The trend here nowadays is to wear various wristbands. Some of them bear the colors and design of the Thai flag but most, including that one I believe, bears an inscription supporting the king.
A friend in Boston is due here with colleagues for meetings in Bangkok all next week. The meetings are in northern Bangkok, but they are staying in central Bangkok and will drive up there and back every day. Or that’s the plan. My friend used to live in Thailand and lobbied for them just to stay in northern Bangkok, but he was outvoted. Heh, I imagine that couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that all the major red-light areas are in central Bangkok. 
They could be in for an interesting time.
Well the “indefinite” Bangkok shutdown starts tomorrow, but as far as I know I’m still going to work every day this week. In theory there won’t be any rally points or road closures between my apartment and office.
Map of the protest points and road closures:
A blogger / journalist RichardBarrow is doing 24/7 twitter updates of the shutdown:
https://twitter.com/RichardBarrow
Monday morning and the shutdown has begun. I’m staying home today, but the wife left for her office at 6am. It took her taxi only 20 minutes to get there, about normal if traffic is not heavy. But the radio is saying some intersections have already been closed by protesters. Some 18,000 police have been deployed.
I spoke on the phone yesterday with my friend from Boston. It turns out he and his colleagues are staying right by the Ratchaprasong intersection, which is the big one outside Central World shopping center and always a main target of protesters of any color of shirt. Hope he takes some photos!
It’s after 8am now, and I’m hearing all seven intersections announced as targeted have been shut. Many streets are said to be deserted and the Skytrain and subway packed.
This is really cool, to have a real worm’s eye view of what’s going on. I just hope nobody gets seriously hurt. With that many police out maybe people will think twice.
Well, 18,000 police versus anywhere from 150,000 to 450,000 protesters expected … Anything can happen.
It’s the noon hour now, and I’ve not heard of very much going on. I can see the Expressway from our condo, and traffic seems to be zipping along. Scores of schools in central Bangkok have closed, so that’s going to help some. A university or two also.
The wife just called from the Siam Square area, where she’s having lunch. Says there’s a ton of people out in the streets there. Peaceful so far though.
The wife just got back home about 3:15pm. Said traffic where she traveled was not too bad. But it may be getting worse, as some major flyovers (overpasses) have apparently been blocked along with at least one bridge over the Chao Phraya River that snakes through Bangkok. (There are lots of bridges though.)
Late Monday night and I’m not sure the first day of the shutdown can be termed a success. They did manage to shut down parts of central Bangkok, but I don’t see that it was any different from some previous occasions. But I hear the protesters are still out there and will be tomorrow. Protest leader Suthep vows to keep them going until the government resigns. The red shirts and various government spokesmen figure it will run out of steam in 3-7 days.
There’s some talk of disrupting air traffic control somehow. Most likely by keeping the controllers from the worksite. The government has issued harsh warnings of heavy prison sentences for any such shenanigans.
We’ll see how it goes tomorrow, but I, too, predict it will run out of steam before long.
Oh, and there is talk of the government offering to discuss postponing the February 2 election while at the same time insisting any such postponement could not be done legally. So the protest leaders have declined the offer to discuss it. Because, really, what would be the point?
What a crazy country you live in, Siam Sam! Well, yes, I suppose every country is crazy in its own distinctive way - Thailand seems to be in a class all by itself, though. Thanks for keeping us posted.
Yes it does. The Thais are often correct when they fall back on their old standby of “Thailand is different.”
Tuesday morning and the shutdown continues. The wife’s office is closed today and tomorrow, but she didn’t get the word. So she’s there right now, will bring some work home with her this afternoon.
Word is the protesters plan to target the Customs Department – or at least their office at the big port, not sure if that’s where the whole department has its headquarters. That’s not too far from us, but far enough that we expect only bad traffic from it. The Stock Exchange of Thailand is being threatened with a siege too, and they’re bracing themselves. That’s also not too far away from us.
Sure enough, they’ve surrounded the Customs Department. We don’t live in Khlong Toey (various spellings) district but pretty darned close. I have to be in that area this afternoon too.
Wednesday morning and Day 3 of the big shutdown. I was out and about yesterday including near the besieged Customs Department, but traffic was quite okay. The city is hardly shut down, but the move is having some effect, that’s clear, particularly on business. Although motorcycle taxi riders, those daredevils who can zip their passengers between cars and even along sidewalks, are making out like bandits with their now-extortionate fares.
A bit of violence last night though, as detailed here. Abhisit Vejjajiva’s home was bombed for one, shortly before midnight. He is the head of the Democrat Party and was the last Democrat prime minister. His compound is on Sukhumvit Soi 31, and I believe coremelt upthread said he was staying close by. You might want to avoid walking down that section of street. (There is a rather renowned massage parlor/brothel close to Abhisit’s house that suffered mightily when he was prime minister. Due to the red-shirt actions against him, his home was heavily guarded and much of the street blocked off at the time, and that scared a lot of the massage parlor’s customers away. My information was that a lot of the girls left, and they only recently got back up to speed. Looks like the girls may have to start brushing up their resumes again.)
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yingluck has come out and vowed never to resign. I believe the Commerce Ministry was another spot besieged yesterday. And it’s spreading upcountry a little too. In the South, long a Democrat stronghold, local protesters have started besieging many local government agencies and provincial halls. In the North and Northeast, which are red-shirt strongholds, the red shirts are starting to hold their own rallies and threatening all manner of dire actions. The reds are like vicious Dobermans yanking at the end of their metal chains, and I’m not sure how much longer the government can keep them back.
More ominously, the protesters are threatening to fuck with air traffic control. Now this is serious – criminal, I would say – and if ever there was a point where the army needs to start shooting, it would be that. I learn to my surprise that much of air traffic control is not done at the airports themselves – the main one way outside Bangkok, the secondary one within the northern fringes – but right here in central Bangkok. The protesters are threatening to block access to the worksite. To hell with any plane crashes, I guess.
Plus two shot right by Siam Square, one of the victims apparently an innocent garbage man just doing his job. There’s a video clip of the shootings inside that link.
Today’s the day the Stock Exchange of Thailand is supposed to be besieged, and they’ve already moved to a temporary off-site location. Nice of them to announce where the location is, for the protesters’ benefit. (They’re on the second floor of The Esplanade shopping center, in case anyone here wants to go besiege them.)
Well, bugger any predictions of the protest running out of steam. It seems everyone now is fast accepting the idea that we may be in this for the long haul. People are starting to think in terms of this going on for months, and they’re getting used to the idea too.
The wife’s office has decided to close for the rest of the week. She’ll go attend some rallies tomorrow afternoon (Thursday afternoon) with her niece. I’ve told her to be careful out there, because who knows when these bastards will finally go too far and get the army to shooting. But she really, really hates Thaksin and this government.
Interesting piece on the difficulties of obtaining proper body armor.
Is she supporting said rallies, or socializing?
The protesters all seem to be doing a little of both. I don’t know if she plans to meet up with anyone besides her niece, but she does support the rallies. I dare say she’d be willing to see Thailand in smoldering ruins if it meant no more of Thaksin or his clan. Her level of hatred for the man is not uncommon either. Although she does admit they probably should not be crashing planes by interfering with air traffic control.
I thought it was his sister running the store.
Have you a link to who is who and what is what?
Thanks.