Bts And Central Shops (at Least Some) Open Today

[SantiSuk]

I see nothing on the Red Shirts Rally Live thread today about this (yet) so I will post my observations.

I drove down Sukhumvit from On Nut through Ekkamai, Nana and along Thas Whitayu and Petchaburi to Panthip this am at 10:30.

Everywhere very quiet. No reds in Sukhumvit or Petchaburi and non traveling to Ratchaprasong (same true on return at 11:00am but Sukhumvit traffice a bit busier).

BTS was clearly open - cannot vouch for all stations but see no reason why any would be closed.

The Ratchaprasong site has clearly shrunk considerably - 3 days ago it was spilling back towards Nana, but now you can easily get one block further West from Whittayu along Ploenchit. That may not apply all day - see today's Red Sirts Rally Live thread about an expected consolidation of rally sites. [They must be consolidating because they are losing headcount to Songkran].

Panthip and Pratunam were open and so were their car parks. Again no Red masses like on Saturday. Pratunam only had about 50% of its shops open by 11:00am - most of the geeky shops at the back were still closed and looked likely to remain so for the most part (or do thse guys sleep in anyway?). I did not investigate Central and Paragon and MBK, but cannot see any reason why they would be closed.

Ekkamai bus station was still running many coaches in and out.

Good day for a shop in Central. Yes (the likes of Seacon will be a zoo) - unless the Government decide to take issue with the reds agian today. Seems unlikely to me but you read the Reds Live thread yourself and make your own decision.

Oh and one other thing. On another thread yesterday I said that the highways were toll free. Not true - I based that on some free tolls on the highway above Bangna Trat on Saturday and my Thai wife's hurried reading of a notice on a toll booth. Tolls were being charged at the Petchburi entrance to the highways near Whittayu so I guess the toll holiday was an isolated instance. Sorry if I have unnecessarily caused anyone expense.

Drive safely - the roads are clear enough to drive fast but there are motorbikes out there swerving to avoid a drenching. Drive defensively at Songkran!

[Sunderland]

Now that all the reds are moving to Rajaprasong the situation for the malls in that area can only get worse than they have been, unless they announce special sales for red supporters!

If there's a crackdown in that area, there has to be a strong chance of BTS sabotage, arson and mass looting ... and what about all that glass!! A very different environment from Rajadamnoen where the majority of buildings were older, shorter in height and many had shutters down to protect their homes.

Also, the area around Siam Square/Rajaprasong/Phetchaburi is what you could call 'sniper paradise' with a lot of taller buildings in the vicinity ... Baiyoke Tower 2 isn't so far away. Imagine what could be hit from a room up there.

[phetaroi]

Central Chidlom was closing at 3:30...just when I arrived...despite what was posted on the TV reporting thread.