On the Protests in Bangkok

It's Sunday morning, the First of December, on what may go down as an important day in Thai history. Or, it may not.


Today is the day the most noteworthy leader of the anti-government protests here in Thailand has promised will be the day a new “People's Assembly” will ascend and

end the rule of the current regime. The demonstrations here have been going on for a month now, and have been increasing in intensity all the while. Over the last week, they've begun to occupy government buildings, sharpen the tone of their rhetoric and even cut power to the national telecommunications company (as this disabled some important servers, and killed internet access for 750,000 households, it wasn't a popular move). Now, this leader has set other deadlines in the past, and although they've moved the ball forward at times, new deadlines were created as the anti-government

forces saw that they were moving closer to their ultimate goal: the ousting of the Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawattra.

I won't go over all the intricacies of the policies and history, suffice to say that Thai politics over the last decade or so has been dominated by two sides who either support or oppose one man: Taksin Shinawattra. Note the same last name as the current

PM. She's his sister. Some call him a great leader. Some hate him and anything he's connected with. He's not here in Thailand right now, living in self-imposed exile in Dubai after he was convicted on corruption charges in absentia, and given a 2-year prison term.


The current round of protests started about a month ago when Taksin's party pushed through a bill in parliament that granted blanket amnesty to thousands going back a decade or more and would have allowed Taksin to come home (On a side note, the man's name is pronounced like a mix of toxin and taxin', both very unfortunate monikers for a politician). The bill was rejected by the Senate, the bill was withdrawn but the protests continued. What started as a protest against a particular piece of legislation has ballooned into a full blown call for Yingluck's resignation and new elections.  

Meanwhile, thousands of 'red shirts', supporters of the gov't in power, have taken up camp at another protest site as a counter-demonstration to what the anti-Taksinists are up to. 

Last night, the first real clash between these two groups occurred on a road I had driven down earlier that day. One dead, multiple injured. The police are out in force to keep the peace. Special security measures have been instituted city-wide. Tensions are high. Anything could happen.

Or, nothing could happen, and next week the protests will continue.


Interesting times.


It's against the backdrop that I ventured out yesterday with my camera to both of the two camps. Spent the morning with red-shirts. Spent the afternoon with the yellow-shirts. Got a feel for what's going on. The sites themselves were full of energy, loud speeches, passionate people and lots and lots of vendors selling stuff. Enjoy the video.






Now, do I dare go out today and do it again? Neither side is in any way anti-foreigner, and I am as neutral as one can get on the issues. I'd be just as safe as any other I day I leave the clutches of my condo. I think. 

Joko in Thailand: Episode Six

Take away my video camera and I get all wordy and post 3000 word blogs...

Now that it's back, all I can really add to this one is: Enjoy!

The Journey to my New Home

May 3, 2013. 1:20PM
Somewhere in Thailand

I'm sitting in seat #1 on the VIP bus from Phuket to Bangkok.
Seat One is THE place to ride on one of these double decker
luxury cruisers. Seat One is immediately above the driver, front
row of the second deck.  I can stretch my legs all the way out
in front of me, and I have a beautiful view of the countryside
ahead. The AC is strong and the road has been very smooth.

 

I'd like to be able to write about being stuck
on a Third World, diesel-belching, Eastern European-made bus,
surrounded by peasants carrying chicken cages and maybe with piglets running freely through the aisles. That's sorta of the romantic Western view of bus travel in the tropics. 


Actually, I don't want to be able to say that.  This is much nicer. 


We just pulled out of our mid-trip rest stop, so I guess I'm
about halfway to Bangkok. Although I slept through half of it,
the journey up Thailand's southern isthmus has been surprising
in it's emptiness.  There's certainly been plenty to look at. 
Hills jut up out of the jungle nearly vertically with weirdly
rounded tops. They look like 50 meter tall stupas with trees
on them. The traffic has been sparse. A dwelling or collection
of buildings cluster on the side of the 4-lane highway every
half klick or so.  Just as I realize that we're passing through
an actual town (we're an express; we don't stop), we're through
it!  No rice paddies. No agriculture. Just trees. The trees have
been planted in regular spacing; it is horticulture.
I don't know if the trees are teak, sandalwood or rubber, but
tending trees doesn't support nor require a lot of people.
Right now as I type, it's acre upon acre of thick palm trees
(for palm oil, I assume).

Perhaps I notice the emptiness as I cannot help but compare this
place to what I remember of Indonesia's island of Java, where I
lived for 2 years so long ago. Java is one of the most densely
populated places on Earth. 

I'm missing my camera so much it hurts.  Watching the Japanese
tourists on the beach yesterday, I kinda scoffed at how intensely
they photographed themselves and the environment.  It was almost
like they were going places not to experience the place itself,
but to have their picture taken there.  I don't want to be that
way; I don't want me making the recording of an event take away
from seeing, smelling, feeling and living that experience in all
of it's richness.  That said, I feel compelled to record my
experience because I am so inspired by them.
__________

There's a small mountain range off in west that I see from
time to time as I look up from my typing.  On the other side
of those hills lies the country of Myanmar, formerly known as
Burma and before that, part of British India.  One of the cool
things to think about as I begin my 5-month teaching contract is
what I'm going to do next. Deciding to move overseas, getting rid
of all my stuff in America and learning to be a TEFL teacher,
these have all been hard things to do. Now, however, I can reap
the rewards. For example, Myanmar, which had been one of the most
closed countries in the world, is opening up to the rest of the
globe. I bet they need English teachers over there. 

If I were writing to you from there, I suspect it might be from
a bus with live chickens running around on it...

...Maybe I'll stick around Thailand for a while.

_______________

4:30 PM
Somewhere called Pranburi

I think we've said goodbye to the mountains, now blurry in
the afternoon haze. Their silhouttes fading off to the north as
the road makes a slow bend to the right, to the northeast, to
Bangkok.  Hopefully, I will see those mountains again soon.
I'm looking forward to living in Bangkok, but I'd like to be
able to get away from the city when I can.

It occurs to me that when we crossed over the bridge from Phuket
onto the mainland, I was on the Eurasian continent for the first
time. Indonesia is made up of islands.  Phuket is an island. Even
my transit stops in Singapore and Hong Kong were islands... err,
I stopped in Korea on the way here, but just for a minute...

Theoretically, I could drive from here to Tehran, Paris or
Vladivostok.  Berlin, Jerusalem or Ulaan Bator.  This is one
big chunk of land where the most people live and the most history
has happened. All my ancestors come from here, from somewhere over
there (gesturing towards the now disappeared western mountains).
Yes, it feels a little like coming home.  I do believe in
reincarnation.  I believe that my soul has lived many individual
lifetimes, and most of them have been here, on this
supercontinent.

We're rolling into Hua Hin. I remember that name from the map.
Three hours to Bangkok.
 __________

11:27 PM - A Hotel Somewhere in Bangkok

As it turned out, I misplace the paperwork where I had the
hotel's address, so here Will (another American whose going to
be teaching at the same school as I) and I are at one of several
of Bangkok's bus stations with no idea of how to get to the hotel
or even it's name. Yeah, I'm not the best when it comes to
planning and travel.

After wandering the bus station looking for information booth,
finally we get directed to an internet cafe in a bookshop
where I can retrieve the e-mail confirmation of my reservation.
Then, we look for a taxi.  None of them wanted to take us to
Sukhomvit, which we had no idea was how far or in which direction.
Finally, with the help of the security guards, one driver agrees
to drive us clear across Bangkok to our hotel. His name was Mr
Chai.  Chai in Thai is the word for "Tea", so our taxi driver was
Mr "T"... I pity the fool!

He was helpful in figuring out the discrepancy I had in my mind
between where I though the hotel I booked was located and where
it actually IS located. See, I knew I needed to be on the BTS line,
that's the elevated train system here, but it turns out we're
on the wrong BTS line... there are several. It's not so bad in that 
I'm only about 3 miles from the area I intended to get a hotel, but
as I've already learned from Mr T the taxi driver... 3 miles in Bangkok
can be a long way...