Reuters: “Police And Protesters Face Off In Thai Capital”
Thousands of flag-waving, chanting protesters faced off with riot police in Bangkok on Friday, laying siege to the government’s headquarters in a bid to force it from power.
The main column of demonstrators briefly grappled with police en route to the prime minister’s office, where they sat down in front of barricades manned by a phalanx of police armed with plastic shields and batons.
Smaller groups probed the defenses around Government House, some breaking through after pushing and shoving with police, but there were no major incidents of violence.
“We are here to fight for democracy, for Thailand. We are here to protect the motherland,” media firebrand Sondhi Limthongkul told the 10,000-strong crowd made up mostly of middle-class Bangkok residents.
Sondhi is a co-leader of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a motley collection of businessmen, academics and royalists united by their hatred of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
The four-week campaign by the PAD, which views the coalition government elected in December as an illegitimate Thaksin proxy, has raised political tensions at a time of stuttering economic growth and soaring inflation.
Fears of clashes last month between police and demonstrators stoked rumors of another military coup less than two years after the army’s bloodless removal of Thaksin, who insists he has retired from politics although few believe him.
Metropolitan police chief Lieutenant-General Aswin Kwanmuang said his men would not use force to disperse the crowds.
Elsewhere, Bangkok Pundit is liveblogging the protests.
I’m back in Bangkok. My marathon return trip included a car ride, a taxi trip, a four-hour Amtrak ride, 21 hours of flights aboard Singapore Airlines, and nine hours of waiting for planes in airports that steadily improved as I journeyed east: JFK, Frankfurt, and then Singapore.
I may write more, in future dispatches, about my month at home in the US. But for now, let me just say to the friends, family, and colleagues I saw: ole uncle Newley is happy to have caught up with you.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some eating to do. First up, I shall attempt to consume my body weight in krapow moo with extra fish sauce. I’ve really missed the food here in Bangkok.
The Lost Boy has put together a collection of the top 100 Thailand blogs. Newley.com is currently in 15th, while 2Bangkok is justifiably in the top slot, with Bangkok Pundit in 3rd.
Two of my favorite blogs from the region are missing, though: consummate food blogger/photog Austin Bush and Southeast Asia news blog New Mandala.
(Cartoon from the New Yorker, via Scribbling.net.)
UPDATE: Another notable absence is the excellent Wise Kwai’s Thai Film Journal. Sample can’t-miss post: a sneak preview of a zany Thai action flick in which a giant Australian dude living in Bangkok is transformed from pushover to super-strength action hero by…wait for it…a particularly fiery bowl of one of my favorite Thai foods.
It’s been a tense week in the Andes. On Saturday, Colombian forces launched a surprise raid on a camp inside the Ecuador border and killed a senior FARC member. The result has been an ongoing diplomatic kerfuffle between Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela.
AFP has a run-down of the events: “Regional tensions rise after Colombia raid into Ecuador.”
And the NY Times‘s Simon Romero narrates a video report about the incident.
Meanwhile, Bolivia expert Miguel Centellas discusses a Bolivian dimension to the story.
Reuters has some analysis on the political implications for the region: “Andean crisis shakes hopes for regional unity.”
And as for Thailand…
Today we learned that a Russian man alleged to be a notorious arms dealer was arrested here in Thailand yesterday. He is accused of selling arms to al Qaeda and the Taliban, and he was lured to Bangkok by American DEA agents…posing as FARC members looking to buy weapons.
The New York Times recently ran a travel story by Joshua Kurlantzick about Bangkok street food. Austin’s phenomenal blog Real Thai gets a deserved mention, and I’m not just saying that because he gave me shout-out today due to our mutual love of all things waffle-related (i.e. the infamous Thai waffle-coated hot dog that I scarfed down in Kanchanaburi).
From the NYT piece:
…After culling through Thai food Web sites, I often arrive in Bangkok carrying a list of street dishes I must try — unripe mangoes dipped in sweet chili sauce, charcoal-grilled fish sausages, tacolike shells filled with shredded coconut. Every time I mention my list, real Thai gourmets tell me noodles, the ultimate quick snack, should be the real test of any street stall.
“Noodles are one of the great Thai secular religions,” wrote the longtime Thailand food critic Ung-aang Talay, adding that Thais think nothing of plodding across Bangkok to sample a new dish. Nearly every street in Bangkok has a vendor selling thin, slightly sweet egg noodles; wide, chewy rice noodles; pad Thai topped in gooey omelets. Even, occasionally, the northern Thailand noodle specialty known as khao soi. As the Thailand food blogger Austin Bush has suggested on his knowledgeable site — www.realthai.blogspot.com — khao soi reflects the many foreign influences on Thailand cuisine. Khao soi blends egg noodles with a mild, Indian-style broth and toppings of crispy noodles, shallots and pickled cabbage, a Burmese touch that adds an acidic flavor cutting the rich, oily curry.
There’s also a slide show of images by Josef Polleross that’s worth checking out.
![Me on Khao San Rd., Bangkok [image credit: Austin Bush]](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1327/1284255753_c7c5f8fa16_m.jpg)
The one and only Austin Bush — he of RealThai and The Old Main Drag fame — snapped this pic of me sampling noodles on Khaosan Road recently. I like the colors and the lighting. Click on the image for a bigger version.
Greenpeace’s protest against the lifting of a ban on open-field trials of genetically-modified (GM) papaya yesterday was met with an unexpected reaction from a crowd of onlookers.
Passers-by took matters, and tonnes of papayas dumped by Greenpeace, into their own hands, and ran off.
The environmental group dumped the papayas in front of the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry yesterday to make its objection to the lifting of the ban loud and clear to the government.
It was the second protest about the controversial issue in five days after reports the ministry will today seek cabinet approval for the lifting of the ban on open-field trials of transgenic crops.
But this time, after the dumping, people flocked to load up on the free papayas, ignoring the environmental organisation’s campaign against the dangers of GM fruit — a message Greenpeace has been trying to get through to the government and the public for years.
Many passers-by, who mostly knew nothing about transgenic fruit, said they did not care about any health risks.
They were just thinking about how hungry they were.
”I don’t care if they’re dangerous,” said papaya salad seller Gig Krueyat, 70. ”I don’t know what the threat is … nothing serious, I think …”
Mrs Gig helped herself to three sacks of the fruit in minutes. Others, including some ministry officials and Rasi Salai dam protesters from Sri Sa Ket province who were camped near the ministry, also did not let the opportunity slip by.
A man waiting in traffic for the lights to go green near the ministry, leapt out of his car and joined the feast.
”I’m not scared of GM papayas. Rather, I’m scared I won’t have any to eat,” said Ubon Ratchathani villager Ampon Tantima, 31, before rushing back to his car with the free fruit….
I’ve got a travel story in today’s New York Times. It’s about how Bangkok’s legendary Khao San Road, long a meeting place for backpackers, now offers a variety of upscale amenities.
![Bangkok from a Window [not my image]](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1132/1071742340_0029faa16e_m.jpg)
That’s the name of Stephen Cysewski’s photo gallery, where you’ll find various images of Bangkok as seen through “Taxis, Cars, Buses, and Trains.” Don’t miss it.
