A small group of Thais & Foreigners working on LifeBangkok.com website decided to see and take a look at the “Red Shirt” protest on Saturday, the 4th of April taking place at the famous Siam Intersection, often refered to as the ‘Heart of Bangkok’.
We will try give you a fair and honest review of what we saw and experienced during the visit. We are not working for any organization or media related company. LifeBangkok.com comprises of several people with different political viewpoints. We try to be as subjective as we can be.
Unfortunately we were unable to bring good camera equipment, so we had to do it with a simple camera without any real flash. It was 19:00 and slowly getting dark while we arrived…. we expected the worse, but we still managed to make a few shots. Our apologies and we hope you still enjoy the pictures…..
When the taxi driver heard we were heading for the protest at Siam, he told us he was a fanatic Red Shirt protester and he took the time to proudly show us his collection of photos from previous protests he been to. When we arrived at our destination he happily told us the taxi ride was free!
We are 2 kilometres from the Siam intersection. You could see protesters gathering and camping out about 1 kilometre from the Four Seasons Hotel.
We join the protesters heading towards the backside of the stage, by foot and motorcycle.
People keep coming and coming…
The only cars you see here are parked ones. Later in the evening around 23:00PM this place would be packed with protesters and people would be sleeping on the grounds
Happy people along the road greeting you while you entering the main protest site
Once we got to the Emerald Buddha shrine at the Erawan there seem to be some commotion….
People are flocking to the shrine to see what is happening….
The self-organised “Red shirt Guards” are forming small walking route line from the main stage to the Emerald Buddha Shrine
It all went so fast but 1 of the demonstration leaders has entered the Buddha through one of the side gates.
There was a enormous amount of press and journalists present. Most of them were allowed through the gates in to the compound. We arrived just too late but thanks to some guards we were able to get at the gate side and manage to get a glimpse of what was going on… If you look closely, you can see Mister Jatuporn praying and offering to the Emerald Buddha.
A closer look: Mr. Jatuporn (on the left) surrounded by camera-men and journalists.
After they finished praying, they went back to the stage using the other exit as there were now too many people on our side of the gate.
Everybody left, except for a few self-organised cleaners and security guards
We leave the Shrine, and we are going to cross the street heading towards Gaysorn Shopping Centre. On our right site the road to sukhumvit was packed with people.
And more people….
When we got closer to the Gaysorn Centre, you could slowly see the huge red-shirt crowd’s….
Arrived at Gaysorn. There were a lot of people on the walking road, but there was still a good walking tempo as everybody let each other through without any problems
“Power to the people!” beside the expensive billboards of this normally high class shopping centre in the capitalist heart of Bangkok.
More people sitting standing and beside the road or walking to and from the stage while others are walking around.
The line of people ‘camping’ on the road just kept going and going
Inside the tunnel bridge above the road. many people were taking pictures. unfortunately we did not have the right camera equipment for long shots in the dark, but we managed to get a picture of the road behind us…..
If you look closely you can see the people all the way to bridge at Pratunam.
We got to the other side and walked down to get between the people sitting on the roads ;
A lot of people where normally you would see only cars, motorcycles and busses driving.
CentralWorld was ‘taken over’
Also here the people very friendly and there was a very relaxed atmosphere
Some even sit together to ‘take a break’ and have a drink
While others are taking a nap….
…While others made their own living room of the furniture that was left behind by the Beer Companies for their customers on the beer festivals in the weekends.
Bear in mind: Some of these people are protesting for over a week now. Some of them are not even from Bangkok and came from hundreds kilometres away….
“We don’t give up!”
A lot of foreigners and expats were also present and joined this demonstration
20:30PM : The demonstrators were in a good mood.
21:00 PM : heading back towards Lumpini Park. Right after the four seasons hotel, there were still a lot of ‘newcomers’ joing the protest .
We are heading back home….
It should be noted that despite all the negative publicity and media reports there was absolutely no vandalism , no violence or any other type of bad behaviour towards other red shirts or non red-shirts such as journalists, foreign visitors, tourists and people working near the protest site. While not publicly showing any political view/preference or by wearing any type of colour shirt we have been treated with respect and friendliness. We have been offered food several times and we have seen lost tourists being offered help and information on what was happening. Many even seem to amuse themselves by this rare ‘type of event’.
To say that this demonstration has a bad effect on the tourism and the people general in Thailand is simply not true. Besides the negative travel advice/warnings there is not much that could hurt tourists, unless you specifically came to Bangkok for that special newest edition of the Louis Vuitton handbag. There is Silom, Sukhumvit, Ratchada, and Khao San Road for the more younger and wilder categories of tourists.
I guess the only ones that are hurting now are the people owning/renting/selling the land at Siam, and the businessmen owning these huge shopping malls and hotels.
If they could just travel to their holiday house in Hua Hin or Phuket, by their 2nd Benz s500 or by free THAI airways tickets, and return back to Bangkok after 1 week, I think things will be fine by then … and hopefully with a real democratic system without people being deprived of their votes and voice.
After all…. The majority rules. Right?
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It’s great to read at LAST an independent and a story with the facts, without political and without any interference or bias from the powers that be! Nothing sensored just the facts and exactly what’s happening in Bangkok. Despite your problems with your camera equipment all your published pictures told the story well. The other nationals worldwide should sack their lazy biased reporters and fat news editors immediately and offer you guys a job! Keep the good work up.
P.S. My wife is Thai, educated and completely neutral but I’m sure (like the majority) that she would never vote for any Eton educated puppet no matter what colour he wears.
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Hi Rod,
How are you doing?
What a compliments! Thank you.
I simply did my best to report and translate in to what I (we) saw and felt while being there. I have been to the democracy monument protest site yesterday, same story. Yes, I have also added a small piece of text of my personal opinion. I think this is necessary as other writers are doing the same thing; constantly reflecting their personal political opinion&ideology. some do it more then others, motivated by different reasons: personal opinion(s), business interests, or a combi, etc…
To build a real balanced/objective blog based website, you got to give a story to/about both sides. Though I prefer everybody to just write 100% subjective articles in the first place, without having any preference for any color(s), person(s) or ideology. what a world that would be huh…
That sounds easy but it is not.
Even within our own team we have our differences on this matter.
On a personal note: I have lived in bkk for more than 6 years. the majority of my friends are Thais. I have always been interested in life & politics. I love to study Thai society and I receive many complaints from my thai sisters & brothers that at times I do know too much (that’s a Thai joke). After landing in a country with such a polarised society/political scenario I felt forced to study more about what is going on ‘below the surface’. Also, I’ve been at and witnessed most of the ‘yellow shirt’ protests back in ‘08. i was at the first gathering at ‘07 with less than 250 people @ lumpini hall with sondhi answering questions from the public (including foreigners), and finally at the one @ suvanabumi airport. so I do feel I am entitled to compare both sides in regards to these demos.
I think real democracy starts with the voice of the majority. Regardless of the fact if you like their leaders or not. this is a matter for themselves to find out. you cant just step on a small growing flower because you dislike the person who is giving it water….
You and your wife seem to be very fortunate with each other!
kind regards,
sebaz
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This crisis is destined to continue for years to come because the two sides are about equal in strength. If no agreement acceptable to both sides is reached, it could lead to wider social unrest, crippling the Thai economy.
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I wish there was a logical answer.I look at this circumstance from many angles and don’t see any easy answers at all, nor is there a simple equation as in one side has a force = to/ stronger/weaker than the other, it just defies simple analysis.The 3 pillars of strength that Thailand has traditionally depended upon for stability are showing the warning signs of finally weakening. Thais no longer appear very unified, (if they truly were) show a new willingness to sacrifice peace for violence at the individual level and worst of all, may be motivated by selfish gain, pride and disdain for others to the extreme point of toppling the overall good and well being of all, and have essentially embraced civil war reactions.There is less than a 50% chance that any government will last here for very long or do justice to fair representation… It just seems fragmented irreparably.
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economy is 1 thing … living with dignity and without opression/class-differences is another….
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Really Appreciate this blog post, can I set it up so I receive an email whenever you make a fresh post?