12-1-13
- I enjoyed a lunch with Lani and Lindsay: pad thai goong sut!
- Lani and I headed to the ferry so I could have a shorter (and thus cheaper) taxi ride back home. It took me north into Nonthaburi from Bangkok.
Move, ____, get out the way! Haha jk :D
I miss the water... *sigh*
- The whole ferry ride was free because nobody came to ask me for money!
- I got into a taxi with a taxi driver who kept looking at me while driving like a maniac. Almost needless to say, I was terrified, even more so than in the taxi with that one guy who was reading while driving on the highway! At least he turned on American music. It even played “Marry Me” by Jason Derulo!
- Toward the end of my taxi ride home, we were stuck in heavy traffic. The traffic light took about 7 minutes to turn green. With all forces always working against me, I got off the taxi prematurely, and after sitting in there for 7 minutes staring at a red light, I had a feeling the light would turn green. Pretty much after I climbed over a barrier, it turned green (but of course!). Then, I ran across the highway to the other side--don’t worry, not where it was green haha.
- I ended up taking some stairs, entering Impact, wandering in who know what direction, since I had no idea where I was supposed to walk... After walking down endless hallways, turning into giant corridors and exhibition rooms, coming out the other side, re-walking the path except outside this time, and then ending up in a gated parking lot (well, this one was my fault. I thought I walked through it a long time ago and I thought I remembered an opening in one of the corners, but I was quite mistaken). I had to walk right back out and it was so embarrassing! I finally spotted my building, but I saw a FENCE blocking my way (UGH), so I had to walk all the way around.
DO YOU SEE THAT FENCE?!
MOVE, FENCE, GET OUT THE WAY!!!
All in all, though, it was a great day. I finally reached my home and did an extremely large batch of laundry after eating a very healthy snack of fruits. For dinner, I enjoyed purple sticky rice again with som tam and some fruits. Actually, before dinner, I walked right past my neighbor; I was walking out of an elevator and he into it. Good thing he didn’t notice me. Or if he did, good thing he didn’t chase after me. I also cleaned my room! Now it’s all neat and orderly in a different way, but I like it. :) It isn’t looking as cluttered as it was before.
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12-2-13 No School... But Not Something to Celebrate
Bangkok Happenings: I promised this in the blog entry prior to this one. Just to let you know, I am putting this all in the simplest terms of what I have heard and what I am trying to read. I don’t want to get any information wrong, so I will only put as much as I feel comfortable with.
As you go around Thailand, you hear a lot about the Red Shirts vs. the Yellow Shirts, especially right now, with all the political unrest. The Red Shirts stand for the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) and for the most current issue, support the Amnesty Bill. The Yellow Shirts, due to the people usually wearing yellow, stand for the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and they are against the Amnesty Bill.
The Yellow Shirts’ group is comprised of highly-educated elites and royalists, while the Red Shirts are mostly rural workers from outside of Bangkok, but it also includes students and businessmen.
Thaksin Shinawatra, the previous Prime Minister of Thailand, was accused of corruption and sentenced to prison. However, he is beloved and supported by the rural poor. He is currently in self-exile, and his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, rose to become the next Prime Minister. Many people see her as incapable because she lacks the skills to be a Prime Minister, so people are saying that she’s the face, but her brother is still running Thailand through her via Skype. In any case, (sorry to cut that short, but that’s honestly all I know), the Amnesty Bill was created to release all corrupt individuals and have them be free. Basically, it’s a way for Thaksin to return with a clean slate.
The Red Shirts support that Amnesty Bill, seeing as they want him to return, while the Yellow Shirts are opposed to it.
Now, we (the farang) are affected by this because for the past weeks, they have been holding protests over the bill. Just this past weekend, the protests started increasing in violence, as Thais swarmed in Bangkok, trying to overtake certain buildings. Gill and Amy, two of the people from our group, were hanging out on Khaosan Road, and some Thais saw them.
The Thai people started shouting, “Farang! Farang!” and waving things at them, so they had to crouch down and hide for the remainder of the night as the shops closed. On Sunday, police forces were employed and started using tear gas and water cannons on the protestors. It has gotten so dangerous that Bangkok had a curfew of 9 PM. My friend Jess walked from her favorite restaurant to her home and told me the streets were eerily quiet and deserted, which is very unnatural in Bangkok. At least 4 people have died so far as I’m writing this post. :( My school was closed today, just in case because there are protests happening close by on Chaeng Wattana Road.
Some people believe that they want to push the Amnesty Bill through (or not through) before the King’s birthday this upcoming Thursday, so I fear that this may not even be the peak of it yet. We have been warned to stay indoors and to not wander off, especially into Bangkok.
For more accurate numbers and information, here is Time: World’s article on what has been going on:
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For some comic relief...
This is what I did for cake today:
-Walked down 9 flights of stairs
-Spent my last few baht on it
-Walked up 9 flights of stairs
-Opened it immediately and for some reason, had cream all over my hands already
-Ate it within the first 3 minutes of stepping into my house
-Contemplated writing a status about how much I love cake
-Instead, wrote about it in my blog
-Was sad for the next hour because my stomach wasn’t feeling that great to begin with but I still want more cake :(
The End! Until next weekend's adventures!
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