Let's play Guess Where the People are Flying?

Ok friends, yesterday it was time to play, Guess Where the People are Flying?  This is when you walk through DFW and you have to guess where the waiting people are heading.  You know that the blondes are all going to LA, the latin model types are all heading to Miami.  Now the toughy, when you have a crowd of overweight pasty white people sitting there it could be many places.  Could be Detroit or Minneapolis or even St. Louis.  The point is, it's getting harder to tell these days since America is getting fatter by the day. 

Need some humor?

Now that the protests are over and the city is back to as close to normal as it can be.  I thought it time for some humor.  NPR is something I miss from the US but here it is on SNL.

A Country Destroyed

Update since last night:  The 17 story Zen Department Store which includes a roof top restaurant and True Fitness has been burned and is now collapsing.  Central World Shopping area, 500 stores through 8 floors is now burned and destroyed.  The Channel 3 Television station is now burned and had staff on the roof trapped until a helicopter rescued them.  There were 32 fires around the city last night, mainly banks.  The Army is finding grenades and bombs still set on the roads and periodically we hear the explosion.  Reds are reported to be surfacing tonight and moving in small groups so we are staying in.

This is an updated look back at the last 4 days.

An oldie but a goodie

In April 2009 when the protestors ended a 3 day riot in the streets of Bangkok, I used the old line from Gone with the Wind, "It's over, it's really over".  Here we are a year + later and I want to use the same phrase.  Unfortunately, it is only the first step to being over.  Here is the sequence today:

6:30am     The Army came in, taking down the barricades
11am        The Army had made it to Rajadamri Road and was moving toward the stage
1:30pm     The Red Shirt leaders surrendered and walked to the police headquarters to turn themselves in
2:30pm     Bangkok erupts in fire as the Reds plan to burn the place down

So, thus far we have seen Chidlom, Ploenchit, Rama IV and now Sukhumvit all ignited.  They are now targeting media companies, Channel 3 is on fire.  A mob group just arrived to NBT, another television station and a group is heading to The Nation newspaper HQ.

Remember this is the Land of Smiles...my ass it is.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood... Mr. Rogers schadap!

As the conflict continues here in Bangkok, we are forced to stay indoors as much as possible, no food delivery, no grocery stores and the street lights are all turned out in the neighborhood at night.  I'm not trying to dramatize the situation by adding more photos but it is something I have not gone through before and find it quite fascinating.

If you have been to this neighborhood, you will recognize some of the landmarks in the background of the photos.  Credit to the Boston Globe, great shots.  I know the music makes it over the top.

Bangkok Violence Continues

About 13 months ago I wrote a small piece on Dan the Man from CNN.  How he was a bit on the emotional side of the reporting compared to the ABC (Australian).  Now we are faced with the same but worse situation.  Here is a piece that I think he has done pretty well in that the emotion is out and may be even a bit flat.

As you watch the grocery store in the piece that is Villa Market which is about 100 meters from us and our main shopping store.  The battles you see are about 200 meters from us and there are reports that there are bullets strikes in the buildings at the end of our driveway.  Anyway, we are safe and have food and of course rum for a week should the shit really hit the fan.

Who day shootin at?

Today's little nugget of Red Shirt vs the Thai government comes from the roof top pool of our building.  Earlier this morning we heard a helicopter hovering, not sure if it was army or news.  Turns out it was army.  One lonely army helicopter.  Who was in it, not sure.

What we did see and hear were bottle rockets being launched into the sky.  Seriously, good old fashioned New Year type fireworks being launched from bamboo tubes, hoping that they would hit the helicopter which was hovering a good 400 meters above us.  What do the reds think they will accomplish by shooting bottle rockets in the sky?  Give me a break.

Is Thailand moving to civil war? I sure hope not!

Here is a video which is not typical CNN quality, it's better.  CNN will show anything of top drama quality just to sell some more ad time.  This time I think they got it right.  Must be that Dan "the man" Rivers is down under in New Zealand or elsewhere and not covering this event.

Not to send panic to anyone or be dramatic like CNN but this is my neighborhood of which I live and work.

Songkran - Thai New Year!

Songkran is once again on us and with it come the water terrorists that head to the streets with water cannons and buckets of iced water to throw at passers by.  No one is spared from this ritual and everyone ends up wet and beating the unbearable heat with it.

However, this Songkran has a new twist, Red Shirt protestors are out in mass force on the city streets doing as they would in their home towns but this time carrying the message of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin.

Just three short days ago, a normally wet and fun area, Khao San road, turned bloody and was left in shambles with assault vehicles burned and tear gas canisters rolling in the gutter.

Today tourists and Thais alike are spraying each other with water including this elephant which delivers quite the water spray.

Let's get our world back to normal now and enjoy this holiday for what it should be and not as a time of mourning for those that lost their lives at the hand of the red shirts.

Red Shirts - They just keep coming

I know the world has been reading and seeing our "red shirt" situation in Bangkok.  Seriously, they just won't go away.  Today they decided to shut down their other camps in the city and are now all camped out, literally camped like refugees, down Rajadamri Rd.  No one sees an end to this.  If the Prime Minister steps down and turns it over to the reds, there will be mass rioting by the yellow shirts.  Then the fun and games start all over again.

Here are some photos of recent.