Reds and the Yellows

Here we go again.

Apparently the Red Shirts are dissatisfied with being ousted from power, and now they are up in arms. Yesterday, the Red Shirts took over the streets and prevented people from making it home. The taxi drivers banned together and created intense gridlock. Somehow, Chris was fortunate enough to have missed the major areas of congestion so his commute was not hampered. Now, the Red Shirts (for the UDD: United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship) are threatening to block entrace to the ASEAN+3 conference. Lovely. The "Red Shirts" are typically the farmers, the cab drivers, the "poor" folks. The Reds support the government that was elected democratically. The Yellows are the middle class---typically, the urban, educated folks. (to be overly simplistic)

So, here we go. The military and the police are on the side of the Yellows, though the military says they aren't getting involved (according to Chris...he gets the scoop from Thai folks at work, too). Earlier this morning, the government declared this as an "Emergency National Holiday" supposedly in honor of Songkran which starts this weekend. It was a response to the "red shirt" protesters. I walked to the next BTS stop, about 20 minutes away, to deliver more mail to the post office only to find that it was closed. I called Chris to see why, and he explained what his coworkers explained: that the government closed everything.

Hopefully, the Songkran holiday will go through without a glitch. This is the Thai New Year (they celebrate 4 New Years' in Thailand, and this is the biggest one for Thai Buddhists). Basically, it is at least 3-4 days of open water fights on the street. People will dump buckets of water on anyone and everyone as you walk the streets. Originally, this was to "wash away" the last year and create cleanliness and blessings for the new year. I think it is more of an excuse to douse everyone with water! From what I hear, this holiday (which is celebrated throughout SE Asia) is pretty calm in Thailand. In India, I'm told, they put something in the water that stains the clothes. Then they use a pasty substance and spread that on folks. Here, it is supposedly just water. We'll see. We're staying away from Khao San Road (Backpacker's Alley). It is supposed to get really rowdy there, if not dangerous at times!