Adventures in Definitely NOT Daily Life...

Since arriving in Chiang Mai, I've been trying to avoid mentioning the protests in Bangkok. I've been hearing about them, thinking about them and praying about them; however, this blog is generally about boring stuff I do during the day, not about events on the world's stage.

Yesterday, since I had a front row seat when the world's stage raised its curtain, I'll share my experience with you. It was an interesting day. I spent about an hour in the morning watching live breaking news as the military's armored vehicles broke through the Red Shirt barricades and started securing the protest area in Bangkok. I was hopeful that things might finally be resolved - or at least settled for a while.

Around 11am, I went to meet some friends for lunch down by the river. After lunch, I had some errands to run on the other side of the bridge. As I was crossing the bridge, things seemed...odd. My spidey senses were tingling, so instead of crossing the street where I had planned, I continued walking and thought I'd take a more circuitous route to my destination. Along the way, I ran into 2 other students in my program, and joined them on a short detour to the flower market (lovely!). About 20 minutes later, I turned back to finish my original errand, but when I got back to the bridge, police were setting up barricades, and protesters were burning a pile of tires in the middle of the bridge (where things had seemed odd to me earlier). I had my camera with me, but I didn't think about taking a picture, I just got in the first songtaew I could find and headed for home. By the time I got home, I heard that the major shopping centers in Chiang Mai were closing, a curfew had been ordered for the night, and a firetruck near the bridge was burning.

On another front, when I woke up yesterday morning, there was a tiny dead lizard in my bedroom being assaulted by ants. Instead of inviting a row of ants to invade my bedroom, I scooped him up in my dustpan and deposited him in the hall outside my door. When I left for lunch, the ants had already carried him (and his detached tail) 1/2 way up the wall to their 'home crack'. I DID take a video of that, which is why I had my camera with me to not take pictures of the tire fire with. (?) I remember thinking "They'll never fit him through that crack." 4 hours later, when I got home, it was just in time to see the ants execute a 3-point turn with the lizard and then disappear with him into the crack. Amazing little critters.

Now, having said all that, things in my out-of-the-way neighbourhood are quiet as usual, and if I hadn't have been on the bridge yesterday, I would have had no idea that something was awry. Even last night, the protesters ignored the curfew, and many banks and buildings in Chiang Mai were damaged - but I didn't hear or see a thing from this part of town. We'll see what happens over the next few days, but I still feel safe in this area.