Ratchaprarop 1:50- 3:45pm April 13th

While I was wandering around Victory Monument I noticed one street (I think it was Ratchawithi) that had soldiers not just at the entrance to Victory Monument but stretching down the whole street. I wandered down this street and came to a bus that had obviously been damaged in some fighting.

After passing this bus I came to Sam Liam Din Daeng Intersection and I decided to turn down Ratchaprarop road as I could see another bus blocking the road near Century Park Hotel and some soldiers guarding the hotel.

Further down the road I saw a group of soldiers facing off with a group of protestors. The soldiers were around soi 18 and there were some clear signs of recent conflict near them.

Between the soldiers and the protesters there were a few buses. Just in front of the soldiers there were two buses that were blocking the road. Further down there was a bus on fire and a still operational bus that the Redshirts would put to use in a bit.

The whole time I was there the Redshirts were making like they were going to charge the still working bus at the two bus blockade and the soldiers behind them. At around 2:20 pm the Redshirts used something to keep the accelerator down and set the bus towards the 2 buses and the soldiers. They threw a rather large Molotov cocktail into the bus to set it on fire and it ended up crashing into the other two buses going around 5-10 mph.

At this point a Thai fire truck emerged from behind the soldiers. It stopped behind the two orange buses and tried to put out the fire by shooting water over the orange buses. The Redshirts started to throw things at the firemen and the firemen tried to fend them off by shooting water at them from the fire hose.

At this point the Thai soldiers charged at the Redshirts. The soldiers were beating on their shields and one soldier was firing shots into the air (He is the soldier on the right in pics 2-4. Please note that his rifle is CLEARLY pointed way above any ones head and he was the only one firing his weapon). The soldiers only moved up about one soi and then reformed a line. At this point they were on the other side of the bus blockade and there was only the one burning blue bus between them and the Redshirts about 2 sois away.

At this point it was another face off.

At one point a group of Redshirts with a flag moved up halfway between the two sides and lay on the road with a Thai flag – seemingly in an attempt to prevent the soldiers from charging again.

At another point two women approached the soldiers to yell at them in Thai. I couldn't understand what they were saying but they were eventually pulled back by other Redshirts.

There was also a truck underneath the overpass the whole time I was there with some guy broadcasting messages to the Redshirts.

After the initial charge not much happened. The number of Redshirts lessened constantly until they finally all just left. Before they left they tried to block off the roads to the intersection where they were based with various items and they set a few fires as well.

Here are some more pics from the scene at Ratchaprarop: