Most of the media attention on the current situation in Bangkok doesn’t really differentiate between areas of conflict and the rest of the city (or country, for that matter).
Via Bangkok Pundit, Richard Barrow has been frequently updating a Google Map that shows where violence is taking place in Bangkok.
Areas to avoid in Bangkok this weekend: Sala Daeng/Silom area, Lumpini Boxing Stadium/Bon Kai area and Ratchaprarop to Din Daeng area including Victory Monument.
Would I head to Bangkok now, all things equal? Probably not, though I have no concerns transiting Bangkok at this point. And if I had an overnight and didn’t want to stay at the airport I’d probably head down to the river via the Chonburi expressway, though I might take a less direct route depending on the hotel I was staying at, I might not get off at the Silom exit.
Others no doubt have other recommendations, but I did find the map useful.
Update: Apparently the Dusit Thani has come under fire.
A luxury hotel overlooking the sprawling protest site came under gunfire in the early hours of Monday morning and was rattled by an explosion, prompting guests to shelter in the basement…
At the Dusit Thani hotel, which overlooks the Reds’ encampment, guests evacuated their rooms and rushed to the basement as staff warned them the hotel was under attack, according to an AFP journalist inside.
“I was in bed. There was a big explosion very close to my room. I went out of the room, other people did too and at that moment the wall outside was hit by bullets,” AFP photographer Pedro Ugarte said by telephone.
The 100 or so guests sheltering in the basement were later moved to a lobby, far away from the street.
It was unclear where the shooting came from.
After seeing the map, I think people should stay away from BKK. Very sad situation. I do not understand why the world is not putting pressure on the government to hold elections. The current situation can quickly lead to a country run and robbed by a hunta very similar to poor and sad neighboring Burma.
The world shouldn’t be putting pressure on the government — they should be putting pressure on the protesters and their leaders that have REJECTED the more-than-reasonable peace plan presented to them a couple of weeks ago. The government, IN FACT, agreed to dissolve the House (as demanded), schedule an EARLY ELECTION(as demanded), and even reported to the DSI to face “criminal” complaints against it (as demanded). After all of that — the protest leaders STILL refused to disperse the crowds and came up with a list of even MORE demands. Now, how much more garbage from these few thousand or so selfish a**holes should the 8 million OTHER residents of Bangkok, including myself, have to put up with?!?
As for “social injustices” that the protesters keep screaming about — NUMEROUS social programs, including education reform, farm subsidies, health care reform, etc., aimed at benefiting the “rural poor” have, IN FACT, been implemented by THIS GOVERNMENT. The problem is — these protesters want to see IMMEDIATE effects (ie. CASH payments, such as what their hero Thaksin had given them) that, in the long run, are largely ineffective in solving the problems of the poor. In fact, they created MUCH more, deep-seeded, problems than they ended up solving.