I arrived in Bangkok yesterday after three glorious days in Phuket and I noticed immediately the negative energy here. Very different to past visits. There are not many people smiling and although the place seems quiet and calm, people don't look happy. Not surprising I suppose given recent events. But it is like there has been a disturbance in "the force" in the land of smiles. While you may be able to avoid the demonstrations you can't avoid the atmosphere. I am sorry I came. This is not the place I remember and love. I should have stayed in Phuket.

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That certainly looks to be the case, definitely running out of steam.

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It looks like the Iceland volcano (European flight cancellations) is the next shoe to drop on Thai tourism. I just saw an article about the European shutdown with a picture of people stranded in Suvarnabumi airport. There are so many flights between Europe and BKK every day. I sure feel sorry for TG and the European airlines (losing a lot of money).

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-- A recent BBC's. news' summary, (BBC.Radio 3.), reported that most Spanish airports are OPEN.
- The concerned European auth'ys. are meeting to determine how those airports can be best utilised and the tpt. arrangements by land and/or sea away from them?

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Although some flights are in the air over parts of Europe today, I hope no-one gets their hopes for a normal resumption of flight schedules up too high. The BBC is now reporting the emergence of a new ash cloud from the volcano.

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(Twitter pictures updates)

Seven days in Thailand - The Globe and Mail

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(QUOTE) The army is made up of young boys, many there only for regular meals and a roof over their head, who are lost and scared.

I have noticed handsome Isaan red shirts too.

VIDEO:
YouTube - Bangkok War Zone: Video of violent clashes as Thai police fire at Red Shirts

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-- Not 100%. true; as in many armies where there is conscription one will see young looking conscripts alongside grizzled & long-service regulars.
- Possibly LESS reliance on YouTube etc. etc. and actually being here & on-the-ground, opening one's eyes and seeing for oneself.

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We may be seeing the end game. The protests will only end when the radical leaders are captured, and that is the army's real objective.

I am (I think reliably) informed by thai contacts that the reason Veera resigned as leader was that, despite achieving the main political objective (a dissolution date), Thaksin ordered the occupation to be maintained, and negotiations to be terminated. He has apparently told his rotweilers that if the government wants to end the occupation, the negotiations must be directly with him. You can imagine the demands that would be made (starting with 49 billion baht.)

The reds may have geniune greivances, but they have been skillfully expolited by Thaksin, and the government is left with no option but to crush Taksin's last stand, and then proceed down the road-map with rational leaders, not Thaksin's rotweillers.

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I doubt anyone except the top leaders knows what is going on in negotiations. Anyone can say anything: Thanksin unreasonably demands this, someone quits for this reason, etc. . . . I wouldn't believe anything. All I know is there have been some lawfully elected governments, and they were unlawfully dissolved, and it appears there should be a free election called. For all we know, this could all be cloak-and-dagger maneuvering by anyone (with nothing what one thinks).

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I understand your coments. However an article in today's Bangkok Post (P 13, "Put an end to this rebellion") sets it out very clearly. It's not about democracy, it's about one spoilt little boy throwing his toys out of the cot screaming "What about me me me ? What do I get out of the Nov elections agreed to by the govt and UDD ?" Nothing - so now we have chaos. It's a tragedy.

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-- Naras Thiwat. rd. is the dividing line between Cent'l. BKK. wch. has appears to have thrown-in the towel and that part of BKK. wch. is trying to carry-on living more or less normally with 'buses. & other public tpt. running, shops etc. OPEN for business and so on and so forth.

-- Y'day.,(15th.), evening tee rak & I walked through soi Naras Thiwat 1., (aka. Soi Anuman.), in wch. only SOLID BAR was CLOSED,as were COCA & MANGO-TREE REST'TS..

--Later on we supped in a small Thai-It. rest't. not far from the HOLIDAY INN - SILOM.
- Walking along Si Lom rd. we were stopped by the mil'y. by Si Lom 4., wch. was as silent as the grave, and told not to proceed any farther.
-- We concluded by walking through Soi Twilight - off Suriwong rd. - just after 22.oo.hrs.: BALLS' BAR & DICK'S. CAFE. and MAXI'S BAR OPEN, as were FRESH BEACH BOYS and HOTMALE, also BANANA BAR.
- Looking-at the few patrons in both DICK'S. & MAXI'S left me with the impression of some pale-faced farangs about to confront their last few hours on Earth - staring gloomily into their drinks' glasses.
- I might have thought that the unemployed bar-boyz might have been clustering in the gen'l. area of the nearby K'KORN. BANK and seeking clients - but not so.

-- Today, (16th.), forenoon the mil'y. & police had set-up a small road-block on Suriwong rd., by tnn. Thaniya, and were turning-back taxis. and other seemingly non-essential vehs..
- No rd. tfc. seen along Rama IV rd..
- From the red shirts' encampment just the usual background oratory heard.
- Walking along Rama IV. rd. we were stopped - as we were y'day. - by a police piquet; yet three men, wearing black vests with 'TV.' written on them in white, were allowed to proceed towards MRT. Lumpini.

-- Looking-in at the DUSIT THANI HTL. - rated *****., I believe - I saw uncollected & discarded 'papers., styrofoam cups & containers and other debris.
- Along Si Lom rd. piles of uncollected garbage accumulating; surely possible for the BMA. to organise cleaning & collections during the hrs. of daylight?
- Just the small 7/11s. & FAMILY MARTs OPEN , as was DELIFRANCE in UNITED CNTR.. A v. few poor but honest street traders & their hand-carts seen.
- As I type this - 161215hrs., (BKK. time.), it's started to rain - possibly good news, if only for some?

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While the reports are interesting, sextile, let me be the first to say that you are ill-advised to be taking evening strolls through a war zone. Violence can break out at any second, and if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could get caught up.

Please use your head.

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-- Khun Icon,
- Thank you for yr. concern - appreciated!
-- When it'll be time to go then it'll be time to go; three separate fortune-tellers, (different people, different methods & different places.], have all assured me that I'll live to enjoy good health until well past my 85th. year - so I've a good few yrs. to go yet.
- But you're correct, of course, not to thrust myself, without any due regard, into some potentially dangerous pos'n.; strangely, I do value my life, (possibly the only one that does - ha! ],.

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-- Today, (16th.), afternoon tee-rak & I walked along Rama IV. rd. to HUA LAMPONG rly. stn. - just to make a change from looking-in at the so-called 'war zone.'.
- Police barriers in the gen'l. area of the i'sect. by WAT HUALAMPONG/C'CHURI. SQ.; no tfc. was being allowed along Phya Thai rd., (it leads to SIAM SQ. & to the red shirts controlled area.),.
- From the MANDARIN BKK. HTL. and for the next couple or so hundred yds. taxis, tuk-tuks & other civilian cars were parked three & four deep across the OUTGOING carriageway; on the side-walk, amongst a few Thai nat'l. flags & some blue ones, was a motley array of civilians standing, looking & chatting, amongst them I noticed at least a couple of BKK's. Finest looking quite at ease. The objects of att'n. were men rolling tyres along the carriageway in the dir'n. of Cent'l. BKK. - presumably to make a barrier of some sorts?

-- At the rly. stn. - where we saw that the MRT. stn. was CLOSED - I was given to u'stand. that quite a few trains to & from the N. & the NE. had been cancelled by the SRT..

-- Walking-back, on the INBOUND side of the rd. we were stopped by Chula 11. by some man or other. I asked tee-rak who this man is, what is his auth'y. and what was he saying? Tee rak is not at his best in such sit'ns. and I was left guessing something or other about unidentified men in black farther along the rd. However, after a minute or two some little olde lady nipped spryly across the central divide and info'd. us that it would be quite alright to go on.
- By WAT H'LAMPONG. we saw both the mil'y. & the police looking-at the scene through their binoculars; quite why, seeing as they were looking in the dir'n. whence we'd come, no-one had the wit to ask us about what was going-on I don't know; possibly a farang & his boi weren't deemed to be sufficiently reliable enough sources of info.?
- We passed-by the DUSIT THANI HTL. I'sect. at about 17oo.hrs. - surprisingly enough there was no background rhetoric from the red shirts' encampment. We did see smoke arising from some burning tyres at the U-turn under the Thai-JP. flyover.
- Walking along Si Lom rd. we saw stacks of bottled & drinking water and the police & mil'y. enjoying their evening meal from styro. containers. Patriotic music was being played from the mil'y. veh. parked near to BTS. Sala Daeng stn., (S2.),.

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