The government has imposed a curfew from 8 p.m. tonight until 6 a.m. tomorrow.
Today the government soldiers moved in on the protesters at their Rajaprasong rally site. The Red Shirt leaders surrendered. One reportedly told the Red Shirts to stop fighting while another is said to have told them to keep up the fight. Leaderless, the protesters became a mob that looted and set fire to buildings, including a TV station. Five people died today. All this is according to reports from CNN and The Nation website.
All this tragedy happened on a beautiful sunny day. The school had let us out after half-day so I met AJ at the club. I went into the study room to surf the net for the latest news. The Nation wrote there would be a curfew but didn't say when. At 4 p.m. Andy left the office and went home. He said we should come home now. The club is closing early and there is a curfew tonight. At the club, the Thai members like to swim after 4 p.m. when the sun has lost its strength, but the pool was empty. AJ and I went immediately to Tops to buy food. The shelves were barely filled but I managed to get chicken legs and breasts, new potatoes, and small onions for a stew. I grabbed two liters of zero percent milk. Finally, after two days, there was fresh milk again. We joined the queues at the checkout just as the announcement came over the PA that the supermarket was closing.
On the way home, the English language Radio Thailand announced the curfew over the car radio. As we waited in the u-turn lane to enter our soi, I saw a dozen motorcycle riders drive by on the opposite side. The pillion passenger of one was carrying a long white pole with a sharp point. As they approached the cookshop on the corner of Soi Phung Mi, an old man came out of the shop and applauded. Some of them ducked their heads in acknowledgment. The motorcycles continued east towards Bang Na intersection and as they passed out of sight, I heard two explosions. The first one was a deep boom, the second sounded like a fire cracker. As we drove deeper inside the soi, we joined a queue of cars going slowly in our direction. A white Toyota had stalled on the bridge near the 93 Building, but once I got around it, we got home pretty quickly. It's hard to believe; is the Red Shirt Rally finally over?
From the kitchen window, neighborhood sights and sounds were familiar. The backdoor neighbor's dogs panted in the afternoon heat. Mongkut, the black and white, rolled in the road to scratch an itch. I saw our neighbor jog by. He always jogs in a green tee and red shorts. In the kitchen, I prepped the chicken and the vegetables for the stew. AJ washed and put the brown rice in the rice cooker. Then I heard the whirr of helicopters in the near distance. We have just heard that the Central World shopping mall in Rajaprasong is burning out of control.
Tomorrow the assessment begins: we tally the score and assess the damages. There's sure to be some finger-pointing.
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