Little Red Riding Thaksin
By Jon. Filed in Travel |
Don Det to Pakse: Minibus with broken aircon.
Pakse to Ubon: Thai-Laos Friendship bus that kept going back to the bus station over and over.
Ubon to Bangkok: Overnight bus, sharing a blanket for most of the night with a random Thai girl who thought I was a giant pillow. Not complaining though!
Arriving in Bangkok I headed towards the Khao San Road, passing the area were the “Reds”- supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – were busy setting up stages and roadside camps for the tens of thousands who would be descending on the city the following day to protest the governments treatment of Thaksin; the crippling poverty they are suffering from and generally to try to force the current government to dissolve and bring in a fresh parliament, hopefully led by someone who believes in their cause. A few days later I was back in Bangkok and it was still very busy with Reds and in their main encampments there was quite the carnival atmosphere, no trouble towards farang, more joy that you are in the area taking an interest.
While in the city I met up with Mat, the founder of the South East Asia 2010 Facebook group I have mentioned previously.
He was readying himself to move on to Malaysia, so we spent a few days wandering the city, running from persistent Thai whores and sorting our respective onward journeys – him to Penang and me to Kanchanaburi.