A couple of days in Bangkok with Kevin and our wives; and while the ladies laid waste to the shopping malls, we took our E-M1s and headed for the protest site at Siam.
This is what we found. Firstly, a substantial part of the area around Siam has been closed down, from MBK down to the corner next to Gaysorn plaza, with only limited vehicle access to car parks being made available. Rally stages have been established next to MBK and on the corner of Central World.
Central Word/Gaysorn site
MBK site
Being a weekend, we expected large crowds, but the MBK site was very quiet early in the afternoon:
With crowds only building up later in day; but even then it was not particularly busy:
There was constant entertainment provided throughout the day, with vitriol-filled speeches (cue whistles and clappers) alternating with music; most of which was really good. There was plenty of free food on offer, a supply of ice cream attracting quite a long queue, not all of whom I expect were protesters.
In between the the two stages was a walking street of shops:
These were selling a mixture of protest-related items, plus the usual stuff you would find on any Thai street market.
Choosing a T-shirt
An extensive selection
Which to choose?
No longer a good seller
The movie title seems rather apt…
Any colour you like, as long as it is red, whit and blue.
Will someone please buy my last T-shirt, ideal for dinner parties?
Nailed
Extra noisy whistles
Available in all sizes
Furtive balaclavas on the left, cosmetics on the right; for the commando who wants to look good
Pretty much everything you could want
With free food, entertainment and endless shopping, the atmosphere was “street party” rather than “revolution”. There were a few guards around, but everything felt very relaxed and informal. There was even a supply of electricity courtesy of an opened terminal box. I wonder who will pay the bill?
What there wasn’t was any sign of the police. The police HQ was next to the rally site and the front had been extensively vandalised:
Inside the police compound, all was deserted.
Which of course does inevitably lead to the question; in what other city in the world would they allow a prime area to be commandeered by a small number of people for weeks on end?
Anyway, not our country, not our issue. People were very pleasant, as the red shirts had been when I visited their protest. We were offered free drinks, and nobody objected to having their photo taken; which means I have a large collection of people shots to inflict on you in the next post. Here are a couple of tasters:
Not everyone enjoys the clappers
Young whistler
All photos, Olympus E-M1 with Olympus 12-40mm or Olympus 75mm
Comments 🔗
2014-02-10| Andrew saysAll nice and (seemingly carefree ) but I keep thinking of the old adage " follow the money"….