Thursday, May 20, 2010

Barry's drive through town

My heroic colleague, Barry, decided to see if he could get to Siam Square to check on our office. He drove slowly along Sukhumvit to Ratchaprasong where the Red Shirts HQ had been. The scene there was of utter desolation with Central World destroyed and the Big C supermarket still in flames. He then turned left into Rachadamri Road but was told to stop by the army. Shots rang out from down the road and the army fired back. Barry had to get out of the car and hit the deck. Fifteen minutes later they said he could continue, so he drove down to Rama IV Road which also looked terrible. "Soi Ngamduplee was not looking pretty".

Then round the backstreets via numerous checkpoints to Siam Square. The BC office is OK and our two security guards who, unbelievably, had stayed inside throughout the mayhem were very happy to see him. Much of Siam Square has been destroyed however, including the wonderful old Siam Theatre cinema and hundreds of arcade shops. It will be very strange going back there -which won't be for another 10 days for me.
No heroics from us: a quiet day in the hotel in the middle of nowhere, me working, Liz keeping the girls occupied.

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