In Bangkok
I ALWAYS knew the Thais were entrepreneurial, but they have brought it to a whole new level at the Government House protests.
When I first visited the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protesters in Bangkok three weeks ago, there were hardly any vendors on site. The only items being sold were the colourful plastic clappers that have become synonymous with the protest.
This was understandable. After all, just one day prior, PAD members had clashed with pro-government supporters in a bloody free-for-all outside the compound. Besides, the protest was only one week old and no one knew how long it would go on for.
Fast forward to the present. With tensions over the clash wearing off and the protesters not looking like they're going to budge anytime soon, vendors and visitors have turned the Government House into one big pasar malam.
Food - as it has always been - is still available free of charge on site, but I guess some protesters may have gotten bored of them after a month. So now the roads around the compound are lined with vendors selling street food, ground sheets, umbrellas, VCDs, massages and more plastic clappers.
For 100 baht, you can even print your name on a certificate saying that you were here at the protests and helped nation-building.
But the T-shirts - nothing beats the T-shirts. The last time I visited, there were perhaps three or four simple designs - yellow with the letters "PAD" across the front, or some similar permutation.
On my return visit recently - a mere 10 days since my last visit - I counted at least a dozen new designs, moving beyond the serious slogans and logos to incorporate cutesy ones as well. (One of the funkier ones had four cool female anime characters waving plastic clappers.)
One vendor tells me he works from 9am to midnight daily and can sell 30 to 40 T-shirts a day, each for 150 baht. Not a bad piece of business at all - which is evident from how more and more stalls are cramming themselves into the area.
In fact, one Thai told me that if PAD were to leave the compound, the saddest people would be the vendors.
I was greeted with the same sight when I visited a rally by the pro-government supporters last Friday. There were at least 20 stalls set up at Sanam Luang - a park outside the Grand Palace. I thought they were permanent fixtures, since some of these were selling full meals like pork leg rice and noodle soups, and there were even seats and tables. Then someone told me the park is usually just an empty space.
Well, don't let a protest get in the way of good business, I say.
Protest and business may make strange bedfellows, but considering how political unrest has skewered the Thai economy, it's no surprise that its citizens are trying to make it work for them in other ways.