A draftee who served in Bangkok a few weeks ago is traveling with his unit from an army base in Central Thailand to Bangkok as I write (these wee hours Monday morning BKK time). It may be nominally a secret movement, but if Septimus knows, surely the red-shirts know! (Septimus hasn’t been in Bangkok since January, doesn’t read newspapers or watch TV, last spoke with his friend-of-the Princess seven years ago, and basically keeps to himself.)
The draftee is very afraid (and unarmed when he serves guard duty in Bangkok). He thinks there may be a deliberate attempt to provoke the red-shirts to attack soldiers (with his unit as disposable cannon fodder) thus leading to military response.
The only reason septimus knows this is that the draftee is my kids’ favorite cousin, the son of Mrs. Septimus’ sister.
Well, they certainly don’t need a provocation now that the central court has ruled the government can evict the protesters and the prime minister has stated on nationwide television they are about to do so soon. I suppose one wouldn’t hurt, though. The reds took a couple of policemen hostage yesterday. “Pathetic” is the only word to describe our cops. Dunno if they’re still being held.
Adding to the chaos is the red shirts’ changing their clothes to diferent colors to avoid detection. Story here.
Service at all Skytain stations resumes today (Monday) after some of the stations on the Silom Line were shut for several days, although still shorter hours. The Skytain normally operates from 6am-midnight but will shut at 8pm tonight. Full service on the subway today, 6am-midnight as usual, except Silom Station will close at 7:30pm.
A grenade was fired into a police headquarters in Chiang Mai up North yesterday too, damaging a second-floor office. And another was fired at the home of Banharn Silapa-Archa, one of the leaders of a ruling-coalition party. The blast at Banharn’s house injured six. And a homemade bomb was found in front of the emergency room of Chulalongkorn Hospital just after 8am this morning; I can only assume it was because the hospital dared to treat victims of last Thursday night’s grenade attacks. That one was taken care of by the bomb-disposal police.
In those Stickman rally photos I mentioned above, his April 19 entry is interesting, showing the soldiers guarding the bars and girls in the Patpong red-light district. And that shot of the ladyboy in front of the razor wire is priceless!
Ha! Never! I have more gumption than that. Just returned anyway, from Vietnam. May be over soon. Word is a particular member of a Family That Must Not Be Named is pushing for a resolution soon.
But it seems to be spreading upcountry. The reds have been halting vehicles coming down the highways towards Bangkok, searching for personnel who may be coming in to Bangkok to participate in a crackdown.
Well, I can’t say much about that without maybe getting into trouble, but I watched the speech, and it was disappointing. The wife agrees, as do some other Thais of my acquaintance. It was certainly no 1992 scenario, when he called the main players onto the carpet and read them the Riot Act. Turns out he had to appear in public to accept the loyalty oaths of new Supreme Court judges anyway, so they seem to have had him say a few words about the situation while he was at it. I thought at first it was a special broadcast, but no, it turns out it was only a video clip from earlier in the day when the judges appeared before him. And he did not address the situation directly. It was the same general sort of “do your duty, do well” sort of speech that the locals listen to respectfully and then ignore completely. Turns out to have been a nonevent, unfortunately. That’s all I dare say.
Meanwhile, the Skytrain could not open this morning, as red shirts had somehow loaded tires up on the tracks near Chidlom Station. The tires were removed after negotiations, and service finally started about an hour ago. The reds at the same time claim they were not the ones who put them there. :rolleyes::smack:
Also meanwhile, to lighten the mood, below are some entries from Not the Nation, a website that satirizes the local English-language newspaper The Nation. (NOTE: These are NOT real stories, but rather simply satire.)
As for yesterday’s Town Hall Meeting for Americans, which I did not attend, I just received the following from the embassy:
**On April 26, 2010, United States Ambassador Eric G. John convened a Town Hall meeting for American citizens in Bangkok. Joining him were other Embassy officials to answer questions from the audience. During the more than hour-long meeting, the Ambassador emphasized the need for Thailand to solve its political differences peacefully and without bloodshed. He also added that the Embassy was in frequent contact with all parties in the current political situation and that the United States Government has emphasized the importance of earnest negotiation to resolve differences. “We are stressing this message to key people who need to hear it,” he said. More than 600 Americans joined the event.
American citizens were urged to exercise caution and good judgment while travelling in Bangkok and should be aware of the possibility of disturbances elsewhere. Americans were also encouraged to:
Defer non-essential travel to Bangkok, but must also determine for themselves what is essential and what is not;
Be prepared for the possibility of more violence;
Register with the U.S. Embassy website and receive the latest Warden Messages;
Refer to the Department of State’s travel website, which includes information on the Department of State’s role in a crisis abroad and on crisis preparedness;
And monitor local media for the latest information.**
I sort of doubt it, but I think he means red-shirt leaders. They have protested at the embassy a time or three. Still, I did mention the ambassador’s wife is friends with Thaksin’s ex-wife.
Mrs. Septimus and I watched that on TV (though it was only later in that year that Miss Wonderful became Mrs. Septimus). I’ll never forget it.
The King walked into the sitting room where cameras had been set up, followed by Prem and another Privy Councilor, also walking. Then came Suchinda (junta leader and unelected P.M.) and Chamlong (former Bangkok Governor who’d been imprisoned by Suchinda and was on hunger strike), but Suchinda and Chamlong weren’t walking: they were crawling along the floor and remained prostrate throughout the King’s talk.
No one spoke except the King, who very calmly gave a simple message: “This is not working out; let’s try something different.” The next day, Suchinda resigned. The “Good guys” actually won the next general election, but of course Thailand soon returned to its usual ways.
I recall only one other occasion since where the King attempted a significant intervention on TV. He did use some of his Birthday Addresses to insult Thaksin (and cameras showed Thaksin’s and wife’s faces turning red with funny expressions) but no one seemed to pay much attention. To those who say the King has too much power here, I say I wish he’d exercise it more.
The King is very frail now. Someday, when we turn TV on in morning, we’ll hear mournful percussion with everyone wearing black. That will be a sad day indeed.
Apologies for not coming back sooner, and for my ignorance about Bangkok’s geography - I will read up in more detail about the country before I visit! Thanks for taking the time to put together a really useful post (and indeed, thread) on the subject.
We have not yet made any travel plans beyond flying into Bangkok, and I guess we can wait a while to do so in order to see what transpires. I’ll be checking up on the situation regularly!
No comment, as expressing my personal feelings could net me a jail term. Suffice it to say I am not a fan of certain families, not one single member of them.
Ah, so this will be a first visit. Well, I certainly hope this mess is over and done with by then. The country has so much to offer that you wouldn’t want to linger too long in Bangkok even during normal times. Arrival numbers are so much down now and hotels so empty, you could wait awhile. But December is the high season, and Thailand tends to bounce back quickly from its crises, so best to have something in mind. You are in Britain now, yes? BBC TV just a moment ago said the UK Foreign Office had now extended it’s warning against travel here from Bangkok alone to all of Thailand. Said violence could break out anywhere without warning at any time. A bit extreme maybe, but I don’t blame them for wanting to be cautious, and the reds have stated setting up roadblocks upcountry, although mainly in the Northeast.
Meanwhile, the reds did plan to start sending out rapid-movement teams throughout the city today to disrupt traffic, but the government has – yet again – warned of tough action and said that won’t be allowed. It’s still early; we’ll see what happens. Have not heard of anything yet. Significantly, the Center for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation, set up in the wake of the April 10 clash, yesterday gave approval for the boots on the ground to use live rounds if they felt threatened at close range, say within 30 meters. Said if attackers come within 100 meters, tear gas should be used, but if they keep advancing and get very close, it’s their own fault for what happens next. This could be a prelude to a crackdown, finally! Getting all of the legal issues neatly organized.
Tonight, I plan a personal inspection of one or more of the bar areas. It’s a difficult duty, but I feel someone has to do it.
BBC TV’s “Hard Talk” programme is right now featuring an interview with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. The reporter’s very first question was: “Have you lost control of Thailand?” And in response to his negative answer, she asked him if that’s so, why is he speaking to her from the safety of an army barracks? :D:D Great stuff! Thai officials are not used to hard-hitting questions. Local reporters are habitually inclined to fluff. I know one local reporter who garnered the rage of an esteemed economist simply by hinting that the outlook in his set speech that he repeated everywhere he went was not as rosy as indicated.
Normal Skytrain and subway service today, but all Skytrain stations will close at 8pm, except ala Daeng Station, at the center of last Thursday’s grenade attacks and which will shut at 7pm. The subway will run to midnight as usual, except for Lumpini Station, which will close at 7:30pm. It’s near Sala Daeng Skytrain Station.
A quick update, as I’m now out and about in the city. Some 2000 red-shirts tried to do a motorcycle convoy from the main rally site to Pathum Thani district. Pathum Thani is part of the greater Bangkok area, to the north of the city proper. Soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets and were answered with homemade rockets from the protesters, but the army gained ther upper hand this time, and the reds retreated. Story here.
A loud explosion was heard at the Silom Road intersection, near the main rally site, but it seems to be a mystery as to what that was. There was a clash near air-force HQ in Don Muang district of the city too, leaving one security official dead.
Yes, all correct, although at least one of our party has been before (it will be a sort of “grown-up family” holiday, the details of which are too complicated to relate here, but there are 8 of us aged between 21 and 51). Sounds to me like the best plan will be for us to make a list of where we would like to visit, and then ask you (if that’s OK?) whether that is likely work (bearing in mind the situation may change tomorrow, never mind in 6 months).
Not to turn this into a tourism thread (I will probably start my own), but for some reason my girlfriend is very keen to go to one of the more infamous shows, where apparently girls do some, er, interesting things with ping pong balls, and such. Me, I could take it or leave it. Presumably this sort of thing would be most prevalent in Bangkok? I wouldn’t be disappointed to learn that those areas are off-limits!
I’m actually glad you asked this, because if you go into the wrong bar, you can get hit with a major bill. I can advise you on this and hopefully keep you out of trouble. Most of the scam bars have been cleaned up, but they make a reappearance from time to time, and I’ve heard of a couple operating recently.
The shows you refer to – ping-pong balls, opening a bottle with the vagina (always impressive), pulling razor blades out, writing with a paint brush, using chopsticks etc – are all in Patpong. Unfortunately, the scam bars are all in Patpong, too. These particular shows are in the upstairs bars, meaning you enter at ground level and go up some stairs. Now, if you wish to avoid a chance of being ripped off, stick to the King’s Group or Queen’s Group of bars. There are several, and it will be prominently mentioned outside the entrance if a bar’s a member of the King’s or Queen’s Group. The link I’ve provided is a bit old; Cleopatra Bar is no longer there, but most of them are. Not all of them offer the shows either, only the upstairs ones. No need to be too paranoid, as there are only a couple of scam bars at any time, and again stick to the King’s and Queen’s groups, and you’ll be okay. (No ground-floor bar does scams.)
Again, those shows are (largely) confined to Patpong, but they are not, in my opinion, the best shows. When you live here, they get really old. You may think you’d never get tired of watching a girl pop open a bottle with her vagina, but you do. (And it’s a real sealed bottle. A mamasan once drew me a diagram on a napkin of how the bottle opener is stuck up in the vagina. They really are opening bottles. These shows are supposed to act as sort of an advertisement for the girls, but I don’t know if I’d want to take a girl back to my hotel room who can open bottles down there. :eek:) Anyway, once the novelty wears off, hands down the best shows are the five-girl all-nude lesbian shows in Soi Cowboy. Theer are no rip-off bars in Soi Cowboy (or Nana Plaza or anywhere else besides Patpong, so you can be at ease there.) Suzie Wong and Sheba’s offer these, and they start about 10:30. Be there by 10:15 if you want a good seat. You can tell if the shows are about to start when the place suddenly fills to brimming with guys.
Also in Soi Cowboy, Long Gun Bar tries to do something a little different by offering choreographed shows. These tend to be popular, but I find them very tame. And the last time I was in there, they still had not fixed the smell from the erstroom, which tended to permeate the bar. and I have heard that Long Gun has started experimenting with some of the Patpong-style shows, so check it out.
In Nana Plaza, Spanky’s and AngelWitch bars, side by side on the second floor – or first floor if you’re a Brit – up the large staircase on the left, hold interesting shows. AngelWitch has hired an actual choreographer, and the American who owns and operates Spanky’s tries to think up new show themes, but these are very tame. More like soft porn. AngelWitch is hugely popular, though.
And in response to his negative answer, she asked him if that’s so, why is he speaking to her from the safety of an army barracks? :D:D Great stuff! Thai officials are not used to hard-hitting questions. Local reporters are habitually inclined to fluff. I know one local reporter who garnered the rage of an esteemed economist simply by hinting that the outlook in his set speech that he repeated everywhere he went was not as rosy as indicated.