We are back in business! Tomorrow I am going to bus it to Khon Kaen, a gateway city to the Isaan region of Thailand and then onwards to the notorious ' Red villages' of Isaan.
Isaan is one of the poorest region of Thailand and it is the heartland of the Red Shirts. The Red Villages are a recent development, I don't know the exact details but I think they started popping up after the bloody clashes in Bangkok last year and many Red Shirts were fearful of further violence. The first Red village sprung up when their leader decided that they needed to show people that they were not afraid to be Red and so they hung red flags all over the village.
That understandably caused much concern in Bangkok, many people still have memories of the Communist days and rumors began flying of Red Shirt militant camps and weapon caches.
I don't know what to expect but I doubt I would see anything like that. If not the least because I had to tell them I was coming. Still, it is extremely unlikely that the Reds would be arming themselves in any large scale fashion.
What I do expect is a sense of cautious optimism. They've won the election and are now waiting to see what sort of government will appear from all the wheeling and dealing that is going right now. Experts are predicting mid August before the new government comes into power.
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