Exclusive Photos - Bangkok, Thailand - State of Emergency

I went out and took some photographs of Bangkok on Monday, April 13, while the city was under a state of emergency. I am only posting these on ATS. As some of the photos show, the media sometimes has a way of giving an incomplete portrayal of a situation. Most people read headlines like Soldiers on the streets in Bangkok after two die in riots which, while completely true, don't cover the situation in totality.

Many Thai's were out in the streets with guns - water guns - celebrating Songkran, the Thai New Year, which is basically a giant water gun fight. The images you see of people celebrating this holiday are totally unrelated to the protests going on elsewhere in the city.

The embedded images may be cropped because of their size, probably better to view them at the ATS gallery here

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I also wanted to get some pictures of the Thai military, so I went to Victory Monument (a few minutes ride by train), which had been blockaded by protesters earlier. It was almost completely empty, a very strange sight considering it is usually one of the busiest intersections in the city. I took pictures for a few minutes, even posing with some soldiers before being told by some other military guys(presumably of higher rank) that I couldn't take any more photographs. With that warning, I left to partake in the festivities elsewhere.

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These photographs were all taken on the same day, and in areas that were just a few minutes away from each other.


[edit on 14-4-2009 by Teebs]