By Teo Cheng Wee
Foreign Correspondent
chengwee@sph.com.sg

 

FOR the people of Bangkok, there's nothing quite as comforting now as the familiar whirring of the city's Skytrain or BTS on its tracks, plying its route through the heart of downtown.

That was the sound that greeted everyone on Sunday, as BTS and subway services partially resumed.

A silent BTS has, in the past month, meant bad news, whether it is the grenade bombing of the Sala Daeng BTS station or the escalation of violence during the impending army crackdown.

It also made life difficult for Bangkok's residents. Many of them have come to depend on their trains for transport. Without it, they either forked out more money for taxis - an unpleasant prospect at a time when the economy has taken a hit - or they walk, sometimes for 2km or more, one local told me.

For me, this meant I no longer had to be held ransom by the motorcycle taxi riders, who could charge whatever they wanted the last few days because motorcycles were the only form of transport into the protest zone.

Even then, it was difficult getting someone to go into the area. Many feared that snipers were still lurking. Getting someone to go in at night, as I did once, required even more persuasion (and money).

So it was a relief to see the trains zipping through town again.

The BTS was not as crowded as it usually is on a weekend when I took a ride on it on Sunday. Some people perhaps were still wary of venturing out. It has only been four days since the city suffered a devastating spate of violence.

The stations were all functioning from 8am to 9pm, except for Ratchadamri, one of the stations located within the sprawling protest zone. It remained closed.

From the vantage point of the BTS, I gained a few fresh perspectives.

For one, I had a clearer view of the damage that was wrought by the red shirt militants last week. I had been to Ratchaprasong in the heart of the protest zone several times since the army crackdown, but I had only been able to see things at ground level.

From the BTS track, however, I could see how badly gutted some of the shoplots in Siam Square were - and how extensive the damage was. In several large lots, only a skeletal metallic structure remained, as the roof was completely scorched.

This picture repeated itself, as we whizzed by the many shops that make up Siam Square.

The reactions of the Thais in my train carriage were equally telling. Many of them turned or rushed towards the windows when they came to the affected areas.

For many of them, this was the first time they had seen the destruction of their city up close - and it was not an easy sight to bear.

One lady told me that she had already seen pictures in the newspapers and prepared herself mentally for what would come. But seeing it for herself, she said, still made her emotional.

They were most affected by the sight of Central World. Once the city's biggest and glitziest mall, a big smouldering crevice now lies in its grand steel-and-glass facade.

Still, they snapped away with their cameras at the wreckage, often posing themselves in the photo. This is to show friends on Facebook, a student said.

Indeed, there were many youths out there among the hundreds of volunteers on Sunday, wielding big brooms to wash away the debris that still remained on the sooty streets. Others used brushes to scrub pillars and hoardings. Yet more were seen going around with trays of drinks, distributing them to thirsty volunteers.

The youths were responding to calls on social media like Facebook and Twitter to do their part for the city, one told me. I saw a person hold up a sign saying: "Clean up Bangkok with unity".

Bangkok now embarks on a journey of recovery. Schools, stock markets and government departments are set to open on Monday, but the famous department stores along Ratchaprasong might take a while longer.

Other malls nearby remained closed, with the exception of the popular MBK. It opened for the first time on Sunday, but closed early at 7pm.

It would be nice to think that life returns to normal in Bangkok on Monday. But the truth is, after the startling events last week, life here will never be the same again.