1.- I don't see why not; but when are you proposing to travel? I might suppose that after next monday - 24th. - life might be returning, albeit slowly, to Cent'l. BKK.. However, I believe that last night the mil'y. imposed a curfew WEF. 2O.oo.hrs., one hopes that that's just a temp'y. measure and will be lifted soon.
2.- I'm sure that it does!
3.- That's out in BTS. Nana, (E3.], dir'n., isn't it? Should be safe enough, I'd think. But I suppose that life farther out towards R'hankhaeng. continues much as usual: plenty of massage parlors, saunas etc. etc. in that dir'n.!
4.- Sorry, don't know; although I've seen some Airport Express 'buses. running.

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Appreciate your considered response.I recall this Peter Weir/Mel Gibson drama too.

Any other opinions gladly weighed up.My no-cancel hotel ticket deal has been waived so I may do an Air Asia sojourn before moving on to my destination.

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In answer to Sextile my departure is May 29.

BTW Sextile re your coverage.Magnificent.

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-- The latest news, both verbal and from a US. Embassy warden in PATTAYA, (via > The Baht Stop <], is that the curfew will be from 2O.oo.-O6.oo.hrs. until monday - 24O6oo.hrs. for those provinces presently under Security Regulations currently in force.

-- As for arriving in the LoS. later this month I'd advise waiting and seeing wch. way the wind will be blowing.

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-- I forgot to include that y'day. evening, when I was standing o'side. the on-fire CENTRALWORLD I was amused in a wry fashion to see an official CW. advert. wch. read:

IT'S SUMMER.
TURN-UP THE HEAT ... .

- Fulfilled, but not in the manner intended.

-- Today, 2O113O.hrs. I walked to the DUSIT THANI I'sect. and noted the progress made by the BMA. in its cleaning-up ops. of the red shirts' former encampment by the KRVI. statue. Mech. eqpt. was in use, some twenty X 5cu.yd. lorries were in attendance to take-away the rubbish.
- However, about 100yds. along R'damri. rd. the mil'y. had set-up a barrier prohibiting farther progress from those not on essential duties. I met Jock. from Inverness, (of 'The Ball of Kirriemuir.' fame.), and we watched some stout figure dressed in full media panoply being stopped and told to turn-back by an armed soldier, despite the former waving some ID. Card and expostulating at the top of his not inconsiderable voice.
-- On Si Lom rd. the large & corner 7/11. was OPEN as were A&F. TOURS and SABAI THAI MASSAGE; both NOODI & BALLY'S SILOM had their street doors OPEN for airing-out purposes.
-- K-WHY MASSSAGE, BBB INN & DICK'S. CAFE. were OPEN, as was the FAMILY MART by Soi T'light..
- METHAWEE MASSAGE was OPEN - one customer inside receiving a foot-massage - also LISA'S MASSAGE, the 7/11., the corner Pharmacy and INDRA MASSAGE.

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- [u] Two different sources [/ U] have advised me that here in BKK., And elsewhere, there'll be night-time curfews from 21.*-06.oo.hrs. until 2406.oo.hrs..
*- Doubtless this is to discourage looters - thus the mil'y. might be a trifle trigger-happy during those hours?
-* Note corr'n. to this time of starting: 21.oo.hrs.; "Happy sleeping!".

- The Thai gov't., ever solicitous for the well-being of its nationals and visitors - many of whom have been suffering during these recent & traumatic times - has proclaimed a period of National Holidays until the end of this week-end. .

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-- CFS. - catholic though it may well be - is scarcely the place for a disertation on Fire-fighting precautions for public bldgs..
- The above having been written most modern & public bldgs. are built to quite stringent & published Codes: Earth-quake, Fire and so on.
- However, and from memory, the Code of Practice for Fire Precautions does not concern itself too much as to whether it's for an hawng nahm, (where there's usually little of a flammable nature.), or it's tins of food or flammable & fashionable goods that are placed beneath the sprinklers. The Code specifies a volume of somany cu. ft. for each sprinkler and the builders install the pipework and nozzles accordingly and in nice straight runs of piping; take a look the next time you'll be in a Dept. Store or similar. Many public bldgs. have an automatic alarm to the nearest Fire-bde. station, too.
- Also to be considered is the source of water and for how long it'll last?
- Looking-at the one example of the BKK. Fire brigade and its problems with its eqpt. that I saw made me wonder how often such systems are tested? Infrequently, I'd guess.
- It wouldn't be too difficult for a skilled arsonist to o'whelm. the IN-house sprinkler system - if only by turning it OFF in the Machinery Room or similar loc'n.!
-- End of sermon! --

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At around 11am this morning (Thursday) on Thai tv, the government spokesman was talking in Thai and English live and said the curfew had been changed to 9pm until 5am. I cannot remember exactly if he said up to and including Saturday or Friday night. He said to refer to the government web site for updates or call a hot line 02 something or other that sounded remarkably like that of True Visions!
Usually the same spokesman is shown live on CNN when speaking in English...so others may have seen it also.

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- Today, (20th.), a'noon. tee-rak & I walked-along Rama IV. rd ..
- In the area by the KRVI. statue a large work-force was busy cleaning-up: sweepers sweeping-up the debris: water-trucks hosing-down the pavings and plenty of others neating-up in their wake.
- We walked along to MRT. Klong Thoei stn. & noted the damage caused, (mostly to banks and to 7/11. stores - out of sheer bl**dy-mindedness, I'd suggest.), and the progress in cleaning-up being made. At the start of Soi Ngam Duplee, (where I had stood in red shirts' territory behind a barrier of tyres a few days earlier.), workers were puting-up plyboard sheets around the ransacked CIMB. branch; across on the other corner the K'KORN. BANK had been gutted completely - looking-at the three blackened ATM. & other machines I wondered just how fire-proof the safes are? Farther along, in the area of BON GAI, electricity board workers were hard at work in restoring power to that area; we stopped & purchased some bottled drinks, the good lady who served us apologised that they weren't cold, (but didn't offer us a discount for that.),. Generally along the length of Rama IV. rd. workers & mech. eqpt. were hard at work: 'dozers. picking-up tyres and rubbish and putting them into lorries, of wch. there must have been a score or so in that area, others manually sweeping & cleaning-up.
- About 100yds. into Wireless rd. the mil'y. stopped us: 'Dangerous.' was their reply to my question.
- We walked-back and turned into R'damri. rd. where again we were stopped after about 100yds..
- While there I chatted with an Aussie. who's been in business in the Kingdom for some 15yrs.. He said that y'day.,(19th.), he was o'side. CENTRALWORLD at around 14.oo.hrs., a time when there were only a couple of v. small fires. He said: 'You & I could have put them out by peeing on them.'; he shewed me some photos. that he'd taken at that time; indeed the fires were small.

- Walking-back along Si Lom rd. I stopped to look-at some APCs.. On the roof of one of them a soldier was banging-away industriously with an Hammers, ball-pein. I tapped the sides of one of them and was surprised to hear an hollow sound as of tapping on plyboard - and so it proved: the glassis-plate, sides and rear either side of the door were plyboard sheets on TOP of the armor; reminded me of the time when reportedly sometime prior to the 1939-'45. war during the wehrmacht's annual manoeuvres
some British civilian alleged that his car bumped into one of the German tanks wch. fell to pieces - being constricted of plyboard on top of some motorised chassis! On the back doors were pink triangles; the last time that that symbol was seen was some 65yrs. ago - but in v. different circumstances!

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-- Today, (21st.), forenoon tee rak & I took a brief walk-around:
- In P. Pong 2. the sellers of bags, cases etc. were OPEN;
- On Si Lom rd. A&F. TOURS was OPEN, as was the the large 7/11. on the cnr. with Soi Convent;
- At the DUSIT THANI I'sect. the MC.CAFE. was OPEN;
- Walking along R'damri. rd. we were stopped again at the Sarsin rd. i'sect., where a couple of red shirts' PUs. have been parked - objects of att'n. from many who passed-by. Plenty of BMA. laborers & eqpt. working & cleaning-up; many lorries/trucks queued-up along Rama IV. rd. to take-away the debris;
- On Rama IV. rd. a small pharmacy was having fresh supplies delivered. At the HENRI DUNANT I'sect. THE ROADHOUSE BBQ. was OPEN;
- Along Suriwong rd. the FAMILY MART by Soi T'light. was OPEN, as were the 7/11. & the cnr. pharmacy opp. the TAWANA BKK.;
- On Soi Than Tawan GLITZ HTL's. rest't., the Ch. Eating-hse., INDRA MASSAGE, RAMENTAI, COCA & MANGO TREE REST'TS. were all OPEN.
- Without going into any specifics several shops had staff inside cleaning-up, doors & windows OPEN for airing-out the places - the first shoots of returning to a MORE normal life-style once again?

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Sextile your detailed reporting is outstanding. Would someone kindly buy that man a beer (or I can - in December when I am next in Bkk....but you'll be darned thirsty by then!)

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sextile, fantastic reporting and thankyou for keeping us up to date on what's happening.

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-- Gentlemen, Thank you for yr. kind notices and words of approbation - greatly appreciated!

-- Today, (21st.), a'noon. tee rak & I went-out for a further look-see.

-- We walked-along R'damri. rd. noting that the KRVI. area is pretty clean now.

-- At Sarsin rd. we had no other choice but to turn back or to turn RIGHT,. We turned RIGHT, keeping LUMPINI PK. on our RHS.. A large amount of garbage, some of wch. had been gathered-up into piles for easier coll'n.;
- At Wireless rd. we turned LEFT and walked towards Sukhumvit rd. by BTS. Ploen Chit, (E2.],.
- At S'vit. rd. we turned LEFT and walked towards R'PRASONG. I'sect.. In gen'l. the whole area was shewing all the signs of occupation followed by an hurried evac'n.;

-- At the R'PRASONG. I'sect. we walked-across for a closer look at CENTRALWORLD, where the mil'y. forbad us to walk along the Ram I. rd. frontage but had no objections to us standing right up close to the damage on the R'damri's. frontage. ZEN TWR. is standing; however a large chunk - say approx. 100ft. long, four bays deep by the TWR. and in a jagged & semi-circular progress was only about three bays deep at its CENTRALWORLD end - had fallen in; whisps of smoke were issuing still from a couple of places. A couple of fire-engines were there supplying water-pressure to some of the hoses, (I noted the amt. of water leaking-out of the various connections - not so good, I fear. Made me wonder just how often the eqpt. is tested under active svce. conditions?),; various other fire-vehs. were in attendance, too. Seeing that our feet were dirty we washed them with water coming-out of one of the hoses - LOW pressure. Walking along the R'damri's. frontage we saw that the glass of several doors had been stove-in; one set of CW's. doors was OPEN and a fire-hose had been led inside - but being kept back by a 'DANGER.' tape it was difficult to see inside. I'd suppose that for CW. and for ISETANN most of the damage not caused by looting would be smoke-damage.

-- On the other side is the damaged BIG C - R'DAMRI., (sorry, men - but no more cruising there for quite some time ),. The main doors had been pushed-in and ransackers had been hard at work: many front windows were broken and their contents pulled-out and spilled onto the frontage - tee rak occupied himself in choosing a pr. of undamaged sun-glasses, (no cries about 'Bacteria!' at that time! ), until a soldier approached and advised us to be OUT of the area before 18.oo.hrs.; STARBUCKS had its door covered-over by a plyboard sheet. A line of cord was used to keep the curious from approaching too close.
-- The ARNOMA HTL. appeared to have suffered but MINIMAL damage; several of its staff were gathered by the ent'ce, and were surveying the scene.

-- The mil'y. stopped us from walking-back along R'damri. rd., (thus it's CLOSED to all tfc. between Sarsin rd. & R'prasong. I'sect.),.
- So we walked-back and turned RIGHT along Soi Lang Suan, (1st. time that I've walked along it.),.

-- And so, via Si Lom rd., back to my app't..

-- Afterwards we supped modestly in the small & Ch. eating-house on Si Lom 6., (tee rak prefering there - although he doesn't really like Ch. food - as he thought that I have a 'friend.' in DERBY KING on P. Pong 1. - ha.), nothing special but adequate enough and not expensive.
- We had about 20mins. within wch. to walk back before the curfew at 21.oo.hrs. - so it was along Si Lom rd. and through P. Pong 2.; FOODLAND was OPEN, as was just one garishly-lit girlie-bar with just one farang customer. Even the Police Box on S'wong. rd. was CLOSED.
- Apart from the hotels e'thing. else was CLOSED tighter than the proverbial fish's a***hole! In truth it was a weird experience walking-back in such circumstances and took me back some 50+yrs. to when I was engaged in Int'l. Sec. duties in CYPRUS, (during the EOKA 1. & 'Suez.' period.),.

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Curfew lifted in Pattaya ! After a few early nights, there was an announcement about 8.30 pm tonight , Friday, that the curfew has been cancelled here in Pattaya. I dont know about BKK, but hopefully all soon back to normal. I'm heading to Boystown to see if the bars have got the message yet !

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