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Asok Montri and Sukhumvit rd. junction. Some big hotels and newly built apartments around. Behind the lowrise yellow building on the right is Soi Cowboy, a legendary little street packed with go-go bars which was there for over 30 years and is one of Bangkok's "red light districts" which is dedicated mainly to foreigners (usually Europeans, Americans, Japanese, South Koreans, Singaporeans and nowadays increasingly Chinese)





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Same place from street level. A BTS train passing.






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On the right - Sukhumvit MRT (underground metro) station.





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At this moment Bangkok's rail public transport looks like this. Blue: MRT (underground metro); green: BTS (skytrain) and gray: existing commuter railway lines. This sufficiently serves only some central areas of Bangkok although there are more MRT and SRT line splanned as well as the new airport railway link opening later this year.





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Many LED advertisement screens are mounted on trucks. I was wondering what was the reason for that - any legal obstacles or simply practicality?





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Some quiet and idilic streets just off Sukhumvit road (somewhere between Sukhumvit Soi 11 and Soi 15-19)





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Soi 19





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Asok Montri which goes North towards Din Daeng and changes name to Ratchadaphisek






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Under the telephone there is a sticker saying that "BNE was here". Who the hell is BNE? I tried to google it but the only answer I found was other people asking "who the hell is BNE?". So I don't know who/what it/he/she is. Hopefully it's something exciting because otherwise what's the purpose of sticking those BNE stickers in random places everywhere from Tokyo to Sao Paulo?





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Concrete bridge of the newly built airport railway link which will run all 30km on such concrete pillars and should reach up to 160km/h which will make it a 15minute journey from the airport to Phetchaburi station which is just a stop away from Sukhumvit with MRT





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Suburban train service





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Big-ass roads is how you travel in Bkk! I think next time I'll rent a car and just drive there for no reason. It's one hell of fun to drive at 100+ km/h on an elevated motorway





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Esplanade Shopping mall in Din Daeng






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Ratchadaphisek in Din Daeng is also known for hi-end masage/karaoke/sauna places which are dedicated mainly to local customers (as opposed to go-go bars in Sukhumvit and elsewhere), however, it seems, foreigners are welcome too. I don't know whether it's true or not but I read in some websites that in some most expensive massage parlors you can actually get a massage done by model girls who have featured in locally published versions of Penthouse or Playboy magazines. I guess that would be quite an excitement





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ASEAN summit poster. The summit failed a couple of days later because of the protesters breaking into the venue in Pattaya. It seems that it was "enough" for the government and the day after emergency rule was declared in Bangkok and protesters contained by the army after some clashes and bullets shot






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A new version of Toyota Fortuner SUV which is extremely popular in Thailand. It's only dedicated to some Asian and S.American markets but isn't available in Europe or US even though it's one of the best looking SUV's I would say. I assume it's similar to Toyota Land Cruiser. Although this one looks much better





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Streets look empty because of Songkran which is the new year, year 2552 that is






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Central Grand Hotel which is 235m high





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Soldiers guarding Chit Lom BTS station





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Largest LED screen in Bangkok was turned off. I guess that was also because of the emergency rule and protests which took part earlier on that day







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U/C Phaya Thai train station which is also part of the new airport railway link







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Something that should not be on a street... we'll see what happened





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Just a couple of hours ago this happened. Or at least how it was portrayed on TV






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Some rather intensive clashes happened between red-shirted protesters and the army. Shots got fired in the air, buses set on fire and some crashed buses too. There were reports of 2 dead but it was unclear about the circumstances because blames and allegations started flying from both sides





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BBC and CNN would not put those photos on their websites because they are not "sensational enough". Although, this i precisely what was happening for most of the day as opposed to the reports by CNN/BBC about the "clashes which took place during the long 12 hour day". Soldiers were relaxing and tourists and children having fun taking photos of each other with soldiers and crashed buses






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This guy was having a lot of fun having his picture taken at almost every crashed and burned down bus. I took a photo of him with his camera too






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Too hot, time for some ice cream...





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No photo! no photo! ok ok no photo... only this one

Anyhow, if someone having an M-16 is telling you "no photo", then it's hard to ignore it even if they look peaceful and not aggressive






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TV news reporters' Mac with Windows XP





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If there is no sensation or if it's not big enough, we'll create it! After all, it's all about the money. How is such a report done? A van comes to the location (with 3 crew: reporter, cameraman and assistant), choose a nice looking angle of the street and soldiers in a distance. The TV reporter puts his bullet-proof vest on and prepares to talk. A nervous face and dramatic hand gestures are essential. While being shown on the TV and talking about "bullets being shot at the protesters" (which probably never happened) he's accompanied by a mix of video footage taken in different locations on different time and of different events so creating an image as if WW3 has started.




Note that only the reporter (i.e. the guy who's on the TV) is wearing the bullet-proof vest. The cameraman isn't (as if his life is less important?). Note the girl who can be seen just under the camera. Her job was to hold the lamp so that it would not shake in wind. Not only she didn't wear any vest but seemed completely uninterested in what was happening behind her back (where the soldiers were) or what was being reported.



While I was taking the pictures of them and their van they looked at me with a kind of "get the hell out of here" look even though they were in a middle of a street...