City of Angels (and traffic jams)....

My 10 minute journey to work was delayed by an hour today as a large protest blocked the road outside the Securities Exchange Commission near my office. Generally speaking if you close a road for 3 minutes in central Bangkok at rush time then you get horrific grid lock so it is a really efficient form of protest. It turns out that the demo was against a brewing company who makes ‘Chang’ beer and is attempting to float on the Thai stock market. This flotation has meet with fierce resistance in the press and much reported 'public uproar' over the terrible example to the Thai public that it sets (?) Hmm.. Personally I think a demonstration against the US at their embassy just opposite would be a much more moral cause..

The picture attached shows you a typical ominous afternoon during the rainy season here in Bangkok. The daily pattern is generally like this: The day starts off pretty cool (less than 28) and with not much breeze.. After 10:00am the heat is heading above 32 but still is not too humid but by lunchtime however it will be over 35 and getting sticky. Now sometime after 13:00 the wind will suddenly pick up and the clouds usually come in from the W-SW... What happens next is predictable enough but can be amazingly dramatic, last week for example 100mm of rain was dumped down in 2 hours. These downpours often turn roads to rivers and create instant queues of cars, motorbikes, tuktuks, taxis, buses, songthaews and lorries that can extend for kilometres.. Krung Thep the City of Angels? Sure, now where do I buy a set of wings!