On our way, almost

It's Monday at one in the afternoon, and we fly out tonight at 10:40. We are ambivalent about going, because things are maybe coming to a head here. The red shirts have threatened to occupy and shut down Bangkok's financial center---in addition to the retail, hotel and entertainment area they already control---and I am now in an internet cafe next to an office tower surrounded by troops out on Silom Road. Joe is out there with his camera.

Also out front is a small gathering of "no-color" protestors who just want everyone to get along. They are waving tiny Thai flags and singing patriotic songs. They are admirable, good-hearted people who if things go badly will be chewed up and spit out in a matter of seconds. It's always good to see my fellow liberals out there doing what they can.

Joe is out with the camera crews on the sky walk where Silom meets Ratchadamrie Road, a red shirt stronghold. The troops have blocked the entrance to Silom with heavy planters and razor wire. There is also razor wire rolled across the entrance to C'est Chic---Gay Cut, our barber shop. I don't know what that's about. Over by Rama VI monument, the reds have pried up paving stones and stacked them up. Yesterday when we were over there, Joe photographed reds carving sharp points on the ends of four-foot bamboo sticks the reds say are "flag poles." They smiled at Joe as he took pictures of their country-style arsenal.

Many of the troops we mingled among today looked like scared kids. They carried M-16s, but as they peered over at the hooting, prancing reds across the avenue with their stones and sharp sticks---and god knows what else kept out of sight---the soldiers looked like they'd rather be anywhere else. They wore belts with red and green cartridges---we guessed the red ones were rubber-coated bullets and the green ones blanks. Amazingly, Bangkok Bank, a prime red shirt target, was open for business. I followed four soldiers into the bank office tower lobby and watched as they got on an elevator with high-power rifles and some radio-looking thing and headed for upper floors. I suppose these guys were thought to be trustworthy. Part of the government's dilemma---in addition to wanting to avoid bloodshed---comes from the ethnic make-up of the troops. Most are conscripts from the Isaan North and East, red shirt territory. Many are known to be "watermelons"---green on the outside, red on the inside. They are not overly inclined to shoot at their rural countrymen, even if some of those countrymen are firing grenades at them.

I'm going back out and will send one last report later today. We leave for the airport at eight, and we'll be in Seoul at six in the morning, then fly across the Pacific and the U.S. to JFK later in the day. At Bangkok airport we may have to step over Europeans stranded by the volcanic ash. The Bangkok Post today said Thai Airways is providing several thousand of these luckless travelers with "blankets and refreshments."