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Major Crackdown in Bangkok


Gadfly

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Last night (1 Dec 06 â?? Friday) there was a very heavy police presence in lower Sukhumvit and all of the bars closed early. I am not sure if this was a one-off event or the beginning of yet another social order program, but this is what happened:

 

Shortly after 1 am, all of the bars in NEP were dark. The indoor bars downstairs were still quietly serving drinks behind darkened doors but the bars upstairs seemed empty. Walking from the entrance to NEP to Soi 5, I counted at least 12 MiBs, 7 MiB motorbikes and 2 MiB trucks. The streets were jammed with BGs and customers, and I heard several BGs grumble about the early closing. It seems they were caught off guard.

 

It was standing room only in the Nana hotel parking lot and Sukhumvit was so packed that one Farang was pressed by the crowd into Sukhumvit and was hit by a taxi. I donâ??t think he was seriously hurt, but it shows what can happen with local crowd control measures here.

 

The usual after hour places were â??closedâ?? â?? well sort of closed. A place on the odd numbered Soi side of Sukhumvit (not the place on Soi 1) had its lights on, no music and no girls, but was quietly offering to sell beer. The place was empty and I wasnâ??t thirsty.

 

It was one of the stranger crackdowns I have seen. I get the impression it took everyone by surprise. Like I said at the beginning, I am not sure if this is a one-off event triggered by some obscure event in Thai politics we will never understand or the beginning of some new social crusade. Anyone know? Anyone care to guess? Anyone able to report on what happens this evening (Saturday)?

 

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Oh...one more weird thing about last night. When I left Soi Cowboy at about 12:30 a.m., everything was going strong - no signs at all that the bars were about to close in the 15 -20 minutes or so that it took me to taxi from Soi Cowboy to the Landmark. When I got close to the Landmark and started walking (traffic stopped cold) it was a totally different scene.

 

Anybody stay in Soi Cowboy to 1 am and beyond last night? Was it business as usual there or did they also close all the bars there early?

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According to one well connected bar owner, the district that Nana is in has a new police commander and he was out doing an inspection of his new domaine.

 

Soi Cowboy is in a different police district. (one of the reason that SC bars can "show" and Nana cannot)

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