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Blood and Water
We are all fine, very safe and sound, in case you were wondering. But you probably aren’t, because the news coverage is so weak.
I was standing at a surreal vantage point on khao san road in Bangkok. I came back to this spot because I had to, I was drawn there. Down past the tourist madness to the end of the street, which was blocked off with beaten yellow barriers.
If I looked left, there were photos of many men shot in the head, stuck with tape to a hastily erected shrine, with barely respectable offerings piled around them, left by people who obviously cared about the slain but had no time to offer their best on the newly hallowed ground. It looked like they just laid down what they had, a bottle of some cheap red soft drink, someone’s breakfast, lots of incense sticks, a crude bamboo fence. People came and bowed with palms pressed together then slowly took pictures.
The men who had been shot wore red headbands and red shirts. Their heads surrounded by red halos of blood. The people paying respects at the shrine were old ladies, toothless rickshaw drivers, young transvestites, bespectacled businessmen. Everyone was wearing red.
If I looked right, there were people shooting each other happily. I had been shot many times myself, by super soaker water guns of every variety. Bulbous fluorescent plastic water guns sprayed water in every direction. The street was full of water. Water hoses, buckets, pressure spray cannons, even old school finger action squirt guns.
They were Germans, English, Americans, Thai shop owners, Thai tourists, Thai transvestites, Thai old men with enormous smiles, music was thumping, people shrieking, squealing, running, to avoid the next blast, which came from everywhere, from every direction. It went on as far as you could see, if you looked right.
A woman approached me.
“are you a journalist”
“no”
“terrible thing happen here, 180 in hospital, they still in hospital”
“tell the world about what happened here”. She says this just like a movie script. Only she’s in earnest, and she’s jabbing me in the stomach with a large red clapper shaped like a heart. It comes now with every word.
“18 dead”
“this used to be the land of smile, now it is the land of kill.”
I look around and wonder, will the water wash away the blood?
Everyone cut loose, eventually I dove in too. It was freeing. I understood the juxtaposition, how everyone seemed to need it. But when the party is over Thailand will have some serious wounds.
April 13th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
How sorry I am to hear the details of the horror that went on. Thank you for informing the world. We aren’t hearing much over here, and although I had heard what happened it seems to be sugar coated. So glad you all are there right now to bring hope.
April 14th, 2010 at 1:41 am
Glad you are fine. That is so intense Chinua. Loved the video. What a strange juxtaposition indeed.
April 14th, 2010 at 8:04 am
smokes…I wish I understood better what the conflict really is…thanks for sharing.
April 14th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Wow, we really didn’t hear too much on the news about what was happening in Thailand. Thanks for sharing….
April 14th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Loved the video. See you in a couple hours..
April 16th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
wow…