Thai Government set for final showdown with Red Shirts

The city of Bangkok remains in a state of civil war as the three-day street riots that have killed 25 people continue. Authorities have declared a 4km radius of the Thai capital around Lumpini Park as a “live firing zone”. The Pattaya Daily News reports the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation is considering ordering a curfew for residents of the affected areas “allegedly so that the military are able to isolate ‘terrorists’ from the innocent civilians”. Around 10,000 United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (Red Shirt) protesters are out on the streets demanding the government of Abhisit Vejjajiva step down. They claim Abhisit came to power illegitimately with the help of the army and have called for parliament to be dissolved. (photo by thethaireport)

The roads in and around the main Ratchaprasong rally site have been barricaded by the military, with water and food trucks being prevented from entering the site in an attempt to force the protesters to disband. Police have also set up checkpoints on Sukhumvit road at Soi Udomsuk to prevent more red shirts from coming in from rural areas. Transport services have been suspended for two days and protesters have barricaded MRT exits with tuk tuks delivering tyres to barricade points across the city. The latest round of fighting in the two month stand-off began late on Thursday as the army moved to isolate a fortified protest camp. Over the next two days 25 people were killed and another 215 injured as the two sides clashed on the streets with reports of army snipers picking off protesters.

Both sides have heightened the rhetoric as more blood has been spilt. This morning an army spokesman announced that some areas of the city would be subject to a curfew. Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd said the curfew would be needed “so that police and soldiers can differentiate people from terrorists.” The army has not yet carried out its threat to move against the demonstrators' main rally site unless they dispersed but the curfew is likely to a precursor to a full-scale assault. But as Al Jazeera’s Aela Callan said the threat has not fazed the defenders. "Some of the red shirts I have spoken to have said they're not willing to leave," he said. "They're really hunked in there, they've set up their homes.”

More than 50 people have been killed and 1,600 wounded since the protests began in March. Tensions rose dramatically last week after the Red Shirts rejected Prime Minister Abhisit’s “roadmap” to an election on 14 November. Abhisit wanted anti-government protesters to accept his reconciliation plan and restore peace and stability. Not only did they reject that plan but Red Shirts demanded the prime minister and deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban hand themselves over to the Department of Special Investigations for their involvement in the deaths of 20 civilians following the April 10 clashes. On Thursday Abhisit ran out of patience and sent in the military.

Last night the Prime Minister made a public broadcast from the safety of an army barracks where he defended his decision to use force in the dispersal of the Red Shirts protesters. He argued that it was the only resort after peace negotiations broke down with the key opposition leader Jatuporn Prompan promising to “fight to the end”. The end may well be near for Prompan’s forces but the enmity Abhisit’s actions have caused are likely to have long-term repercussions that may leave Thailand fatally split for years to come.

Sukhumvit a Go Go

Purely in the interests of research, Woolly Days went for a wonder down Sukhumvit Road last night. Sukhumvit Road is not only the longest road in Thailand, but one of the longest roads in the world. It goes all the way to Cambodia, but I didn’t quite make it that far.

Lower Sukhumvit Road lies mostly hidden in the concrete shadows of the BTS skytrain. Under the line lies a huge market carrying everything from luggage to fake Rolexes. Later at night it transforms into cafes and bars full of drunken expats and tourists. There are lots of small entertainment areas in the ‘sois’ (alleys) off the main road heading from the hotel.

Starting from the Ploen Chit end of Sukhumvit, the first stop is Nana Plaza. Nana Entertainment Plaza is a three-story building with an enclosed courtyard. The entire building and courtyard are full of bars. Each bar has its own “mamasan” the lady of the house, who approves any “take away” orders and collects bar fines.
At Soi 13 is found Clinton plaza. It takes its name from the misadventures of the Monicagate president. One establishment styles itself as the White House Go-Go, and features a columned portico in the style of the presidential mansion. Bring your own cigar.

You really have to wonder though what sort of cuisine is served by a nearby restaurant called “Cabbages and Condoms”. On further investigation, it turns out that this Thai restaurant is run by the Thailand's Population and Community Development Association and the odd name refers to the founder's belief that condoms should be as cheap as veggies. At the end of the meal, customers receive a complementary condom in lieu of the more traditional after-dinner mint.

At Soi 23, the street is known colloquially as Soi Cowboy. Here there a couple of dozen places where scantily clad Thai girls dance on their podiums, and there are another dozen assorted beer bars and cafes. The girls there are coyly described as “dancing sinuously to western pop music” in the brochures. I’m no midnight soi cowboy and I’m not sure how exactly a sinuous dance looks, though they certainly looked sinful from a distance.

Continuing further down at Soi 33 lies the artists’ quarter. These cater to the “upscale foreigner”. The area gets its name not because the locals are out with their canvasses but because several have adopted the names of famous European painters such as the Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Monet and Goya clubs. More weasel than easel. This is also the Little Japan area and there are a couple of clubs that cater exclusively for Japanese patrons. Have your Yakuza membership card handy.

And so on Sukhumvit goes, as likely serving cabbages and condoms all the way to the wats of Cambodia.

Patpong Pingpong

Bangkok is a mass of noise, steel and heat. Over six million people crowd the concrete but there are occasional oases of quiet and repose. Lumpini Park at the junction of Rama IV and Ratchadamri roads is one of these places. Woolly Days walked past it last night on the way to Patpong markets.

Inside the park, there is a lake with some pleasure boats and a constant stream of walkers and joggers do the circuit of the park. There is a Chinese style clock tower, a Chinese pavilion and some graceful sculptures. But the peace and quiet of the park is interrupted by a mass aerobic session, several hundred people in a free jam bobbing to pop music and the instructions barked by a fit virago on a stage. Further on, another twenty or thirty slightly older people are also gyrating in step, this time to a Thai version of Tai Chi to a slower beat. But at the end of the park near the monument to King Rama VI is at least two more aerobic session, each one vying with the other for numbers and noise. The one at the gate is blasting out techno music and dancers aged 8 to 80, bob about in tune, most likely without the aid of ecstasy.

I cross the incredibly busy road (waiting almost 10 minutes for favourable light changes to get across four lanes) underneath the BTS station at Sala Daeng. From there it is a short walk to the Patpong markets. Patpong is for 'farangs' (foreigners, especially white foreigners). Patpong is also imitation city. Here is the place to find designer labels, DVDs, clothing, luggage and jewellery. All on the cheap, most of it illegal and totally uncaring of copyright. Nestled between Surawong and Silom Road, one long alley (or what the Thais call a ‘soi’) is jammed packed full of hawkers and their merchandise. It is also a dense home of pubs, bars, restaurants and strip joints. The ground floor is the entrée style but sequestered away on the upper floors are the full scale sex shows. The bars are gaudy and designed to prise gullible tourists from their dollars. These places are de facto brothels. If patrons want to take a girl out of the bar to pursue sexual relations they need to pay a “bar fine” to the premises.

The market is all privately owned. Patpong gets its name from the the Patpongpanich (or Patpongpanit) family that owns much of the area. They were immigrants from Hainan Island, China, who purchased it in 1946, when it was an undeveloped plot of land on the outskirts of the city. My thoughts are interrupted by another insistent hawker "Want see Pussy Show? Pussy Ping Pong Ball Show". No, thanks. Don't want to see pussy show, not even pussy ping pong ball show.

Eventually the constant stream of sellers anxious to get my business becomes too much and I leave the markets with my wallet unopened. There are easier places to have an unmolested beer than Patpong. Back onto the air-con BTS and home to the hotel for the night. I buy a few cans of beer from the local shop (at about a dollar a pop) and relax in the hotelroom before the oppressive heat finally claims me for the night.

arrival in Bangkok

Woolly Days landed in Krung Thep (the Thai word for Bangkok) at 6:15am this morning local time. June and July are the height of the rainy season and although it is certainly hot, humid and sticky, there hasn’t been any rain so far.

Bangkok is officially the world’s hottest large city (according to the World Meteorological Organisation) and it is already living up to that reputation at 7am. It is also the city with the longest name (according to the Guinness Book of Records). The full name for Bangkok is “Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udom Ratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanu Kamprasit.” Schoolchildren learn this mouth-and-a-half-ful by rote and it means "the city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam." Apparently.

Paid 100 baht (worth about AUD 4) for a bus to town that I was assured was going down Sukhumvit Rd to the JW Marriott, the Mormon joint that work were putting me up in. Traffic moved relatively freely out of Don Muong airport north of the city (a new replacement international airport to the south-east opens later this year) onto Vibhavadi Rangsit Road as the time pushed towards 7am and the start of the ‘rush three hours’. Strange ads lined the side of the road such as “Fried Sun-dried Venison Meat” at the Smoking Pub...can't wait to find that smoking pub and its deer meat. Within minutes I saw the first klong (most of the canals have been filled in for roads) and then the first Thai Buddhist temple gleaming in reflected sunlight. The city stretches on forever like a hazy mirage. The free moving lanes also prove to be a mirage when we pull off the freeway into choking traffic. We inch along Sukhumvit Road while I peer out the window looking for the Marriott landmark. I don’t find the Marriott but we do stop outside the Landmark Hotel. No one gets off and the bus driver shouts out something incomprehensible. Then worse still we turn off Sukhumvit and get stuck at interminable lights that stay stuck on red for almost ten minutes before going green for 30 seconds. We end up at the bus station. I ask the driver about the Marriott, but looks as if I should have gotten off at the Landmark.

After a cigarette or two he takes me in his empty bus down the long clogged streets where the lights are forever red. I have enough of this delay and decide to get out and walk the ten blocks to the hotel. I still beat the bus there. Nearly 80% of everyone on the street was wearing yellow. This is their way of showing their love for King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the 60th anniversary of his ascension to the throne. The campaign is encouraged by the government. Yellow is the king's birth colour, traditionally corresponding to the day he was born, a Monday (today.) Suppliers say they're running out of shirts, and buyers complain they are being gouged by sellers.

Having checked into the Marriott, and showered and changed, it was time to find the office. I was told it was easy to get to on the Skytrain (BTS) from the Nana station near the Marriott to the Ari station near the office. Sure enough a mere 30 baht got me the eight or nine stations on the overpath. The infrastructure is ugly; towering over the roads but it is brutally efficient and it sure beats the hell out of the gridlocked roads. The BTS was built in 1999. I emerged at Ari into another sea of yellow. The Thais love and revere their king. Unlike how they feel about their controversial billionaire Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. But that’s another story for another day. Time to go home soon and catch up on all the sleep I lost on the overnight flight.