Women Learning Thai… and some men too ;-)

There be Red Shirts…

Thursday afternoon I tried to focus on a Friday post. Sigh. But I could not, would not settle. Because with everything going on this weekend, there was too much on my mind.

The closer the Red Shirt rallies came, the more alarming the news.

• Protesters plan to paralyse Bangkok: city could burn
• Thailand braces for massive political protests
• Petrol sales and deliveries in Bangkok suspended

Expats started phoning one another asking, ‘what do we stock up on?’ The only thing everyone agreed on was wine. Oh, and water.

Giving up on my intended Friday post, I called Khun Pissout to arrange a pickup mid Friday. To, you know… go see what was happening.

So, armed with a couple of cameras and the Hot Spot map from ThaiVisa, off I went.

Driving around Bangkok was total bliss. No traffic. There was also a lack of Red Shirts at 11am. Instead, there was plenty of police and army dressed in their greens, getting ready for the onslaught of red.

Various government buildings were decorated in their handy red and white stripes.

Government buildings were also being tarted up with barbed wire along fence tops.

Inside the city, I came across one Red Shirt driving by. One.

Bored with it all, I drove to Ayutthaya to see the buses so kindly donated by the government to bring the Red Shirts in. From what I was told, the buses were to alleviate the extra traffic from all of the trucks loaded down with Red Shirts. WHAT weekend traffic?

Question: How are hordes of people expected to cram into seven buses?

No matter. While I was there, there was army, police, the press and me. No Red Shirts.

On the main roads coming back into Bangkok, posts were manned by even more army and police.

Some included rows of professionals in riot gear.

Once back in Bangkok, Red Shirts starting appearing up under trees.

And just like before, the sale of red t-shirts was hot.

Kids came along for the fun as well.

Closer to home, there they were. More Red Shirts.

Previous Red Shirt posts…

• Red Shirts Yellow Shirts or Thailand?
• Red Shirts at Victory Monument

More photos can be found at Catherine Wentworth : Photography : Red Shirts.

PS: Apologies for being fast and furious with this post… more later… but gotta run right now as everyone was given a half day off (so time to use up all that wine ;-)

Enjoy..

Tip Number 1: Take your time, enjoy your studies…

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