mr. ru

dear all,
well i know it has been a while since i last sent out an email about my whereabouts in thailand, apologies. i've been receiving many emails concerning the political situation and i appreciate the concern. those of you that have been following the current thai political/protest situation might know that things have been quite unstable for a while. but for the most part, the protest have been limited to specific locations within the city and if you follow the news you would know where and when not to be at certain places within the city.

things finally caught up and as of a few weeks ago now the protest has effected just about everyone. the main protest site is located at the heart of the city's financial district which is very close to the university i teach at. everyday i more or less walk through the edge of the protest zone and make my way to the university. the university periodically closes due to escalating events and students often miss class due to parents concern for their children's safety. at one point the university publicly denounced the red shirt protesters and came out protesting against them wearing pink shirts (two professors actually beat up 3 red shirts), the official university color. as a result one day a bomb was found at the front gate of our university which is right by the faculty of architecture. for some reason the university remained open, i cancelled all my classes for the day and some how got in trouble for not following university protocol.

the protest also got me last weekend, as i went to a t-shirt festival to the north of the city. a friend of mine who's a musician here was playing at the festival and her boyfriend had designed a t-shirt they were selling, so i felt the need to go support. afterwards of course we went out drinking. by 1am i was ready to call quits so i called a cab. me and the cab driver discussed at length which direction to get to my place due to all the road closings and unsafe protest areas. we reached what seemed a reasonable route conclusion and took off. about half way to my place, in the din dang area, we encountered traffic and an unofficial road blocking, there where red shirt protesters everywhere. the taxi was stuck and all the driver could do was sit and wait for traffic and people to clear so he could back up and get out. i knew if i could just get around the corner passed the protest zone i'd be home free, so i paid the cab and got out. i kept close to the edge, by a wall and discreetly made my way. there were piles of burning tires and people running crazy everywhere, mostly staying under the highway overpass. i spotted a motorcycle taxi guy, he was wearing an orange vest with a number on the back which is standard motorcycle taxi attire, sitting on the curb resting. i ask how much he would charge to give me a ride home. he said 150 bahts, i had 130 in my pocket plus a 1000 baht bill which no one in thailand except 7-11 which change, so i offered him 130 bahts. he said yes so i hopped on his motorcycle and we were off.

the road was completely clear. it was strange riding on the back of a motorcycle at this time of night with no traffic. when we got to my place i ask him if he was ok? he seemed distraught, reached in his pocket, pulled out a cigarette and lit it saying he'd seen lots of bad things tonight. i wished him his safety and he took off.

as of today the main protest group has dissolved. however, last week one of the red shirt generals was shot by a snipper while doing an interview with a foreign news correspondence. his supporters are now angry and they are continuing the violent protest across the city which you're seeing on the news. these violent protest have now reached near to my place, which one of the nearby major television stations was bombed and set on fire. i was out of electricity and water for a while today. so i went out and stocked up on food and got two 5 gallon containers of water. as soon as the electricity and water came back on i started charging all necessary electronics, took and shower and fill my bathtub with water to use just incase.

a friend of mine called to see how i was doing since he knew i was in an effect area. he told me he had been called into service and that there were going to be some serious military activity going on after the 8pm curfew, possible a coup. he said his unit was him, 5 other guys, a truck and they where all armed. his job was to get people out of harms way and that if anything happened to me to call him and he'd come get me out, good friend to have.

it might sound like a lot of action, but besides the few exciting incidence i've mostly been sitting around my house bored. the tv news is no longer reliable, transmitting only government messages and slide shows of thai unity propaganda set to bad music. so for now i'm going to have a beer and finish grading.

cheers,
mark