S of E continued

The State of Emergency continues, apparently it will remain in force until the end of Nov...., and nothing is discernably different.
Unable to resist temptation, I went into town after school today to see for myself what is happening on the streets. I took the klong (canal) boat to the end which is I guess about 1km, or a little less, to where much of the protests are happening. Unsure of quite where or what (not to mention who or why) I got off the boat, sat a good distance from the tuk tuk drivers and motorbike taxis that were lined up at the pier. I had a rough idea of where things were likely to be and proceeded in that direction - when I passed perhaps 10 police trucks I was quite sure I was going in the right direction.

The protesters have cordoned off an area that would be at least 1km x 1km. There were token piles of car tyres on the road, ostensibly to block traffic, in reality little more than a glorified speed hump that cars need to swerve around.

The protests were calm, peaceful and good natured. There were many 10s of thousands of people there. If they are claiming over 100,000 it probably isnt an exaggeration. Though my Thai extends to little more than 5 baht, 10 baht, 25, and 35 (the prices of food on the street !) , thank-you, sorry and hello, it seemed that there was nothing being said that was inciting anyone to violence or disorderly conduct. It was a sea of yellow - the majority of protesters were dressed in yellow shirts - the kings colour - and had lots of patriotic paraphenalia - headbands etc. with people listening to speeches, many under shade cloths, and applauding at appropriate moments.
In the crowd there was a conspicuous lack of foreigners, media, monks and Muslims (though I did see representives of each of them - Ramadan has started which may be an influencing factor on Muslim participation).

From what I saw, the state of emergency seems quite unnecessary. There was no will for violence. Interestingly I didn't see anyone drinking alcohol either.

I took some pictures in there and will upload them once my camera battery has recharged.