The first time Keith and I came to Asia, we narrowly missed a hurricane in the Phillipines, the tsunami in Thailand, and then were stuck in Nepal with no internet, phone, newspapers, etc--when the king was trying to capture his ministers and shut the country down. Now...here we are in Thailand with the Red Shirts...
The first night we got to Bangkok about a week ago, Keith and I were on the bus from the airport into the city. We drove by tons of people seemingly camping in the streets--red tents everywhere. "What's going on? It must be some kind of festival..." I said.
The next day, Keith and I walked over to the main street close to where we're staying, in the hopes of catching a bus to Siam Square. No such luck--the entire street was full of these camped out Red Shirts. The Red Shirts want the Thai Parliament to disband immediately--they want the previous Prime Minister back and have been protesting in the streets of Bangkok for a month...
Keith said it looked like the Red Shirts were more interested in cooking than protesting--each little group had their own makeshift kitchen and freshly cooked food was everywhere. These people are sleeping on the street--living in the streets--whole families--it's insane.
Needless to say, Keith and I were unable to catch a bus to Siam Center that day. We ended up circling around to the Chao Praya River and catching a water taxi to the subway. Little did we know that the second Red Shirt stronghold was right in Siam--the giant malls there have been shut down for ten days.
At the time, everything seemed fairly peaceful. The next day, we walked through the protestors on the way to Wat Saket to do a tsog (a temple of Buddha relics)--protestors smiled and tried to hand me red roses.
Then we left Bangkok Friday night for an island. The previous day, the Red Shirts had stormed a TV station and police had used tear gas and water canons. So anyway, we left and headed to Koh Phagnan. We ended up getting scammed and had an arduous overnight bus/ferry journey. It was lovely to swim in clear warm water--but for some reason we felt a bit sad and empty the whole time there. To make matters worse--we got charged an arm and a leg for some scratches on the motorbike we rented! Thailand has been the epitome of samsara this time around. Anyway, we made it back to Bangkok last night...
Last night we got a room with a fan and through our open window, heard protestors angrily yelling through megaphones literally ALL NIGHT long! Then when I went to get my breakfast this morning, there was a motorcycle that had been set on fire at the end of Khao San Rd. There was a really sad vibe in the air.
I just read online that the day after we left, violence broke out between the protestors and the police. 21 people were killed and 800 injured.
You can be sure I'm not going to be walking through the protest anymore...In two nights we are off to Nepal.
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