The land of smiles still manages a few despite the chaos
by Ben O'Hara-Byrne
"Welcome to beautiful Thailand" is a phrase usually delivered without a hint of irony at the airport or in the lobby of one of the city's now shuttered luxury hotels. This was different.
After riding on the back of a scooter in a Red Shirt stronghold through tiny alleys near piles of burning barricades, having crawled up makeshift ladders and been told to duck and run through a possible sniper zone, we wound up in a garbage and debris-filled laneway.
These are the frontlines for a pretty ragtag bunch of protestors who taunt the military with firecrackers and slingshots, and dodge bullets in return. (There are more dangerous Red Shirts out there, just not here it would seem.)
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The scene was as ugly as much of Thailand is beautiful, and after 15 minutes we got ready to retrace our steps.
On the way out, a guy, no older than 20, called me over and pointed at the burnt piles of tires and bullet holes in the walls and said, "Welcome to beautiful Thailand."
It was a tired phrase delivered with a newfound sadness and sarcasm. But he said it with a smile and his friends, understanding that much in English, laughed.
With the threat of more bloodshed hanging in the air, with so many already dead and injured, Bangkok's urban war zone is a very bleak place, particularly if you've seen it at its bustling, lively best.
But if you can still find a smile, even an ironic one, in the bleakest corners of a city and country that right now seem on the edge of an awful abyss, perhaps that's reason enough to hope for the best.
Global National photographer Barry Acton in Bangkok, Thailand.
Ben is Global National's Asia correspondent.
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