A few weeks ago I mentioned on the blog that I wouldn't really report on the protests unless it affected us directly. In my last post I wrote that everything seemed normal outside and that people were carrying on as normal.
That started to change on Wednesday last week when I heard news that some protesters, angry at being driven away from their main compound earlier in the day, had set fire to some major buildings. As I write this it's been made known to us that about thirty buildings had been set on fire around the city, including Central World (Asia's second largest mall), the stock exchange building and Channel 3's building. The offices of Bangkok Post and The Nation, the two main western newspapers of Thailand, had been evacuated and the foreign press have taken off their green armbands for fear of random attacks. I remember when the news reported that the offices of Channel 3 had been set on fire. This was creepily confirmed by the fact they went off air, showing their standby logo. And then nothing.
I went to the roof of our condo and took this shot of a plume of smoke coming from the city.
Ok, we were still reasonably indirectly affected. However, at 8pm on Wednesday night, as I was walking down our village's main road with Erika and some friends, we were directly affected for the first time since the protests began two months ago: not by gunfire or fireworks, but by deafening silence. The 7-Elevens were boarded up with newspaper, the street stalls cooked their food until they had just enough time to turn the gas off before 8pm and all the other shops were already closed or in the process of closing. Even the street dogs, who normally feed off the scraps left over by the vendors, had retired for the night. One man we know who owns a stall told us he had to sleep in his shop for the night as he wasn't allowed to go home. We wanted a drink but the bars were shut - we suddenly felt very naive thinking that our village, ten miles away from the city centre, would not be affected by the curfew. Just ten minutes before, people were walking on the street but suddenly we were the only people outdoors. It was one of the strangest situations I'd been in. We headed to our friend's house for the evening and checked the BBC website for updates. That night, Erika and I walked home in eerie silence back to our condo and I filmed the Bangkok skyline from our roof to remember how quiet this beast of a city was. Before you watch the video, you need to understand that this was filmed at roughly 9:30pm, a time when the main Ramkamhaeng Road, which is essentially a motorway, is still busy and growling with the sound of traffic. It's a time where people still sit outside and talk, play music and eat. But we heard nothing, something that is incredibly rare for this city.
It's a shame that the Red Shirt's cause has now been ruined by the foolish acts of some 'protesters' who believe that this will somehow prove a point. What they fail to realise is that their point was proven weeks ago. We get it. The world understands. But a few misguided people have managed to completely erase the incredible efforts of their fellow protesters, who had protested peacefully in their camp for two months, in the space of a few hours.
