There have been some interesting changes of events over the past couple days in regards to the Thai political situation. Early this week, Abhisit offered what seemed to be an appropriate peace offer to the red shirts. It involved a dissolution of the parliament in September, with new elections following in November. After some deliberation, the red shirts fired back with their own peace offer, asking for Abhisit, the Prime Minister, and his Deputy Prime Minister to be charged with the violent events of April 10. They also said that they wouldn’t stop the protests until Abhisit stepped down as Prime Minister. These new demands propelled Abhisit to say that enough is enough and pull back all peace offers. On Wednesday, Abhisit said that the area that the red shirts are currently occupying will be cut off from water, food supplies, and electricity, in order to suppress the protests. Today, he announced that the area would be blocked off and all BTS and subway stations will not run through that area after 6pm.

Now, considering that some good shopping areas are still open and me being the optimist that I am, I decided to do a little shopping in the area today. I figured no problem, they shut the BTS stations down at 6, I can easily shop and get out of there by then. There were no problems and I got my shopping done but by about 5pm, everything was shut. I mean EVERYTHING. I have been down to this area a couple times over the past couple weeks and although some things have shut, some have still remained open. But today, everything was closed. Even Mcdondalds, Starbucks, KFC, and 711 were shut (and they NEVER shut). The vibe in the area was one of high tension, and it was visibly noticeable in the reactions of the stores and the people in the surrounding area. By 6, everyone was scrambling to grab any taxi, moto, tuk-tuk, or whatever else they could find. After that, an eerie silence seemed to hang over the whole area.

Driving away in a taxi, I saw army troops and police officers gathering forces about 5-10 minutes. Some were chatting, some were smoking, and others were resting and relaxing. It seemed like they were just waiting for the call. Who knows what will happen tonight and over the next couple days, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that hour or so of silence will be some of the only silence heard in that area tonight.