Just Completed Long Walk Through Red Zone

[Gaccha]

I wanted to see how close to reality the news reports are.

I did this walk:

Walking towards the Live Fire Zone was certainly the scariest moment. Then, I walked into a Japanese reporter friend walking the other way. He said: don't turn left or they will kill you, that's what the soldiers told me. So I didn't. The small squads of soldiers were no more and then in a distance a large barricade with a Red Flag flying. I kept walking.

About 50m further down it was not possible to see anything. All the lights were out. There was pure silence, no bangs and no explosions, despite me being there at a time that The Nation described loud explosions (although they may well have meant nearer Victory Monument):

The danger zone as I understood it was here:

Edited May 15, 2010 by Gaccha

[Gaccha]

Got to the Redshirt barricade. Nobody in sight. technically in a live fire zone. But I was most scared of the Redshirts just shooting me. If I was nervously awaiting troops I think I would just fire...

Finally saw some reporters. Not impressed:

The mobile reception is extremely unreliable. And only 100 metres south of the main stage there is a deliberate blackout in place. The scooters have covered their lights over. At Lumpini I was blocked for the only time by a group of Blackshirts. They really did not want me to see past that point. They were keen to show me the place where Sah Deang was taken out.

Edited May 15, 2010 by Gaccha

[Gaccha]

And then on way out saw the police and military from MBK onwards. They have been notable by their absence, and even now are very wary to go near the Redshirts. Somehow at some point they have managed to lay 4 lines of barbed wire across the road heading West.

Bizarrely, a 7/11 remains resolutely open between the Redshirts and the military. It is exactly at the point that either side could hit you. They cannot see each other as too much street furniture between them. The beggars outside the 7/11 are the most aggressive I have ever experienced. They are obviously quite desperate from the lack of pedestrians. There is virtually nobody around...

And then a surprise at the last military checkpoint. An officer with a old-wooden desk taking the details of arrested pedestrians. The farang is just ignored....

After this, a detachment of police are seen emptying and reloading their shotgun rounds (i.e. rubber pellets in shotgun shell cases).

My guess is an early start tomorrow for the crackdown.

[Damacles]

I can't back your decision to take the risky walk but very interesting, much more than the long-running 'Clashes Continue...' thread which bemuses me with its lack of actual information!

Thanks for making the effort to post your experience

[roskruge]

I walk through the camp late Thursday afternoon. I left the camp by getting on the BTS Sky Train at "Siam" I just climbed the stairs, and their was on just one BTS security guard at the top of the stairs. Although Siam Station was jammed packed no one was entering the station as I did, they must have been interchanging trains. I think minutes later that entrance I used was closed, and has not been open since. I ate some good food in the camp, although I was offered free, I would only eat food or drink water I purchased, I did not want to receive anything from Khun Thaksin.

[londonthai]

And then a surprise at the last military checkpoint. An officer with a old-wooden desk taking the details of arrested pedestrians. The farang is just ignored....

easy job - a wooden desk on the pavement, as far as possible from the red zone, and arrest every passing thai. Going for a walk with a dog or to the 7/11 for a chang might end up in a police cell or in the prison for 6 months

[Who, me ?]

Are you a COMPLETE MORONIC LOSER or just 100% LOSER??????????????????????????

Why would you idiots turn what is a political (In Country) war zone and turn it to be your F%&*king amusement park?

Dont you think you should do what most people with brains would do and are doing and just stay the #$%& out of this???????

Why do you feel the need to prove the media wrong or right?

Havn't you read the news that they are sending missiles and your just one imbissile.

And to "LondonThai", I don't think that if it was your mother or father or family that has been killed that you would be making comments like "Going for a walk with a dog or to the 7/11 for a chang might end up in a police cell or in the prison for 6 months"

You folks must think that this is all a joke or that they are putting on this "show" for YOUR ammusement.

And to the OP, why don't you try doing something constructive like going to a temple away from the war zone and praying for the people who were killed and for the future of Thailand to stabalize instead of trying to be a war hero on TV.

Next time you take a walk like this maybe you will have nothing to report because you will be a ghost.

None of your business... Why don't you go back to your bed, and take a nap....Seems you need to seek medical attention....

What does disturb you in the fact that this guy had a walk there? He might not be safe to do so, but it is HIS decision, HIS life, and HIS right....

[simcity]

Thank for the good post Gaccha, much more informative as

Clashes Continue, Turning Central Bangkok In Virtual Warzone

OR

Yes, (The) Clashes Continue, Turning Central Bangkok (Thaivisa) In Virtual Warzone

Where only feral people post, you did attract one by the way in your post!

Can we get transparency bubble next time? Could see more of the street map behind

Edited May 16, 2010 by simcity

[Gaccha]

Thank for the good post Gaccha, much more informative as

Clashes Continue, Turning Central Bangkok In Virtual Warzone

OR

Yes, (The) Clashes Continue, Turning Central Bangkok (Thaivisa) In Virtual Warzone

Where only feral people post, you did attract one by the way in your post!

Can we get transparency bubble next time? Could see more of the street map behind

I always find interesting the odd little points that residents in Thailand would spot but a reporter flown in would be none the wiser.

Your 'transparency bubble' thought is an excellent idea. I just forgot to do it.

[thailandbluegrass]

Yes GREAT job. hahahahahahha

You stillnever explained why you would chose to walk through a political war zone in another country just to report if the media was real or not?

Don't you have a television? Havn't you read that they are asking ALL reporters or anyone who has nothing to do with whats going on to STAY HOME !!!!!!

You certainly don't need to prove to ME that the media is real or not by putting your life in jeapordy.

Posts here on TV are GREAT BUT, we farangs need to STAY CLEAR OF THIS COUNTRIES POLITICS !!!!!!! You think they need to babysit some farang wondering around their war zone with a pencil and paper? They have more important things to do I would think?

Next time why don't you just put on a red shirt and wonder up and down the BTS at Saladang with a riffle in your hands?

[KCM]

Yes GREAT job. hahahahahahha

You stillnever explained why you would chose to walk through a political war zone in another country just to report if the media was real or not?

Don't you have a television? Havn't you read that they are asking ALL reporters or anyone who has nothing to do with whats going on to STAY HOME !!!!!!

You certainly don't need to prove to ME that the media is real or not by putting your life in jeapordy.

Posts here on TV are GREAT BUT, we farangs need to STAY CLEAR OF THIS COUNTRIES POLITICS !!!!!!! You think they need to babysit some farang wondering around their war zone with a pencil and paper? They have more important things to do I would think?

Next time why don't you just put on a red shirt and wonder up and down the BTS at Saladang with a riffle in your hands?

Why does he need to explain to you why he did it?

[slapout]

To the op; if your parents are still living please send them you report and review their response. If you are a parent, what response, would the same action by a son or daughter bring from you?

[thefusilier]

And to the OP, why don't you try doing something constructive like going to a temple away from the war zone and praying for the people who were killed and for the future of Thailand to stabalize

lol... prayer & "doing something constructive" in one sentence.

Seriously.

[thedistillers]

"Thailandbluegrass" reply might be agressive, but I can't help but to suspect the OP's main motivation (besides the issue that he probably doesn't value his own life much, but that's not our problem) behind doing this kind of walk and then posting an online report is to provoke such reaction.

Edited May 16, 2010 by thedistillers

[thailandbluegrass]

And to the OP, why don't you try doing something constructive like going to a temple away from the war zone and praying for the people who were killed and for the future of Thailand to stabalize

lol... prayer & "doing something constructive" in one sentence.

Seriously.

You don't think that a prayer is more constructive then this walk about? I for one believe in the Lord Buhhda so for me this helps pass the souls of those lives taken into the next life. To ME this sounds more constructive however I am only me.

The Thai Government, people, army etc etc just don't need us wondering around their war zone to make reports on Forums like this. Do they need their eyes to focus on you or what they should be looking out for?

Buy a television or a newspaper and see the signs that clearly say in English "Live firing zone STAY OUT" !!!!!!!

[Gaccha]

Your responses concerning my decision to take a risk are, if nothing else, reassuringly predictable.

The obsessive and fetishized Western obsession with 'risk', where risk has become confused with 'hazard' is one of the great new tropes to rot Western thinking in the early part of this new century. Where just ten years ago, someone could speak of 'that being a good risk to take' it now seems an absurd sentence, since now all risk is unacceptable. The preaching of no risk has reached such a point that a reaction of being treated as just slightly more moral than a paedophile is now common.

One of the great things about Thailand is that it is not locked into a tiresome biocapture by a state keen to create the docile, productive citizens of which, no doubt, some responders on this forum are healthy members. You go for health checks, eat the right greens, read magazine articles on cancer treatment brealkthroughs as you have bag and baggage allowed yourselves to be subject to this biopolitics of the neo-liberal state.

I do not have have to justify my experiencing of life, it is you that attack me so vehemently when I dare to reject the mollycoddling of the biopolitical state that should be ashamed of yourselves.

So why did I do it? Well, at an intellectual level I am very interested in the notion of the 'State of Exception' pushed by Giorgio Agamben. I conceive the Redshirt demonstration as a perfect example of Jacques Ranciere's breaking of the 'partition of the sensible'. No doubt, at a more biological level, I am obviously more of a risk-seeker than others. And at a rational level, I don't have any children, so the only risk is my own. At an experience level, I am experienced in much worse (Kosovo, Algeria, West Bank).

Let me leave you with this:

"To efficiently manage a diverse culture, mechanisms of social control and surveillance must be noninvasive. Hegemonic control (Gramsci, 1971), therefore, must manifest in seemingly benign patterns of behavioral regulation. These will be expressed as actions necessary to preserve the peace and will carry the weight ofmoral authority characteristic of utilitarian motivations to preserve the “greater good.” Here, Foucault’s (1979) articulation of docile bodies, serial space, and panopticism is illustrative. Similar to Garland (2001), Foucault (1979) associated the proliferation of docility in direct proportion to the state’s interest in enhancing discipline and social control."

[Conventional Risk Discourse and the Proliferation of Fear, Robert Carl Schehr, 2005; 16; 38 Criminal Justice Policy Review]

[thailandbluegrass]

Yes GREAT job. hahahahahahha

You stillnever explained why you would chose to walk through a political war zone in another country just to report if the media was real or not?

Don't you have a television? Havn't you read that they are asking ALL reporters or anyone who has nothing to do with whats going on to STAY HOME !!!!!!

You certainly don't need to prove to ME that the media is real or not by putting your life in jeapordy.

Posts here on TV are GREAT BUT, we farangs need to STAY CLEAR OF THIS COUNTRIES POLITICS !!!!!!! You think they need to babysit some farang wondering around their war zone with a pencil and paper? They have more important things to do I would think?

Next time why don't you just put on a red shirt and wonder up and down the BTS at Saladang with a riffle in your hands?

Why does he need to explain to you why he did it?

Why do I care?

I am a human being and care about other humans and animals alike. It’s like when we adults see a child about to cross a street without looking we stop them and tell them it is not right and you should be more careful. It seemed like this war traveler needed the same advice.

Sometimes the ones with more education need to look out for the less fortunate and I think I gave him good advice.

[tlongdon]

If someone wants to help control the world's over-population crisis single handedly, by putting themselves up as a candidate to get shot, why on earth should we interfere? We get an entertaining look at the situation on the ground out of it, and as a small bonus he remains alive.

[agord]

And to the OP, why don't you try doing something constructive like going to a temple away from the war zone and praying for the people who were killed and for the future of Thailand to stabalize

lol... prayer & "doing something constructive" in one sentence.

Seriously.

You don't think that a prayer is more constructive then this walk about? I for one believe in the Lord Buhhda so for me this helps pass the souls of those lives taken into the next life. To ME this sounds more constructive however I am only me.

The Thai Government, people, army etc etc just don't need us wondering around their war zone to make reports on Forums like this. Do they need their eyes to focus on you or what they should be looking out for?

Buy a television or a newspaper and see the signs that clearly say in English "Live firing zone STAY OUT" !!!!!!!

Hard enough for these soldiers to do their job they don't need thrill seeking tourists getting in the way of an already tense situation where it has to be next to impossible to tell who is who. With all of these maniacs running around they shouldnt have to worry about one additional maniac farang poking around the area like it's some kind of attraction. common sense - stay out of the way!

[H2oDunc]

I have to agree with Bluegrass, Without swearing or losing ones temper the Op is an out and out idiot. I also cannot believe the amount of people posting that they are in favour of what this guy did.

All the crap about it is up to him and its his life crap!!!!!!!

What next mate how about a walk around the Helmund province in Afghanistan just to see if the Taliban do in fact chop the heads off stupid foreigners who go there just to see what it is really like ? or maybe a walk around Baghdad market asking if anybody could point him in the right direction to talk to the local Al Queda representative so he can ask just why they are blowing up innocent men women and children ?

Reporters have been killed doing their job and yet you think it is fun to walk through a war zone and post / brag about it on a forum ? I think you need some help dude!

You remind me of a friend from back home in the UK. Whenever he heard on the news that the trans pennine highway, the A66 was shut due to snow he would jump in his Austin allegro with the wife and kids and see just how far he could get before he had to turn around. MADNESS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[banchang]

And to the OP, why don't you try doing something constructive like going to a temple away from the war zone and praying for the people who were killed and for the future of Thailand to stabalize

lol... prayer & "doing something constructive" in one sentence.

Seriously.

Yes made me chuckle as well

[agord]

I have to agree with Bluegrass, Without swearing or losing ones temper the Op is an out and out idiot. I also cannot believe the amount of people posting that they are in favour of what this guy did.

All the crap about it is up to him and its his life crap!!!!!!!

What next mate how about a walk around the Helmund province in Afghanistan just to see if the Taliban do in fact chop the heads off stupid foreigners who go there just to see what it is really like ? or maybe a walk around Baghdad market asking if anybody could point him in the right direction to talk to the local Al Queda representative so he can ask just why they are blowing up innocent men women and children ?

Reporters have been killed doing their job and yet you think it is fun to walk through a war zone and post / brag about it on a forum ? I think you need some help dude!

You remind me of a friend from back home in the UK. Whenever he heard on the news that the trans pennine highway, the A66 was shut due to snow he would jump in his Austin allegro with the wife and kids and see just how far he could get before he had to turn around. MADNESS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like MOST NORMAL PEOPLE I fully understand that the media tend to exaggerate things when they report things. I DO NOT need to put myself in danger to prove this point!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Agree. nevermind the fact that if this guy does get hurt it takes away/adds to the already heavy burden that paramedics, doctors, rescue, etc. already have on their plate they don't need 1 more on their charts because he just wants to see what is going on. Insane.

[OM3N]

Thanks Gaccha!

This is real info as opposed to bickering in other threads.

Stay Safe Mate!

[PattayaParent]

you are just the perfect example of the average TV-member :

shouting at everything and everyone in the foulest possible language!

wasn't there a time (years ago), when everyone had the right (and did) to express his opinion, without being shouted at ?

it looks like it is high time to close this board, as there are no more reasonable topics reasonably and calmly discussed

it just has become a playground for drunk extremists, who have no other place where they are allowed to talk, or what they think, is talking.

very sad, TV was a ral good board longtime ago.

Well said.

Thanks for the report OP, I'm getting tired of seeing on the BBC and CNN, reporters 'in the war zone' showing nothing but burning tyes in the middle of an empty street and getting their location wrong.

Obviously from your report it's because they are nowhere near the action.

Thai TV is showing better coverage than these so called 'international investigative journalists'

[mrmark2009]

if something happened to you.. it would refect badly on thailand

[meom]

Reporters have been killed doing their job and yet you think it is fun to walk through a war zone and post / brag about it on a forum ? I think you need some help dude!

War zone? I think that's a bit over the top. War zones you find/found in Iraq, Afganistan, Sarajevo, Mogadishu or Beirut to name a few.

I wouldn't call the the handful of streets in Bangkok with burning tyres and the occasional bullet a war zone just yet.

Anyway the OP took a calculated risk and won I suppose. Great pictures btw.

[soundman]

Numerous quoted flames have been removed.

Please settle down and debate in a civil manner or you may find your ability to add a reply withheld.

[Sidewindr]

Yes GREAT job. hahahahahahha

You stillnever explained why you would chose to walk through a political war zone in another country just to report if the media was real or not?

Don't you have a television? Havn't you read that they are asking ALL reporters or anyone who has nothing to do with whats going on to STAY HOME !!!!!!

You certainly don't need to prove to ME that the media is real or not by putting your life in jeapordy.

Posts here on TV are GREAT BUT, we farangs need to STAY CLEAR OF THIS COUNTRIES POLITICS !!!!!!! You think they need to babysit some farang wondering around their war zone with a pencil and paper? They have more important things to do I would think?

Next time why don't you just put on a red shirt and wonder up and down the BTS at Saladang with a riffle in your hands?

You'e a complete simpleton to react in such a way, I found the OP's recounting of his stroll quite informative and it mirrored my own experiences thus far, the media beat up has been grossly over inflated as well as rumours and Chinese whispers running rife ... This post was a refreshing factual post from someone who has appears to have lived here for a while as I and without all the OMG OMG OMG! Guns foreign (and Thai for that matter) press sensationalism I was amazed how now 4 different journos/photogs were all "shot in the leg" over the past couple of days .. maybe their cameras looked like an M79 grenade launcher ...

[kaengk]

Nick Nostitz latest report from May 16th is wonderful. Google

[cmsally]

From what I know, the army officer with the desk , is there to provide permits to residents who need to get in and out of the area. I'm not sure about arresting people. But you are supposed to have a permit to get past him. So I guess if you don't he'll arrest you.

We sometimes live in that area (opposite National Stadium). But since it has been blocked off it is just too much hassle for the family member living there, so has moved else where. Its too close to the trouble anyway. You are supposed to produce ID, proof of residence and whatever else they ask for . Then of course you could come back one day to find the army doesn't control that stretch of road and you are stuffed!

From what I've heard the account is fairly accurate, the only problem is that it can change very quickly and be very localised so you are not aware until its too late to get out.