Sorry Peach, I think they decided not to follow up with the story - and that's all they have!
Alright one last bit from the streets of Phuket:
Met a group of elderly gentlemen in Rama IX Park who spoke Cantonese, and they told me that
something had been going on along Thanon Thalang, in the historic core of town. And... that happens to be
exactly where my hotel is!
So for two days I've been walking up and down the streets in the district, drawing pictures of boxes and envelopes... You get the picture!
And yes, apart from the "sightings" of a certain Leonardo DiCaprio filming The Beach a couple of years back, there's TAR news!
At about 1-3pm on 15 November, various shopkeepers in the district saw farangs pulling rickshaws around the street. A shop on the western end of Th Thalang suggested that they might have started on Soi Romani (a little alley running off the north side of the street). However, shops on the alley know nothing about TAR filming, instead pointing me to another production there on the 27th. A traffic warden I talked to on Th Krabi told me about Wat Phuttha Mongkhon Nimit on the north end of Soi Romani (followed by communication breakdown), so I'm not sure if he was talking about TAR or rickshaws in general. No rickshaws when I went to the temple though.
Other sightings, that when plotted on a map, give a good sense of where teams would have gone:
East along Th Dibuk, between Soi Romani and Th Phuket
South along Th Phuket, between Th Dibuk and Th Thalang
West along Th Thalang, between Th Phuket and Th Yaowarat
The sightings then disappear. I'm really not sure how they made their way to Rama IX Park from there. Two shops also suggested the Thai-Chinese Museum on the north side of Th Krabi as a *Thai lost in translation*, but I didn't understand the significance. Staff there genuinely didn't seem to know much.
Somewhere in one of these conversations there was a mention of a woman pulling a man; but the man was "holding a camera", so I'm not sure what that means. There was also mention of a police escort going in front of the teams, about two or three motorcycles.
There remains one single hotspot that I have yet to talk about. Everyone within a 50m radius pointed me to a Chinese herbal shop on the south side of Th Thalang, touting itself to be the "Oldest Herbal Shop in Phuket". Another communication breakdown there (real or feigned), but there's one thing that made me
very sure that TAR was here.
Coming right up with photos! Need to find an internet cafe with the necessary hardware...
Realized I just spent my single day in Bangkok surfing RFF.
It's really such a pity to be looking at the board, not looking at the city...