While on my way to the Golden Mount I had to pass through Ratchadamnoen Avenue which has been taken over by the anti government protesters. With shelter from sun and rain, free food, and entertainment between speeches they are well set up … I don’t think they are going anywhere in the near future.

The anti-government protest movement is a coalition of several groups, each with their own colours and “uniform”. There is the “V for Thailand” group with their white Guy Fawkes masks, the anti government corruption crusaders in black, the royalists in yellow, all united under the red,white and blue of the Thai flag.

In Thai culture, the feet are the lowest and dirtiest part of the body and it is impolite to point the soles of your feet at somebody, so it would be quite an insult to current prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra (l) and her brother/former PM/convicted criminal on the run Thaksin (r) if you were to wipe your dirty feet on their faces on this mat !

Whatever their group, a common theme is blowing whistles in protest at government officials and in support of the protest speeches, so it was rather noisy !

One enterprising vendor had the answer for that though, selling earplugs that seemed to fallen off the back of a truck ….or rather a plane, as they were labelled as “Aeroflot” !

Both the English language newspapers here seem to be leaning more and more against the government, labelling it as corrupt and inept in editorials today. What will happen next ? I guess we will have to wait and see.