Bangkok Week 100 — Mika's Photos

On Thursday, May 20th, the fire that ruined a classic book store and small mall was still smoking over Victory Monument.

The first daylight after the fires were lit, everyone came out to survey the damage.

Dok Yaa was an old, classic book store, where we bought our trusty Bangkok street atlas.

This ATM saw a sad demise.

Passers-by can't believe their eyes.

You can see straight through the store now.

Not sure what all these bottles were for / from. Reserves for molotov cocktails?

The city has ordered the bookstore, and the neighbouring Center One mall to be demolished.

This woman tries to peel off one of the red shirts' propaganda stickers.

Onlookers stood around as firefighters tried to quell the smoke. Further down this street was the site of lots of bloody violence.

The protesters smashed up an information booth. Maybe they needed a map home.

People drove in and just sat on their motorbikes, watching in disbelief.

Even from afar, the scene is shocking and disturbing.

These phone booths have seen better days. At least everyone has mobile phones now, even the up-country red shirts.

Sorry, cards no longer accepted. No coins, either.

At least this booth survived with just some shattered glass.

A run on food 7-11 ... but this one still had more stock than the ones that were looted and trashed!

No shopping at this grocery store today.

I guess the protesters didn't like Kohler designs.

This 7-11, not too far from us, didn't fare as well as its neighbour down the street.

A small diversion: a fractal plant.

Finally, after 8 days cooped up in our apartment, we make a break for it -- to DQ!

A colourful train of taxis blocks traffic from merging onto the highway!

Deciding to escape Bangkok, we flee to the quiet outskirts of Metropolitan Trad. No shortage of goods for sale here.

A colourful tray of cavity-tugging desserts pleases the eye.

"Mouse poop chilis" for sale.

An extremely cute, motley family of dogs that live nearby: the parents and 2 kids.

This puppy was simply too cute for words -- and too fast for the camera.

We were checking out some of the family's property, located across a small street behind the house. It's huge!

Some fresh ngoh (rambutans) growing in the back yard. Time to be picked!

Crazy farmer lady and her fresh ngoh. That were crawling with ants.

Couldn't be fresher -- you can taste the difference between these and the ones that travel to Bangkok first.

How much carbon in this big footprint?

Sleepy dog, lazy afternoon. Or was it still morning?

Can't even hold his own head high.

Someone come here! I found a DB!

Browsing through photos at the store.

Alert and clean after his Sunday morning bath.

The land next door was recently purchased and is being bulldozed and landscaped.

Apparently it will be turned into a garden, for a wedding planner to use as her photo studio.

The sad eyes are back.

Psyched to be riding the BTS for the first time in 11 days!

A dramatic sky sets over Bangkok -- and predicts the thunderous storm that's about to start.

On Monday, the first day that mail service returns, a secret package arrives from Jersey City.

The giant screen that normally plays ads for waiting commuters has been rather melted. I wonder if her SPF 24 helped protect against the flames?

What a sight! Siam Paragon is open to the public for the first time in two months! Expensive shops, here we come!

Lights on inside the mall. Haven't seen that in over 8 weeks.

Unfortunately, the rest of Siam Square didn't fare so well. Like this alleyway next to the (former) Siam Theatre.

Iron Man 2 -- the last show screened at Siam Theatre.

Needless to say, the city has ordered the demolition of this theatre, too.

Apparently, this theater was home to the first escalators in Thailand.

Another alleyway that didn't fare too well.

As we approached Central World, so did a handful of other photographers who wanted to document the devastation.

Zen, the main department store at Central World, has been completely gutted. It will be torn down -- and I imagine the tower on top will have to be, too.

Inside what used to be a neat glass facade and display window for the BTS trains that zoom by.

From the other side. Zen has definitely seen better days.

This used to be a shopping mall. You can imagine how many millions in merchandise were lost.

A memorial has been created outside the only break in the fence that surrounds the entire property.

Fire trucks are still parked on the premises. All our fellow passers-by had the same instinctive jaw-dropping reaction to the sight.

This makes the mall seem so structurally minimal. It's amazing it stood for as long as it did.

No one will be forgetting this scene anytime soon, even after its torn down.

Guards at the equally posh Gaysorn mall across the street can only hope that their shopping plaza reopens soon.

This mall seemed to escape relatively unscathed -- only some bullet holes in Gucci and Celine, and a few broken windows.

So Long, ZEN. At ZEN.

The posh bar and restaurant atop ZEN Tower -- at least we had the opportunity to visit once.

Where will Christmas and New Years festivities be held this year? RIP, ZEN.