Sunday morning. They’re going to decide day to day on extending the curfew. It will be in force again tonight but shorter still, from 11pm-5am. Update here.
The bar areas I visited were not doing too bad a business yesterday, especially come evening. Looked to be largely locals getting in some brewskeis before the curfew. Many places still closed. The last one I was in was an Aussie-owned beer bar in Sukhumvit Soi 7/1, and the owner and another Aussie advised me not to worry about the curfew. One said he’d walked home from there at 1:30am the night before with no problems. Uh huh. Well, I certainly didn’t live close enough to walk, so I made sure I was home before 9pm, the start of the curfew. Checked out the lower Sukhumvit area, Soi Cowboy and Sukhumvit Soi 22. Did not make it to the Patpong area. I do wonder how they’re doing.
Ah, and I see they’ve started the Skytain today too, in addition to the subway. Full service for the subway; full service for the Skytrain except for Rajdamri Station, which is not ready. That station was in the heart of the protest area; no telling what the scum did to it.
Skytrain hours today are 8am-10pm, I guess to beat the 11pm curfew tonight. They say normal hours tomorrow (Monday), 6am-midnight, except for Rajdamri Station, which will remain closed for the moment. And I guess that’s assuming no curfew tomorrow night.
I did see the Skytrain cars running above Sukhumvit Road yesterday. Testing the system. I also went past the Stock Exchange of Thailand building. The entire ground floor is burned out.
Haha! They arrested that Brit jerk-off yob who was helping the red shirts. Story here. One of the comments says he was seen on video during the April 2009 red-shirt Asean riot in Pattaya. Asshole.
I mentioned the curfew was shortened to 11pm-5am tonight (Sunday night). It will be shorter still tomorrow night, 11pm-4am. That one may give me some trouble though, because I need to be somewhere tomorrow night. Will just have to drop everything and leave once it gets too close to there.
I mentioned earlier that I thought Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij would make a good prime minister. There’s some talk starting that he may be given just that chance. It’s being speculated Abhisit may have to step down as a sacrifice, with Korn taking his place. He gave this speech in Tokyo on Friday.
They’re starting to question why certain buildings were left untouched. For example, the huge CentralWorld and Big C Supercenter at the Ratchaprarop intersection were burned down, but at the same intersection is the luxury 5-star Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, and it suffered not even a scratch. It just so happens the Grand Hyatt Erawan is 30% owned by the wife of a major Thaksin ally named Pongthep Thepkanjana. Hmmm.
The US Embassy will reopen for business tomorrow (Tuesday). They had set up a temporary office for American Citizen Services in the Westin Grand Hotel on Sukhumvit Road but otherwise have been closed for much of the recent conflict. Hopefully the curfew will come to an end soon, although someone shot at a Bangkok Bank branch in northern Bangkok during curfew the other night, so it’s not completely quiet; with the main leaders under arrest or hiding, they’re worried about the second-generation crop.
About midnight Tuesday night. (Curfew time! It runs midnight-4am now, through Friday night/Saturday morning.) Very tired and going to bed, but I wanted to announce that the arrest warrant for Thaksin on terrorism charges has been approved. Story here. Woo hoo!
They issued warrants for nine others last week but delayed his for further study. I can only guess they wanted to make sure it was ironclad.
This may actually make it easier for him to be extradited. A lot of countries have balked at extraditing him before for fear the charges might be too “political” in nature. I think a charge of terrorism pretty much is required to be listed by Interpol; at least, the chief of the Department of Special Investigation here said so.
Well, everything is returning to some semblance of normality, except for the midnight-4am curfew that will run at least through Saturday morning. Personally, I think the trouble is bound to spring up again at some point, but it could take awhile; it was 11 months between the April 2009 rioting and the start of this season’s troubles. But I think those of you planning a trip to Thailand for later this year can safely make your plans. Show up today, it’s pretty much okay now. Maybe check out a travel-insurance policy that will help you if you do get caught up in this sort of incident.
Hopefully, now with this terrorism indictment out against Thaksin, they’ll hunt him down like the dog he is.
Two foreigners have been arrested for participating in the rioting, the aforementioned Brit and an Aussie. Story here. The Aussie was the one mentioned way back in this thread for appearing on stage and making a general fool of himself; more on him here.
And this piece right here is an excellent take on the crappy reporting of the recent violence by the likes of CNN and other international agencies. Andrew Biggs is an Aussie journalist who has lived in Thailand for a very long time, even obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Thai-language studies from Ramkhamhaeng University. He watched the recent coverage from Los Angeles and was appalled. His weekly column is always humorous.
Thanks for the link Siam Sam ! Andrew Biggs (“Khru Andrew”) is a rather famous TV personality in Thailand. I’m delighted that he agrees with me!
Much media did spin the story completely backwards (enough so that some Dopers here, who’d perhaps never been to Thailand, we’re almost arguing in favor of the red-shirts. )
I’ve also seen N.Y.Times get simple science wrong. It makes me wonder whether the news on subjects about which I know nothing (e.g. Iran) is also misleading.
Fuck me! There’s talk of a new red-shirt rally a month from now in Bangkok. See here Excerpt:
“Moreover, there are reports that the red-shirt protesters will hold a big rally in Sanam Luang on June 24 - the date that the country ended its absolute monarchy and adopted a constitutional one.”
I can only hope the damned army shoots them on sight this time.
Meanwhile, this YouTube video has become very popular. Be patient! Wait for the song to kick in at about the 30-second mark, hehehe.
Great video and the song was appropriate! I liked the piece by the Aussie journalist. It’s too bad we needto go outside our country to find out what the news really is. I’m sorry your theatre and many places have burned. Keep your head low and enjoyed up the stories.
Thanks. But the international reporting on this was terrible everywhere, even in Australia. (I know lots of Aussie journos here who were decrying the coverage back home.) I think the main problem was the incident flared up so quickly but had such a complicated background. There was no time for fresh-on-the-spot reporters to take a good look at it.
They’re thinking of lifting the curfew, too. It’s only midnight-4am now and runs at least one more night. Then they’ll decide about the weekend. Even though it starts at midnight, it can be a real hassle getting home earlier than that. The other night, it was difficult to find a taxi willing to take me home across the city at 10:45pm, because they were worried they wouldn’t get in by midnight. This despite the fact it would have taken only 15 minutes on the Expressway. And traffic was hell last night (Thursday night), due partially to today being a public holiday (Visakha Bucha Day). Many were probably trying to get out of Bangkok before midnight, but I thought some provinces had the curfew, too? Heavy ttraffic jams in many spots, reminding me even of the pre-Skytrain days!
And they arrested two Dutchmen for throwing stones up during similar disturbances in Chiang Mai, up in the North. Said they got “carried away.” Assholes. See here.
Another appropriate political cartoon from Stephff here, showing the cluelessness of some foreign reporters. Hehehe.
They’re not all bad, though. The BBC’s Jonathan Head worked here for years and did some very good reporting. Then the YELLOW-shirt filth about a year or two ago took offense at some mild comments he made regarding the monarchy – I don’t even remember what they were, but I do remember they were pretty innocuous – and loudly demanded he be prosecuted for lese majeste. I happen to know the police did not want to pursue it, but the yellows demanded he be prosecuted, so charges were filed. He was never actually arrested, and the police let him quietly leave the country. Now he reports from Turkey. I bet his reports on the situation here these past couple of months would have been good. There was another one with CNN who was married to a Thai, and his reports from here were also very good; his name escapes me right now, but he quit CNN some time back.
Saturday morning and no word yet on whether the curfew will be extended. It feels like they’re leaning toward cancelling it finally. Not planning to stay out late tonight anyay.
Looks like Interpol is not going to act on the terrorism warrant out for Thaksin, the bastards. They probably feel the charge is political, the bastards. And Montenegro has pointed out its constitution forbids the extradition of its nationals for any reason, and Thaksin does now carry a Montenegrin passport.
By golly!, isn’t that a remarkable coincidence? :rolleyes:
As for the Red Shirts coming back for a rally in Bangkok, I hope they put on their asbestos underwear, after what they did the last time I think Bangkokians will take a turn on torching them for a change.
Sunday morning now, and we have just passed our first curfew-free night since the outbreak of the rioting on May 19. It’s been lifted both here and the 23 provinces upcountry that also had it. The official state of emergency remains in place, though.
So stay tuned for my next exciting thread, “There’s Rioting in Our Streets, Part 3,” expected sometime right after June 24, especially if the red-shirt scum really do come back and rally some more.
A final note to cap this off: That doofus Aussie who was arrested for taking part in the protest acted belligerently in court, while the tough-talking Brit who was also arrested broke down in tears nearby. Must have been quite a show. Story here.
Apparently so. I spoke tonight with a friend who found out a guy she thought she knew takes trips to Thailand to have sex with six year old girls.
Jesus.
)