Not an easy silence

Post redshirts Bangkok. A few days of unwelcome silence. For everyone. Yeah some folks thought of nothing else but the rubble of Central World. Some folks were still reeling at the government. Hopefully everyone was deeply saddened by the loss of life. There were still so many questions and too many opinions.

For most of us we just wanted peace back in our city. I felt for the redshirts who were desperate for a change and must have felt abandoned by their leaders but I also felt for the businesses and the employees who were already months out of work and months out of salary.

As the days crept by the traffic began to grow, the clean ups began and the signs of the redshirt city were starting to fade. For me, it just meant back to work. My seniors had sad their exams, my G11s had them coming right up. My task list was in chaos and my city (for once) was not.

No school for a week? I'm going to Mumbai my friends...

I wont say that I was over the moon about school closing for a week. The circumstances weren't exactly pleasent. But an excuse to head to Mumbai and spend the week with Sla, not an opportunity I am going to pass up, pending Indian visa application...


I've had troubles with the old Indian Visa application process already. It seems I visit Mumbai too frequently. Now, they only give me a 30 pass and I need to chat with a head moustache at the embassy. Pain. In. The. Ass. 


So, what are my chances of getting a visa issued in one day in Bangkok? Unheard of they tell me at the one stop visa centre. Mai Dai. No way. Don't even try. Well where is the fun in that? I gotta try right? A week in Mumbai with Sla, I gotta at least try. Let's not fail to mention how close the redshirt action is to my house - the view from my balcony was getting far too good to stick around.


Moustache and me, we had a chat. I kissed his ass. He lapped it up. He stamped 'URGENT, ISSUE TODAY'. Heart racing, cheeks smiling - I'm going to see my bird!


But let's not get too carried away, it's not a holiday. It's India for a start. And I had lessons to deliver each day - but heck, from a computer in an apartment in Mumbai, thousands of kilometres from RAMA IV... awesome. I'll take it.

Do you hear the people sing?

It is calm in the redshirts camp (at the moment) but I don't know how these folks are living there. The temps are meant to be peaking at just under 39 degrees but if you add 5000 people in close proximity, high rise buildings which limit air movement and then the car, motorbike and air-con fumes, the weather is well above 40 degrees. "Even the Thais are sweating" is how a friend of mine describes the heat right now. 

It's probably not great that Bangkok's redshirt city reminds me of a scene from Les Mis'. But seriously, check out those freaking barricades!
Maybe not a great idea to wander there, maybe not an excellent idea to whistle "Do you hear the people sing" while I walked. But you try to go there and not do the same thing...singing the songs of angry men...

(But, I am really not keen on the outcome being anything like Broadway's.)