally became comfortable calling it Central World. But it is doubly ironic, because there used to be a slum area on that site. The slums were razed in – I’m relying on memory here – 1990 in a beautification campaign ahead of a big IMF and/or World Bank meeting in the city. So Central World is meeting the same fate as the shacks of the slum dwellers who were all kicked out into the street.
No, I don’t do Wikipedia. I think I did correct one entry one time long ago that had Rangsit a district of Bangkok, but I’ve not checked out Wikipedia on this crisis.
I’ve not heard anything about Siam Discovery Center, Siam Center or Siam Paragon. I guess no news is good news. I’m worried about all those animals in the aquarium myself. The poor penguins! But with Siam Square looted and Siam Theater collapsed right across the street, it doesn’t sound good.
They’re okay. Little Susie took a bath this morning. Yesterday, we pointed at the smoke plumes in the distance and kept asking “See? See? Aren’t you worried?” But they just kept looking at us like “What? What? Say, you got any food?”
Hard to say. Anything could happen, but in general there have been no reports of foreigners being targeted or hassled. I would not want to trust to the reds’ good nature, though! I would have left that area.
Meanwhile, we’re out of our first night of curfew, but the situation is not back to normal. The number of places torched has risen to 34. Big C Supercenter, immediately across the street from the collapsing Central World, was torched this morning and is now burning out of control. The curfew will be in place again tonight, and they’re considering extending it to more nights. A fine idea, I think. Until they can get this wrapped up.
The US State Department spokesman is calling on the arrested red-shirt leaders to tell their followers to stand down.
I’ve read accounts of foreigners living in the red zone, usually they were able to move around without much harassing, but red shirt guards were kin on stopping people and inspecting their belongings.
This morning I woke up to the noise of some jackass firing fireworks.
