Bangkok - Tourist sites and demonstrations?
 

I will be in Bangkok next month and I want to be still see things but be careful. I understand that the Democracy Square area is often the site of demonstrations. I also heard that some of the sites in the historic area can also have demonstrations but I am not certain about this. Is is safe to predict which areas would be good to visit and which should be avoided?

Strongly suggest you follow @RichardBarrow on twitter. He has up-to-the-hour reports on demonstrations and links to maps.

quite a few of the sites are not far from democracy monument, so I suggest that you take river boats to get there from taskim BTS station.

your hotel will advise you daily on which areas to avoid.

honestly, it not at all a big deal. I was there last month for many of the demonstrations and it was easy to avoid them.

I have been and plan to follow Richard Barrow while in BKK in January. However, I think for those who know BKK well, it's no doubt a lot easier to figure out how to avoid the demonstration sites.

Suthep, the protest leader, has called for the "seizure" of Bangkok, starting this weekend. How successful, and how long, will have to be seen.

A couple Sundays ago, they were pretty much able to turn much of downtown into a parking lot.

Now, even more than usual, "flexibility" is the key!

We could see the large demonstration a couple of weeks ago from our Sukhumvit apartment location, and yes, I was surprised at how much they could tie up and stop traffic in the mall area. It will depend entirely on numbers just how much they can disrupt things. I saw the takeover of the mall area a few years ago and it lasted a long te. It could be avoide though.i