A Visit To The Red Village.

[otherstuff1957]

My wife had to buy some herbal medicine that she can only get near Central World, so I took some pics while we were heading there:

Since they stopped wearing red, the shops have tons of red t-shirts for sale.

In front of Central World:

[otherstuff1957]

There were several impromptu shops offering foot & Thai massage:

An entrance to to Police Hospital:

Looking toward Siam Square, under the BTS:

Out side of Central World:

Looking toward Pratunam:

Abhisit, Suthep and ?:

I don't know who these guys are supposed to be:

[SomTumTiger]

Nice photos. Sorry for the early closure.

[otherstuff1957]

The t-shirt in the back left has the only picture of Thaksin that I saw there. I guess the Red leaders are playing down his connection as much as possible.

Notice the little Red banners, they can be rolled up when not wanted, or displayed when it's safe.

A red truck:

[otherstuff1957]

The tire barrier near Siam Paragon:

Some soldiers near the Sukhumvit Subway Station:

Police at the Asok BTS Station:

Some Redshirt Guards near Siam Square:

[otherstuff1957]

I don't know if I can link to flickr but here is the complete photostream:

30 April at the Red "Village"

As my wife pointed out, it was just like an old fashioned village temple fair. Except for the people on stage shouting away, that is.

It was in the middle of a very hot afternoon and a lot of people were sleeping. I can't say if it is more or less crowded that before, as this was my first visit, but the crowd wasn't particularly dense, though they did take up quite a bit of area. It was more of a camp than a crowd.

There were quite a few shops offering everything from t-shirts, to drinks, to food, to massages. Towards the outskirts of the 'village' the vendors almost outnumbered the protesters.

No-one was hostile, it was just like walking though any crowd of Thais. I did ask the Red Guards, the police and the soldiers if I could take their pictures before I did it though!

Edited April 30, 2010 by otherstuff1957

[jdinasia]

Those pics show the area to be almost empty by comparison to the past. How many people total (including the vendors) would you estimate were there? Then how many people NOT including the vendors?

[britmaveric]

^daytime is prob not a good judge of numbers - seems like its jam packed by evening.

[jdinasia]

^daytime is prob not a good judge of numbers - seems like its jam packed by evening.

Have YOU been there Brit? No?

Daytime it USED to be packed ... it is not packed any longer.

[gotlost]

Thanks for the photos.

[otherstuff1957]

As almost no-one was wearing red, it was somewhat difficult to estimate the crowd size. I would say that the photos I took looking toward the stage and looking toward Pratunam showed the densest crowds that I saw. Also, I didn't walk east on Rama 1 or out toward Pratunam. But, based on what I saw, I would guess that the mid-day crowd numbered less than 10,000. Probably closer to 5,000.

A night, when the taxi drivers and maids and security guards finish work and head down to the party, the numbers probably swell quite a bit.

[Ijustwannateach]

It would be a shame if this interesting thread had to be closed because some posters were airing their political opinions. On the other hand, such posters could theoretically at this point receive warnings for putting me to the trouble of deleting their posts. It would be an additional shame if that were necessary. On the other hand, certain posters could restrain themselves and this thread could continue simply to describe what is going on in an area of relatively high risk.

I'm sure that if posters wished to use links from this thread to bolster their arguments IN THE NEWS SUBFORUM, on the other hand, that it would be perfectly cricket.

[NADTATIDA1]

Thank you for the pics

[Ijustwannateach]

To add a bit of topical information here, I passed through Asok station earlier on the BTS and there was quite a festive air surrounding the presence of the soldiers/police- many (especially female) people wanting to take photos of the soldiers with their long, hard... weapons. Some of them were uneasy but a number were bashfully grinning, as shown above. A rare positive public moment in these sad times.