[b] - Today, (23rd.), tee rak & I took a late forenoon's walk - it is sunday, after all! - Around the block - as it were:.
- No mil'y. and / or police seen at the Henri Dunant I'sect.;
- Just four lightly-armed soldiers seen at the DUSIT THANI I'sect.;
- MRT. Silom OPEN , (posted signs: 'OPEN 08.-20.hrs.'),. Tee rak & I walked through the underpass and emerged near to the KRVI. statue to join many spectators: many young people scrubbing the steps around the statue or picking-up the remnants of the red shirts' rubbish in the gen'l. area; a couple of people praying before that statue, (first time that I've seen that for a v. long time.),. A ring of white and sponsors' tents set-up selling water, iced drinks, snacks and so forth. Many young people wearing lt. bl. b'ball. caps with: 'Together we can.', (a familiar sounding slogan?), written on them in white letters; many also wearing lt. green shirts.
*- LUMPINI PK. has been RE-OPENED to the gen'l. public.

*- At the DT. I'sect. the MC.CAFE. was OPEN, although TOPS, S'BUCKS. & FASHION O'LET. were CLOSED . Across Si Lom rd. AU BON PAIN ditto; some may remember gasping in shocked horror when it had [u] one of its windows [/ U] blown in; and now, looking-at the customers, how. . . . many remember that event and the casualties? Possibly a good thing that human memory is, on the whole, fairly short term insofar as remembering tragic and / or unhappy events-superficially, at least; but deep down in the anfractuosities of the human mind who knows what really lurks therein?

- Walking along Si Lom rd. several of the small businesses were OPEN; PARADIS DAY SPA., APSARA MASSAGE & ANGOR all had [i] masseurs / masseuses [/ I] sitting outside,. . . . but none seen o'side. PRANEEE MASSAGE, (the adjacent BOOTS - [i] The Chemists [/ I] - was CLOSED.). SILCOM. is boarded-up still, with no signs of life - despite my knocking on the hoarding!
- Many people out with brushes etc. assisting the BMA. laborers in scrubbing Si Lom rd. - An heartening sight, forsooth.

- A largish gp. of unarmed soldiers - with pink shoulder-knots, at the ent'ce. to P. Pong 2., many with red flowers * pinned to their camo. uniforms.
- FOODLAND must have had an early morning's del'y. of supplies as most of the shelves were re-stocked.

- I wouldn't want to go so far as to write that BKK. is en fete, but there appears to be a certain sense of relief in the air that for some sections of BKK's. society, at least, it's over for now, and that BKKians. can get-on with their lives.

*-* Surely not the happiest choice of colors, methinks?

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-- Khun BillyH.,
- Thank you for yr. approbatory & generous words - much appreciated by this TOF. - ha!

-- In those days and when a day-time curfew was ordered in NICOSIA all doors, windows etc. had to be CLOSED, too.
- Whilst on street-patrols we used to amuse ourselves by lobing tomatoes through any OPEN doors & windows: INCREASED our Hellenic vocabularies - that's 100%. for sure!

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I have not been in BKK during the last 2 months, probably a fortunate thing. But I am familiar with the city, especially the areas where the redshirt occupation took place, as well as the gay areas.

Hence I wish to express great appreciation to khun sextile for his detailed observations. I felt that by reading his posts, I had an understanding of what was happening in those areas that I knew better.
I'm not sure that he was always as prudent as he may have been regarding his wanderings, but I really enjoyed reading his reports.
Well done sir.

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-- Today, (23rd.), a'noon. tee rak & I went for our usual walk-about:
- We looked-in at Silom 4. and saw that the T'PHONE. PUB. was set-up and there were several prs. of customers enjoying refreshments; THE BALCONY BAR was in process of being set-up - tee rak, (at my insistence), asked when they would be CLOSING tonight and was told at 22.oo.hrs..
- Farther on we saw a Sec. Gd. leaning-over SILCOM's hoarding; in reply we were told that SILCOM. would RE-OPEN 241030.hrs..

-- Around the KRVI. statue all of the forenoon's tentage had been struck-down; the PK. would remain CLOSED until monday morning; the whole area was generally deserted.

-- We walked-along R'damri. rd. all the way to the PRATUNAM I'sect. with no hindrances; in fact we noted howmuch work the BMA. laborers must have done to clean-away all of the red shirts' debris & remains.
- I am not unaware that many of us farangs have been known to mutter 'TIT.' - often with teeth clenched; or else we shrug our shoulders in an 'Mai pen rai.' gesture at another perceived failing wch. would never ever happen in our own home-countries; but this time one should give the BMA. their due for the speed with wch. they've cleaned-up & removed the trash.
- Just short of Sarsin rd. we watched a fireman atop a long & extending ladder removing the antennas from the red shirts' aerial. I asked a fireman how high the man was and was told that the ladder could reach UP as far as 150ft..; my off-the-cuff calculations - based on the distance from the ladder's pivot to the base of the aerial, approx. 42ft., and the Angle of Dangle as shewn on the ladder's Inclinometer, approx. 65degrees, - put the man UP at around 92ft.. Another fireman, in the trolley that rides UP & DOWN tracks on TOP of the ladder was having his photo. taken by one of his companions, I made a 'Smile, please.' gesture at him, at wch. he broke-out into a broad smile. We chatted in Thaiglish; he asked me if I wanted to join him in going-up? I mentioned that when I was in my early thirties I had worked atop a 200ft. electricity-type pylon, (using my hands in explanation to supplement my vastly inadequate Thai.), and thus heights were no problem to me.

-- In the burnt-out space between ZEN TWR. & C'WORLD. a couple of fire-hoses were playing still; the ent'ce. was blocked-off to keep-out all non-essential pers..

-- At the R'PRASONG. I'sect., (the S'vit. rd.), a largish gp. of volunteers was working alongside the BMA. workers in scrubbing the rd. and structures along it.
- Between the I'CONN. HTL. & CENTRAL - C. LOM were three BMA. water-trucks, with one of them hosing-down the supports for the o'head. skywalk with a large gp. - a rough count of maybe as many as a couple of hundred - helpers who were hard at work; in the usual Thai way they'd turned it into MORE of a work-fest., thus most were working-away in good spirits: laughing & joking even as they toiled. Other volunteers were circulating and were distributing cold drinking water.

-- Tee rak & I walked along Wireless rd. to the Br. Embassy, wch. - not unsurprisingly - was CLOSED tighter than the proverbial fish's a***hole.

-- We walked-back around LUMPINI PK., along Si Lom rd. and back to the app't. - arriving just before the rains did!

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Hi Sextile,

Enjoyed ur daily update of the CBD, thank you.

One minor point, the road starting from Thannon Sukhumvit (soi 1) to Thanon Ratchadamri is called Thanon PloenChit, no longer Thanon Sukhumvit.

Regards.

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-- Quite correct; corr'n. gladly accepted - happy to see that my postings are subject to such scrutiny!

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-- From a box on the front page of today's BKK. Post. 'paper.:

- Today 'buses. will run between 05.30.-20.oo.hrs.;
- Canal boats along Khlong San Saep: ditto;
- BTS.: 06.-20.oo.hrs.;
- MRT.: 06.-21.oo.hrs..

-- Tonight's curfew's hrs. are expected to be 23.-04.oo.hrs.;
- The CRES., (Cntr. for Reaction to the Emgy. Sit'n. ), will review the sit'n. on a day-to-day basis.
- Police & mil'y. patrols will be out on some of BKK's. streets purely as a precautionary measure.

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Good news, I can go home soon.

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-- Y'day., (23rd.), evening tee rak & I supped in THE BALCONY BAR, (that would be just after 20.hrs.), also OPEN were THE T'PHONE. PUB. & SOUVLAKI REST'T..
- For both the BALCONY & T'PHONE. many of the o'side. tables were taken, but indoors THE BALCONY wasn't so busy. Most of the customers were farangs - few Thais, either boyz or adults, seen.

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-- Today, (24th.), forenoon and walking along Si Lom rd. I saw that most malls, shops etc. were OPEN.
- In SILCOM. just a few outlets remained CLOSED.

-- I don't know how typical tee rak is of non-BKK. and/or non-I-San Thais: he's 25YO., (as seen from his ID.),; says that he hails from TRANG, (by rail approx. 520M. & roughly SSW. of BKK.),; that he lost both parents in the Tsunami of 2004AD. and that the Thai gov't. paid-for his Bachelor's Degree Course at R'haeng. Uni..
- But he's rabidly anti-red shirts; in my ignorance I had supposed that TRANG is, like I-San, basically agricultural and as such that there might be some traces of fellow sympathy between peoples from such parts of the Kingdom - but not a bit of it. Walking with him I was forbidden, almost under pain of death, to pick-up any [I]souvenirs[/i] or similar.
- However, one time when he wasn't with me I picked-up a couple of good quality bath towels wch. I had washed & dried. Today morning I gave them to him as he was packing and just casually mentioned that I'd collected them from the red shirts' encampment. They were thrown-back in my face and angrily rejected.

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Whereas Sextile prefers to do his walkabouts in the forenoon, I did mine today at around dusk and later.

Monday evening, 24 May 2010 (curfew from 11 p.m. tonight)

Silom Soi 4's bars were open, but few customers. Waiters were deployed to the mouth of the soi to entice customers in.

By about 7 or 8 p.m., the foot massage places along Silom Road were closing, as were other shops. Even fast food and convenience stores were closing between 8 and 9 p.m. The problem, as one massage boy explained to me is that although the curfew does not officially kick in until 11 p.m., public transport shuts down between 8 and 9, and staff have to get home.

(I would have thought that public transport companies would arrange employee buses, with special dispensation from CRES, to ferry their workers home after 11 p.m. That way they can maintain public transport service up to 11. But I guess that requires more planning and coordination than Thais are generally capable of.)

A little past 8 p.m. I walked into Soi Twilight. Hotmale and Xsize were open, with doormen present but unusually quiet. There were no customers to shout at or pull in. Just to see what "open" meant, I walked briefly into Xsize. There were 4 boys on stage, in jeans, not underwear. No customers.

I asked the doorman for Hotmale what time they plan to close. "1 a.m.," he said.

"What about the curfew?" I was rather incredulous.

"No problem, no curfew," said he. I didn't know what he was trying to suggest.

Dream Boy, Boys Bangkok, Future Boys, X-boys and Classic Boys were shut tight. Maxis, Dicks, Banana and Balls cafes were open, but virtually deserted. The four massage places were open, with one or two boys outside each doorway. I doubt if they have any customers within.

Beyond Soi Twilight, Jupiter and Tawan were closed. Screw Boys was open, a handful of boys in underwear within, but not on stage.

I asked its doorman what time they plan to close. "3 o'clock," he said.

"What about the curfew?" I was less incredulous now.

"No problem, stay inside," was his solution.

I have understood previously that Screw Boys' boss permits his boys to sleep on premises, thus saving on rent. This may account for how they intend to stay open till three - their boys don't have to go home - but have they reckoned with the question of how customers going to get to their front door?

I wonder how the gogo bars are going to withstand the financial losses from closing for nearly a week, if not longer. Even when the curfew is lifted which may be as soon as tomorrow, it'll be quite a while before tourists come back in similar numbers as before.

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Please refrain from making this kind of condescending remark in the future. Thank you.

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[quote=sloot;677393]
1.- Whereas Sextile prefers to do his walkabouts in the forenoon, I did mine today at around dusk and later.
2.- Monday evening, 24 May 2010 (curfew from 11 p.m. tonight)
By about 7 or 8 p.m., the foot massage places along Silom Road were closing, as were other shops. Even fast food and convenience stores were closing between 8 and 9 p.m. QUOTE]

1.- Were it not for tee rak I'd be happy to join you in yr. evenings' perambulations; but he prefers that I'm back in my app't. & tucked-up in my little wooden bed by 22.oo.hrs. - but possibly that young spark has some ulterior motive, too?
2.- Y'day., (24th.], SILCOM was starting to CLOSE at around 17.oo.hrs., (a trifle early for an 23.oo.hrs' curfew, I thought - but looking-at the way that the rd.-tfc. was piling-up on both carriageway's of Si Lom rd. possibly a wise precaution?],.

-- Today, when I entered SILCOM. at approx. 25153O.hrs., there were printed notices either side of SILCOM's. Si Lom rd. ent'ce. announcing a 19.oo.hrs. CLOSURE.

-- Today evening, at approx. 19.oo.hrs., walking-along S'wong. rd. PURITY MASSAGE was the only such place to be CLOSED.
- Some of the S'WONGSE HTL's. short-time rooms were in use!
- JUPITER 2OO2. was OPENING for the evening.
- In Soi Than Tawan TAWAN CLUB had its neon sign lit, colored-lights switched ON and te front door OPEN.
- RAMENTAI, COCA & MANGO TREE were all OPEN.

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I'll bet the smaller 100 million baht limit applies. I think that at least the land is owned by Crown Property Bureau. I wonder about the mall (who owns or has master lease on that). I'll try to find the Bangkok Post article now. I'm confident there will be litigation over insurance coverage. I know that if this was in the U.S., the insurance company would file a declaratory action (seeking a judgment that it's only liable for $XX).

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-- If indeed it can be proved, to a Court's satisfaction, that it was indeed the decision by the CRES. to order the shutting-OFF of both the electricity & water svces. to the R'PRASONG. I'Sect. that stopped the sprinkers etc. from acting as they should then surely the Ins'ce. Co's. might have a case.
- Also, it's been reported, that out of care for the fire-persons' lives the CRES. delayed in admitting the fire-fighters to that area.

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