Red in the Land : Red shirts bang it again, Bangkok
The protests today shall remember the army crackdown and its victims from May, 19th last year.
On May 9th the king approved the prime ministers request to dissolve the lower chamber of the parliament. New elections will be held on July 3rd.
Thaksin’s youngest sister Yingluck will lead the opposition party, Pheu Thai. She got a good chance to beat the current, non-elected, prime minister Abhisit.
Because of the rain my footage isn’t as good as the two previous ones of the redshirts I did in the past. The vibe also wasn’t so good, moreover not as much people around as I saw in the protest in January. The rain simply made it chaotic, so this time I actually didn’t stick around for too long. The humidity and slight rain spoiled something which could have been a good opposition start promo action for the elections.
News flash : Steve Halim @X2, 18th ASEAN summit and some crazy bule entrepreneurs
Here is some news from the big durian. Traffic is terrible like usual here, maybe even a bit worse right now because of the ASEAN summit which started here today. Lots of people around, lots of security everywhere and helicopters flying around. From my window, royal suite, Mulia hotel, I am actually looking down on a field with a few military helicopters, more video stuff about that later.
I met some really cool people in a very short time-frame. Even though it is a Saturday, I took a break today.
Sexy and sweet girls are around plenty in Jakarta. I would just wish that stuff would feel more open and free here. I just love the easy-going way in Bangkok, where things are just not only happening behind closed doors. Going from one location to the next is always a hassle. In Bangkok I go full speed all the time with motorbikes. It just doesn’t work here. Going from one place to the next mostly means first waiting in line for a taxi and then waiting often another 30min being stuck somewhere in traffic. That annoyed me already almost as much as some situations in the Philippines. Some hotels are excellent in Indonesia but Thailand is simply the very best in terms of hospitality. Lots of updates are coming up for Indonesia.
The people in Jakarta you meet are mostly not tourists like in Bangkok. Sometimes it is good, sometimes not. Because the people work here, they are holding themselves more back and just don’t go for pure fun around. You rarely meet some free spirits.
But on the other hand, the expats are very friendly and behave open circle-wise where you can easily join in.
Stephan is a really cool German entrepreneur I met yesterday at Immigrant. His previous role was being the SEA regional head for Siemens. He is now having some sort of IT security company which is highly profitable. He just bought a house in Munich and wants to buy a house for his girl-friend in Jakarta too. Not bad, I think he is 36 or 38, cannot remember it anymore.
Below you see Steve Halim, he is supposed to be known among Indonesians from TV entertainment. I cannot really tell, but he seemed to get treated very special at X2 yesterday. He was very polite and friendly, let me join his crew and offered me whiskey.
Pretty cool so far everything. Check the X2 video from yesterday :
