Lockdown: Day 6

We are technically no longer on lockdown, since we've left our area and are staying in a hotel with our family.

Last night was the quietest it's been in a week. The Victory Monument area where we live was on total lockdown all day. I met my cousin in the common room during the afternoon to update some stuff for the apartment website. Explosions were going off around us, which was a little extra startling because we had the windows open and were on the ground floor. Logan and I live on the third floor and keep the door and windows shut because of the constant gunfire and bombing on both sides of the building.

By nightfall our electricity went out because disgruntled Red protesters had set fire to the Center One (a mall), 7-11 and Watsons (a drugstore equivalent to Walgreens) at the end of our soi. Bangkok has been full of smoke for the past week, but this was the closest it had been to our home. Protesters also set fire to Central World (Thailand's largest mall), Big C (kind of like Target) and the Siam Theater.

The first thing we realized when the lights went off was that the internet was about to cut off. We use the internet to get most of our news and to keep in touch with friends and family, so that was a minor blow. Then it became apparent that all the instant noodles we had rationed weren't going to cook themselves when we had no way to heat up water (most convenience apartments have no kitchen, so we use a hotpot to heat up all of our water). Also, no air con in 90 degree weather.

Trying to remain optimistic, we busted out some hand fans, which seemed to cool us off. It was still a little light out, so we got our crank LED flashlight ready, as well as some boardgames. We had also meant to defrost the freezer a while ago, so maybe this was a sign!

We managed to fall asleep at a normal time, but I woke up at 3am extremely hot. The problem with fanning yourself is once you fall asleep the fanning stops! Oh man, it was so hot. We even had the sliding door open because it was finally quiet out, but there was no breeze. By 4am I caved and decided to sleep on the floor because the tiles are cool. It worked, but, as you can imagine, the floor is very hard.

By morning, we talked to our cousin next door who also suffered a sleepless night in the heat with electricity. She wanted us to move to the condo building two doors down because they had extra rooms with electricity (air con and running water!!!). We were fine slumming it for a night, but the thought of sweating through high noon with no air con was enough to get us packing.

When we were moving, our soi was crowded with people watching the firefighters trying to extinguish the fire consuming Center One. People were walking towards us with 7-11 bags, so we decided to brave that direction in search food.

The nearest open 7-11 is on the opposite side of the Victory Monument. Everyone uses a skywalk to get around the different points of the monument. The skywalk actually leads directly into some buildings, like Center One (2nd floor) and Watsons (3rd floor), so we took a moment to pause with other onlookers as smoke billowed out. By that time the Watsons and 7-11 building was just a shell with a small fire still burning on the 2nd floor.

As we walked further to get a better view of Center One, I wanted to cry for the first time since the protests began. I go through Center One every day on my way home from work. I peruse the small clothes stalls on the ground floor. I buy all of my lesson supplies from the Wave Stationary store on the 2nd floor. I am a devoted patron of the Thai ice tea stand to the point where I know the lady who runs it has two children (1 girl, 1 boy) who often help with her husband. You can also get a 20 baht pineapple or mango smoothie in Center One, which is a refreshing highlight at the end of the day when it's been 100 degrees. During my most tired days, I loved walking through Center One because it was that little burst of air con and visual stimulation before going home to do more prep or unwind. I suppose if losing a mall and my path home from work is the most devastating to happen during this unrest, then I am very fortunate.

Anyway, Red Shirt leaders have been turning themselves in the past couple of days and asked protesters to disband peacefully to end the chaos, but a band of rogue protesters are to be blamed for the fires. The big theory right now is that some of them are Burmese drug cartel members who were only protesting because they were promised a stipend. Tangent to that is the theory that they are protesters who were promised a stipend but have not received it and will not since protest leaders turned themselves in.

We moved to a hotel tonight because my cousin heard a rumor that the protesters want to march to our area. We could see the military moving troops up this afternoon towards the monument from our room. The citywide curfew was extended to Saturday and is now from 9pm to 5am.

Phew! Okay, time for bed. Google applications seem to be the only thing loading on the internet we're using in the hotel. It's annoying when you can't figure out if the service provider is blocking sites or if it's just a crap connection.

Goodnight.