Bangkok Not So Dangerous Now

---

Just a quick blog to finish off on Bangkok before we head off to Hong Kong.

You probably know by now that the Red Shirt protests ended in violence. The army moved in over 2 days declaring the centre of the city a “LIVE FIRE ZONE”, and shooting several armed and unarmed people. On Wednesday (19 May) the protest leaders surrendered and most of the protesters left the protest site. A small group of core protesters continued to fight the army - they torched the Siam Paragon and Zen shopping centres, the Thai Stock Exchange and several other buildings before disappearing through the army cordon. Strife broke out in several other Thai cities including Chang Mai and Ubon Ratchatani so the Government imposed a curfew for 3 days - no one was allowed on the streets between 8pm to 6am and the police were ordered to shoot any curfew breakers on sight.

We dutifully obeyed the curfew on the first night as did everyone else - nothing further happened that night but the curfew stayed in place. Khao San Road emptied and everything closed with police supervision. Next night we managed to find a small restaurant in Soi Rambuttri that blatantly defied the curfew - at 11pm we were still there enjoying a few beers with a family of Dutch people who own a hotel in Kanchanaburi. A local police officer came along at about 10.30 and as he obviously knew the restaurant staff did not order closure (however, the next night the restaurant closed on time!). We are now into the 5th night of curfew, but the time has been extended to 11pm to 5am.

To say that Khao San road in quiet is an understatement - many stalls and other businesses do not bother to open due to the lack of tourists. For us this is perfect - we have the pool to ourselves and plenty of restaurants touting for business. Baan Sabai has instituted a 10% discount on food and drinks!
We tried to get into the centre of Bangkok on Saturday but were stopped at an army checkpoint complete with nasty looking razor wire and officers with machine guns - they were pleasant but firm “No entry today, maybe tomorrow”. We plan to get to MBK tomorrow (Monday) as the transport system will be back in action.

On the food front we have discovered a great Israeli restaurant in a soi near Khao San - good quality and huge servings for 90 to 150Bt ($3 - $5) a main meal - as well as a good sidewalk Thai restaurant the other side of Soi Rambuttri. With not much to do except eat, drink and swim in the pool we are having a relaxing time. We’ve also had a couple of good Indian meals - one in our favourite Spicy Affair Indian restaurant and another in Little India - a small restaurant in a small soi off soi Rambuttri who screen Bollywood movies. We have the names of some popular movies to pick up somewhere along the way so be warned.

Adele - thanks for your feedback glad all is ok with you and Craig. We will have a talk about India when we get back.

We're off to Hong Kong tomorrow - a 2.30am start to get to the airport for a 6.30am flight (that's why the tickets only cost us $45 each!). Will blog again when we can. Take care.
Love to all
Rob & Donna

---

Photos

Dinner at the slophouse
Simple but delicious!

Bangkok Burning
Bangkok fires in the distance from our rooftop pool

Food Vendor
Meals on wheels!!

Phra Arthit Pier
Where we catch the river boat to Skytrain station to go into city