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magnum
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... made a quick trip this afternoon to BKK Bank HQ on Silom (which the Reds have been threatening to seige)... moved a stash of local cash, sufficient for the next couple of months, out of there and into another bank that has not been targeted.
(... to think of it, by seizing Thailand's largest bank's flagship HQ, the Reds might make as much a statement to the world as seizing the airport... the super-wealthy Sophonpanich family that is behind BKK Bank can't be feeling real good these days about being so fabulously wealthy).
... quite a show down there... the Reds have completely taken over the Lumpini Park entrance (intersection Rama IV and Silom), building a sizeable bamboo breastworks in the wide open spaces along Rama IV Road... spiked bamboo poles, with tires (presumeably to set ablaze)... interesting choice of materials for an urban defense... if this thing comes to blows, there would be an impressive shower of splinters and shards I would not want to be near.
... on the overpass above the intersection, the Reds narrowed the traffic to a single lane, with barricades in the closed lanes... here, they hold the high ground overlooking the intersection... again, not a defensible position with the high-rise offices looking down on them, and no escape but to run a km in either direction to get back to grade, or jump off the overpass.
... further down Silom Road, troops were situated down in the side sois... a handful of armed soldiers patroled the Saladaeng BTS station above.
... on Silom Road itself, maybe 500m down from the Rama IV intersection was what appeared as a coms unit and three of four field medical teams... the only guys really making a show of themselves were the medics (all unarmed).
... concertina wire was fixed and coiled at the bottoms of the Saladaeng BTS Station exits, ready to be stretched across the road.
... office workers and shops all seemed oblivious to the situation just up the road... the workers in the BKK Bank Foreign Currency Department said there is a plan to decamp and relocate operations to other BKK Bank locations if anything happens... not sure if they really know what "if anything happens" could really be.
... word I am getting from a guy with timely access to movements and such is that the Reds are now fortified with a significant number of militarily trained personnel... they are armed with military grade light weapons (perhaps more)... they are being directed with military grade communications equipment... and... they are manevering in a highly coordinated tactical fashion.
... if the shit comes to town, he said this would pit professionally trained soldiers against professionally trained soldiers, both well-armed.
... hard to believe that with trained soldiers on the Reds' side, they would have chosen such indefensible positions as the wide open Rajaprasong intersection, Lumpini Park Main Gate, and the overpass (high-rises around all three)... seems like defending from the middle of the freakin' rice paddy... the new urban warfare tactics, I guess.
... we keep looking for some indication of a negotiation, but the two sides seem as far apart as ever... time is not on the side of a peaceful resolution.
... and yeah, joeojrr... I'd definately stay away from Patpong.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 10:00 am on April 21, 2010
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magnum
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Quote: from quack quack on 10:32 pm on April 21, 2010
Anyone Guess how long an actual crisis situtaion ( like the airport siege last year) can possibly last
... my sense of imminent danger increased after the killings last weekend... the Reds did not decamp, and did not back down from their hardline positions on a negotiated settlement.
... the pressure is on... the end might depend on who gives first, or who cracks first... who knows, but if I HAD to throw down, I'd say someone will crack.
... don't know how others who live here sense it, but my antennae are vibrating... this is different... Thais have always drawn back (by mutual agreement) when they get to this point, but not this time.
... seems near to a tipping point... then uuuugly, ugly.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 11:07 am on April 21, 2010
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bkkz
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Silom people batle red shirts with bottle missiles
At 11:30 pm Wednesday, about 100 residents of Silom, Klong Toey and Thanon Tok areas threw things at red-shirt protesters.
About 100 people from the three neighbourhoods gathered on the Silom Road near the Dusit Thani Hotel and exchanged abusive words with the red-shirt protesters at 11pm.
About half an hour later, they threw beer bottles, glasses and other things at the red-shirt protesters as well as firing slingshots at them.
The Bangkok residents tried to break through the line of police to clash with the red-shirt protesters who surged towards the Silom people as well.
The red-shirt people then threw two Molotov cocktails at Silomp people, prompting them to retreat.
About 30 policemen tried to eparate the two sides but the two sides kept on firing slingshots at each other, prompting police themseles to retreat to be stationed in the compound of the hotel.
The Nation
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 1:08 pm on April 21, 2010
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poskat
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It is the new involvement of the "multi-colored shirts (ie yellows--multi leaders are PAD members) that is the wild card now.
They have given until sunday for the situation to be resolved or they will "take action ".
I think they are intent on instigating some violence--there have been slight clashes already in Silom-- with the reds in order to force army (as the government per se is clearly toothless) to step in quickly.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 9:31 pm on April 21, 2010
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Kaymanx
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Yes, I have never seen an uglier scene in Bangkok than the one last night passing by Silom road. I was headed for Patpong which was deserted the previous night (no night bazar, although the pubs and bars were making a brave go of remaining open to empty houses). The next morning news said that the Silom rally had been called off by the reds so I expected that PP would be back in full action - but NO !
The intersection at Dusit Thani looked like a battlefield and my cab went straight past, made a U turn and rode back up the bridge. As stated here earlier, the reds had taken over the bridge from where I got a fleeting glance down on their occupation as my cab hurried past. The place seemed full of sophisticated camping tents which is, I think, not what ordinary citizens fighting for democracy get anywhere else in the world. The frontlines are fortified with sharpened bamboo sticks and tyres and and what seemed like hundreds of people with video cameras and walkie talkies.
I was shaking my head, not willing to believe that just one man could have financed all this. These are people who are instigated and supported by a far greater power than any one individual to go to war against their own.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 11:56 pm on April 21, 2010
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poskat
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I agree. I walk through siam sq everyday, and have been saying this is all too well organized in how different things have sprung up overnight to be just a grassroots thing.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:03 am on April 22, 2010
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China Sailor
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Sharpened sticks eh.... I wonder if there are any ex-Cong amoung them  ...
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:05 am on April 22, 2010
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Kaymanx
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If I was a Thai citizen, I would be deadly alarmed. As an outsider, I am already.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:11 am on April 22, 2010
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PussyLover 69
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Report from Bangkok Post dated Thursday 22 April 2010 :-
Sansern: Time is running out
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Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd, spokesman for the Centre for the Resolutions of Emergency Situations, has warned red-shirt protesters camped in the Ratchaprasong area that troops are waiting for an appropriate time to take back the area.
"Your time is running out. Please leave the area and report to the authorities.
"This is not a threat. This is real," he said on Thursday.
He urged innocent people to leave the rally site and return home.
"If you leave and report to authorities then you will not be prosecuted, but after we take action then you will be arrested and prosecuted," he said.
Authorities will take decisive action against protesters when they disperse the mob, he said.
According to Col Sansern, there were about 6,000 red-shirts at the site on Thursday morning, although the number was around 14,000 on Wednesday night.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 3:56 am on April 22, 2010
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magnum
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... just after 9.00p local time, several blasts, probably grenades, were reported at the Saladaeng BTS Station, located above Silom Road maybe 500 metres down from the Reds' Lumpini Park encampment at the Rama IV/Silom Road intersection... they were followed by a single blast in front of the Dusit Hotel located at the intersection.
... not sounding good here.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:23 am on April 22, 2010
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