02 August 2008

Saturday Night

In some ways, Bangkok isn't that different from the US. Tonight, on a midnight walk home from night hang-out area that deserves a separate post of its own, I quickly noticed the significant presence of policemen on the sidewalks, monitoring the streets.

It's a Saturday night, near closing time, after the public transportation has closed. It's the first weekend after the end of the month, the time when the Thai workforce is paid their respective monthly wages.

It's a weekend when, on Friday, I would walk pass a man sprawled out on the end of a skywalk under the monorail, not moving, with a dog and two building guards looking on. Drunk, dead? I don't know; I'm not dumb enough to go up to him and check. But given the timing, I'd say drunk.

It's a weekend when the movie theatre would be unusually jam packed to the point that people getting off the escalator have nowhere to step and are backing up to the point that it's a safety disaster about to happen.

It's a weekend when, on Saturday, the police are monitoring the major intersections. And setting up the somewhat discreet checkpoints on my normally empty neighborhood street. They have plainclothes officers wearing badges clipped onto a neck chain as the NYPD Blue detectives did!

It's a weekend when I'm sure the coming Monday is going to be quite unproductive.

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