This is a quote of the announcement I read on thaivisa.com…

Permanent Secretary for Commerce Yanyong Poungrat invites people to join the walking street, set at Silom Road with the hope to stimulate economy and assist business operators affected by political protest.

Mr Yanyong stated that the walking street had been set at Silom Rd to Narathiwat Rd during 28-29 May 2010, 10.00-19.00 hrs. More than 700 hundred booths of the protest affected operators will display their quality products on sale at low prices.

These operators are the affected group from the riot around Ratchaprasong, Pratunam, Victory Monument and Silom. The Commerce Ministry has provided the location at Impact Arena for some other 200 businesses as well with the cooperation from Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the Royal Thai Police and the Tourism and Sports Ministry.

A throng of shoppers are expected at the event to help all operators to survive from this crisis. Hundred million THB are foreseen to circulate within this function.

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Of course, there was the fair share of negative comments, focusing mostly on the statement about “quality products on sale at low prices.”  I personally thought it was a good idea, but was skeptical of their optimism for a strong turn-out.  Boy was I wrong!

On Saturday I made my way down to Silom to check it out.  I took the elevated walkway from the BTS station to the MRT, occasionally looking over the rail to assess the event.  But first I had to wade through the masses at the gate area.  Every train that arrived, from either direction, was packed with people headed to this event.

Down on the street it was nothing short of elbow-to-elbow, a crowed that easily matched that of the Songkran festival.  At one point I stopped to look over and an older Thai gentleman next to me smiled and said, “Good!  Very good!”

People can say what they want, but the only negative I saw in all of this was the officials underestimated the numbers that would attend.  It was simply too crowded to enjoy, so I hopped back on the skytrain and moved on.  I have never seen the gates of a BTS station so jammed with people trying to go in and out.  It was obvious to me that the BTS management got caught off guard, as they were not set up to manage the volume of people coming and going.  But that’s a good problem to have…I think.

Next I’m off to check out the new BRT service that opened today.  Read Article

The photos I took last Sunday of the big clean up dubbed “Together We Can” are now up for viewing.

Last Sunday I took a walk around Victory Monument, Siam Square, Central World and on down to Chitlom.  I came across this sign in Siam Square, which seemed a bit ironic.

There was a lot of mixed information about what had been damaged or destroyed, particularly in Siam Square.  The fact is very little was damaged.  With one exception, buildings gutted by fire were limited to the Siam Cinema and a strip of businesses to its right, all the way down to the intersection where the elevated BTS walkway begins.  Another way to describe it is everything directly opposite of the Paragon shopping center.  The only thing that survived within that strip was a bank building.

I did see one other building gutted by fire. It is on the soi immediately to the right of the cinema.  The building actually backs up against the right rear side of the theater and I’m guessing that’s how it caught fire.

I did see one report that the Scala had burnt to the ground, but as you can see it was untouched.

On the opposite side of the street, all three shopping malls received minor damages, but I saw no evidence of fire.  The Siam Discovery mall has a wall and scaffolding around the exterior, suggesting it was damaged more than the other two buildings.  I’m guessing its mostly broken glass.

Further down the street is the most depressing sight.  Central World shopping mall was all but destroyed.  The most visible damage is the section that housed the ZEN department store.  Part of it collapsed leaving a scene that is somewhat reminiscent of 911.

It is difficult to determine how much of the CTW mall is damaged.  I did see one photo of the atrium.  It had not burned, but suffered heavy water damage.  The atrium forms a dividing point in the mall and from it on back appears to have escaped the fire.  I should also mention that both the office and hotel towers are unharmed, but the tower over ZEN looks in bad shape.

Across the street, Big C suffered extensive fire damage on the ground floor, but the blaze was contained before reaching upper levels.  Gaysorn has a lot of broken glass, much of it looks like bullet holes.

I walked down to the Chitlom BTS station, but did not see any other damaged buildings.  Some shops in the BTS station had been looted, and they all suffered heavy smoke damage.

THE PHOTOS

Of course, I took pictures of everything.  I also walked around Victory Monument and photographed Center One and two other buildings completely destroyed by fire.

Last week I decided to move most of my photos to Fotopedia.  It does a much better job of organizing and presenting the images I’ve taken.  Fotopedia automatically presents each album in a slide show.  There is an option to view the images full size, which also has an automatic slide show.  Each album can contain additional albums, so one can organize photos by category and subcategory.

You don’t have to join Fotopedia to view the images stored there, but a membership is free and far less intrusive on one’s privacy than Facebook.  Once a member, you can “follow” collections.  This means you will get an Email notice every time a collection you are following is updated with new photos.

The photos of all the damage have already been uploaded, but still need descriptions added.  Hopefully I’ll get that done in the next day or two.  I’m also working on photos of the big clean up, which I expect will be on-line in a few days.

Bangkok Riot Damage Album

All Albums

Today I ventured out for the fist time after the riot on Wednesday.  I had two goals; photograph the damage at Victory Monument, Siam Square, and Central World and document the big clean up.

A thousand Bangkok citizens came out to help cleanup the area around Siam Square and Central World today.   They were also joined by a significant number of westerners.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to observe this event.  I couldn’t help but notice some of the clean up was very thorough, but not all.  How well they cleaned things really didn’t make any difference, because this was as much, if not more, about healing than actually accomplishing the stated goal.

The people of Bangkok came out in unison to reclaim their city by washing away as much of the mark left by the protesters as they could.  It gave them a sense of control after feeling so helpless for so long.  The cleansing process was symbolic, and much needed community therapy.

Popular photographic subjects for me are all the Buddhist wats, temples and shrines.  One day I realized every time I go to one of these places the sun is in the wrong location.  Ideal is to have the sun at your back, so the subject has good natural light on it.

If you explore a subject in advance you can plan for the best time of day to shoot it, but I typically photograph in the afternoon and accept the fact I won’t always have good light for some things.  I was getting frustrated with shooting the Buddhist structures, because this problem was consistent.  This had happened so many times I began to realize there must be a reason for it.

One day I was out photographing a couple of wats with an American friend.  As always it was during the afternoon and again the light was wrong.  It suddenly dawned on me why this might be happening.  I reasoned that maybe all Buddhist structures are intentionally positioned to face the rising sun.  I proposed this theory to my friend, who agreed it was a logical assumption, and worth exploring further.

One of the boys was hanging out at my room the other day when this subject popped into my head.  So I asked him if my theory was correct.  He said I was absolutely right about this.  He told me that all Buddhist structures are positioned to face the rising sun for…you guessed it…good luck.  He went on to explain the setting sun is symbolic of death and thus would be bad luck to face things in that direction.

I’ve just posted two new albums on Facebook.  One is from awhile back when a friend and I took Princess and Leo the Siam Park City amusement park.  Both had never been to a big park like this and neither had ridden a roller coaster.

The second album is from a more recent trip to Dream World, the other big amusement park here in Bangkok.  This time we took three boys, Princess, T and Chai.  While T had been to this park several times it was a first for Princess and Chai. It was also Chai’s first time on a roller coaster.  The park also has a building with artificial snow, something Chai and Princess had never experienced.

It was fun watching the boys play in the show for the first time.  The fun didn’t last long, as they quickly discovered their hands and feet were getting numb from the bitter cold.  Both agreed they no longer include living in a winter wonder land as one of their life goals.  Even so, they wouldn’t have missed it for the world and could not wait to tell their friends about it.

A day at Dream World, including transportation and meals, will cost about 1000 baht each.  Well worth it, I think.

Siam Park City Album

Dream World Album

Another KAOS party is scheduled for Saturday 22nd May, 10pm - 6am.  Expect a mixed crowd of queer fetish deviants and tekno party people of all shapes and sizes.

Last Monday (3 May) a farang friend and I took an in depth tour of the Red Shirt camp most commonly referred to as the Rajprasong intersection.  This is the area where all the big shopping malls are located - Siam Discovery, Paragon, Central World and Gaysorn.

We took the BTS to Chit Lom and took the elevated walkway back toward Central World.  I was surprised the above ground walkway was open almost all the way.  It was also interesting that a substantial number of Red Shirts were using it for their sleeping quarters, which we had to walk around while making our way toward Central World.  We eventually had to drop down to ground level, as the walkway was blocked just past the second floor entrance to Gaysorn.

From ground level, we made our way to the Rajprasong intersection.  Right in the middle of the intersection is a huge stage.  No one was giving a speech at the time so entertainers were singing to Isan music for the hundreds of people gathered in front.  From the stage a black netting shade has been stretched all the way back to the first pedestrian walkover, located next to the rear of Gaysorn.  Most of that shaded area was populated by spectators.

By the time we reached the pedestrian walkover we had already been offered some of the free food that was being distributed and had a conversation with one gentleman that wanted to tell us about their cause.  We slowly made our way down the street, past Central world and Big C to the intersection just the other side of the canal.  Once at the intersection we had passed through two barricades and were outside the camp.

From there we made our way back to the stage and turned right for a walk down to Paragon.  We didn’t get far before more food and water was offered, which turned into a nice visit and lunch.  By this time we had concluded this was like a small city and started referring to it as Little Isan.  They had brought in portable generators, toilets and had running water.  People have set up little street shops, selling everything you would usually see, plus all kinds of Red Shirt items.

We eventually made our way down to the next intersection, across from which is MBK and the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.  This also marked another entry and exit point for the sprawling Red Shirt camp.  During our entire visit the mood was generally welcoming and friendly, with lots of smiles.  Just start dancing to the Isan music and you’ve immediately made some new friends.  Of course, there was the occasional scowl or concerned look, and the security guards were understandably cold and distant.  Even so, at every check point we were welcomed to pass.

There were a few other farang wandering through the area, but not that many.  I guess that’s no surprise, as we did not expect the access that was granted.  From there I wanted my friend to see the Silom area, as the mood and temperament was a bit more on edge.  In the Rajprasong intersection area there were no troops and less police than normal.  Silom, on the other hand, was a very different story.

The elevated walkway I used to take pictures of Songkran was now occupied by the army.  In addition there were pockets of soldiers all over the place at ground level.  A few days before there were an equal number of police all over the place, but they had all moved over to the provide security for the Red Cross hospital.  If the military and police presence wasn’t enough, all the coils of razor wire and barricades were appropriate accessories in creating a war zone like atmosphere.  It was an odd mix of tension and cheerful smiles that I guess one can only experience in Thailand.

From the BTS station, we made our way down to ground level and walked over to the MRT station.  After observing for a few minutes we decided it was safe to cross into the median of Rama 4, and from there determined there would be no problem in our crossing over to the other side.  We then made our way over to the barricade that had one day before been repositioned across the street from the Red Cross hospital.

While walking along the barricade we encountered a group of Red shirt security guards looking over the wall.  A couple of them offered us some cake which we politely accepted.  Everyone along the wall was very friendly, but few would give us permission to take their picture.  This was no surprise, as we had been told in Siam that the guards didn’t like being photographed.

It is unseasonably hot this year, and after an afternoon in the heat I was ready for a few beers.  We were also loosing our light, so it was becoming more difficult to take pictures.  All things considered, I suggested we make our way over to Balcony, an idea that sat well with my Irish friend.  On the way we encountered two soldiers and my friend asked if he could pose for a photo with them, which the happily agreed to.  A farang passing by proclaimed our conduct “sad.”  Ask me if I care.  Further down we noticed a large army truck with a sound system in the back.  On it was a woman soldier singing to the Isan music blasting from the speakers surrounding her.  She gladly posed for a picture before we continued on to soi 4.  At the entrance to the soi were two young soldiers, who also agreed to a photo.  We sat at Balcony for a few beers and were on the skytrain, heading for home, before 7:30.

Some might think we were foolish to do this, but both of us have been in parts of the world far more dangerous, my friend more so than I.  We both know how to asses the situation and determine if things are safe to proceed.  In addition, we held off on taking this tour until it was clear a compromise was about to be announced and everything was over but the posturing.  While we were a bit surprised by the level of access that was granted, we never felt like there was any cause for concern over our safety.  We were also very much aware that with the exception of one incident all of the violence has taken place under the cover of darkness, and we were out of Silom before the BTS stopped running at 7:30.  The modified BTS and MRT schedule was also a pretty clear indicator of when it was best to be out of the area.

I took over 200 pictures that day, and combined with a smaller number of photos taken on other more cautious visits to these areas, I’ve put together a couple of new albums on Facebook.  I took these pictures to document what things were like and in no way are intended to show bias toward either side in the conflict.

After reviewing the photos I realized they don’t compare to actually being here, but it’s the best I can offer for those interested in seeing what things looked like on the eve of reconciliation.