Smiles
May 24th, 2010, 22:58
I well remember walking with Suphot through the red shirt protest area at Ratchaprasong a month ago (April 21 to be exact ... the day before I flew away to Canada. Still here). Ratchaprasong is, ironically, the Centre of Thailand in one sense: it is from this busy, throbbing intersection that all distances in the country are measured.
We had been walking above everything just before that, along the overhead public walkway which goes from Silom Skytrain station to Chidlom station ... a wonderful little addition to the Skytrain construction, one which should be expanded to other stations. It's a teriffic way for pedestrians to view parts of the city from above, and gets one overhead, away from the bustle below.
But soon we were blocked by a yellow ribbon No-Go zone, and at that point the options were either to go back, or walk down the stairs into the heart of Red Country and move along the ground. The choice was obvious ~ I saw no guns drawn, no grenades being prepared for our entrance ~ so we stepped lightly down the stairs and into the very belly of the beast.
Some beast! It was, at that date, a big party, which in Thailand often means a big market: food stalls set up ~ mostly on carpets on the ground; souvenir ladies selling red heart clappers, red hats, red t-shirts, (it was in fact a gay man's nightmare, but that's another story); Portapotties lined up beside the huge walls of Paragon; red flip-flops-on-a-stick; red Isaan sausage; expensive Buddhist neck amulets (not necessarily in a red colour) lined up on the tarmac, on rugs ~ Thai folks love their amulets, an extra bullet proof vest, so to speak, if the worst happens (which it did, a month later).
This lineup was not for the portapottie (though those had lineups too) but for an ice cream vendor ~ the only one I saw ~ who was doing business beyond his wildest dreams. Conceivably he came to this place in some other coloured shirt, but changed into red when approaching the intersection (no fool he!). The conga line of ice cream eaters started all the way down at Central World and ended up nearer Paragon where the Ice Cream Guy had pitched camp. That's a very long way, as queues go, and ~ in my mind ~ I laughed out loud, thinking back to an episiode of Seinfeld entitled 'The Soup Nazi': (one of Jerry's funniest) ... long line ups, two hours inching along to get there, kids needing ... NO VANILLA LEFT!!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/sawatdeephotos/red1-1.jpg
I was enthralled with this kid's shorts. So busy ... but not red in any way. Such fabulously clashing colour schemes in one outfit-cum-accouterments.
He was selling: from one hand, cute little pastel coloured fans to give some comfort in the 40 degree heat (one of Thailand's hottest it turns out ... thanks so much Mr Thaksin! Great timing), and from the other, plastic mats (thanks to 'Tang') to cover the dirty greasy pavement which was Chosen Ground for this gathering. Couldn't give us a grassy fucking field could you? Or a nice greeny park with a lake and trees ... oh no ... has to be at the melting asphalt Centre of Thailand, under a spewing overhead railway, reflecting the heat, hard to sit on.
This kid made the best of it . . . big money from sore red asses and hot red faces.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/sawatdeephotos/red3.jpg
The main stage at Ratchaprasong. Directly under the Skytrain, protected from the blazing sun by a huge black filtering garden tarpaulin ... things were rather subdued when we walked across the street through the seated crowds ... bowing all the way, head down in Thai style when walking in front of seated folks (Whisper to one's self: "do the Polite Thing Dave, these old ladies could crack at any second").
The speeches were going on ~ never ending it seemed ~ and I looked up at the stage where one guy, whom I didn't recognize (hoping to see the screeching piggy face of Mr Jaturpon ~ but not today) who was quite obviously tired, hoarse ... searching for more words and words and words to keep those clappers going. It must be a tough job, demagoguery, and only a few can accomplish it without let up: this guy was not one, the street was quiet mostly, the odd clapper clapping, some kids racing around through the crowd, ice cream being licked.
Bit of a let down in a sense ~ I was hoping for rising tone oratory, but ended up with distinctly falling tone hesitations badly disguised by false laughter between sentences. No, no Churchill or Goebbels here.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/sawatdeephotos/red2-1.jpg
And here is a neat 360 degree-er of Ratchaprasong after the deluge ... a few days after clearing the place out, and after the thugs took to burning the place down. All seems fairly the same, with the exception of the mighty Central World Mall, now a blackened shell. Two to three thousand Thai jobs wiped out ~ sadly, ironically, I'm certain a decent majority of those being the jobs of folks from the North and Isaan: Red Shirt territory.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/thaksin ... asong-area (http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/thaksin-judgement-related/179029/panorama-of-ratchaprasong-area)
We had been walking above everything just before that, along the overhead public walkway which goes from Silom Skytrain station to Chidlom station ... a wonderful little addition to the Skytrain construction, one which should be expanded to other stations. It's a teriffic way for pedestrians to view parts of the city from above, and gets one overhead, away from the bustle below.
But soon we were blocked by a yellow ribbon No-Go zone, and at that point the options were either to go back, or walk down the stairs into the heart of Red Country and move along the ground. The choice was obvious ~ I saw no guns drawn, no grenades being prepared for our entrance ~ so we stepped lightly down the stairs and into the very belly of the beast.
Some beast! It was, at that date, a big party, which in Thailand often means a big market: food stalls set up ~ mostly on carpets on the ground; souvenir ladies selling red heart clappers, red hats, red t-shirts, (it was in fact a gay man's nightmare, but that's another story); Portapotties lined up beside the huge walls of Paragon; red flip-flops-on-a-stick; red Isaan sausage; expensive Buddhist neck amulets (not necessarily in a red colour) lined up on the tarmac, on rugs ~ Thai folks love their amulets, an extra bullet proof vest, so to speak, if the worst happens (which it did, a month later).
This lineup was not for the portapottie (though those had lineups too) but for an ice cream vendor ~ the only one I saw ~ who was doing business beyond his wildest dreams. Conceivably he came to this place in some other coloured shirt, but changed into red when approaching the intersection (no fool he!). The conga line of ice cream eaters started all the way down at Central World and ended up nearer Paragon where the Ice Cream Guy had pitched camp. That's a very long way, as queues go, and ~ in my mind ~ I laughed out loud, thinking back to an episiode of Seinfeld entitled 'The Soup Nazi': (one of Jerry's funniest) ... long line ups, two hours inching along to get there, kids needing ... NO VANILLA LEFT!!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/sawatdeephotos/red1-1.jpg
I was enthralled with this kid's shorts. So busy ... but not red in any way. Such fabulously clashing colour schemes in one outfit-cum-accouterments.
He was selling: from one hand, cute little pastel coloured fans to give some comfort in the 40 degree heat (one of Thailand's hottest it turns out ... thanks so much Mr Thaksin! Great timing), and from the other, plastic mats (thanks to 'Tang') to cover the dirty greasy pavement which was Chosen Ground for this gathering. Couldn't give us a grassy fucking field could you? Or a nice greeny park with a lake and trees ... oh no ... has to be at the melting asphalt Centre of Thailand, under a spewing overhead railway, reflecting the heat, hard to sit on.
This kid made the best of it . . . big money from sore red asses and hot red faces.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/sawatdeephotos/red3.jpg
The main stage at Ratchaprasong. Directly under the Skytrain, protected from the blazing sun by a huge black filtering garden tarpaulin ... things were rather subdued when we walked across the street through the seated crowds ... bowing all the way, head down in Thai style when walking in front of seated folks (Whisper to one's self: "do the Polite Thing Dave, these old ladies could crack at any second").
The speeches were going on ~ never ending it seemed ~ and I looked up at the stage where one guy, whom I didn't recognize (hoping to see the screeching piggy face of Mr Jaturpon ~ but not today) who was quite obviously tired, hoarse ... searching for more words and words and words to keep those clappers going. It must be a tough job, demagoguery, and only a few can accomplish it without let up: this guy was not one, the street was quiet mostly, the odd clapper clapping, some kids racing around through the crowd, ice cream being licked.
Bit of a let down in a sense ~ I was hoping for rising tone oratory, but ended up with distinctly falling tone hesitations badly disguised by false laughter between sentences. No, no Churchill or Goebbels here.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/sawatdeephotos/red2-1.jpg
And here is a neat 360 degree-er of Ratchaprasong after the deluge ... a few days after clearing the place out, and after the thugs took to burning the place down. All seems fairly the same, with the exception of the mighty Central World Mall, now a blackened shell. Two to three thousand Thai jobs wiped out ~ sadly, ironically, I'm certain a decent majority of those being the jobs of folks from the North and Isaan: Red Shirt territory.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/thaksin ... asong-area (http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/thaksin-judgement-related/179029/panorama-of-ratchaprasong-area)