Red Shirt Rally Day 9: How we braved the rally and went to Rengaya

The Red Shirts decided to have a mobile rally today. They left their "heavenly" headquarters at Phan Fa (Beyond the Sky) Bridge and drove around the city. It was as if Songkran (New Year) had come early. Pick up trucks and taxi cabs roamed the city loaded with smiling flag-waving demonstrators. There were drums, music, and tambourines; a coordinated Songkran celebration without the water. The color of the day was the ubiquitous red. It almost seemed spontaneous.

At the intersection of Rama IV and Silom this was the scene at 6 o'clock this evening. Andy parked the car in the Dusit Thani Hotel and we used the skybridge to walk over to the other side of Silom. We then walked the remaining 4 blocks to Rengaya, a Japanese yakinori (barbecue) restaurant in Thaniya Plaza in the Patpong area. It was practically empty, and so was the Plaza. The merchants in and around Bangkok must be hurting.

Tomorrow is Cheng Meng the Chinese Day of the Dead. How many of the up-country demonstrators will stay in the city now is the question. The estimates have fallen to 50,000 from 80,000 people on Day 9 of the anti-government rally. How do they know this? The Nation  newspaper helpfully reports that crowd size is calculated by the number of square meters multiplied by 4--apparently that's how many Thai people can fit into one square meter, assuming they are standing up, of course.