squirrel stall, Chatuchak Weekend Market, January 2014

you cannot see any squirrels because the owners literally covered almost the entire front of their shop to stop me taking photos

This was actually the exact same stall I photographed in 2006 where the lady started yelling at me "No photos! Bad! Very bad man!" and this time was no different. I would hate to think how many hundreds (thousands?) of baby squirrels have passed through this one stall alone in the last seven years. In 2006 there were at least several dozen on sale, today only about twenty-odd (perhaps due to the different time of year from my 2006 visit, which was an August or September I think), mostly variable and Himalayan striped squirrels.

So was all this done specifically for you? That's a lot of effort!

devilfish said:

So was all this done specifically for you? That's a lot of effort!

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yes, just for me! I was like the king of troublemakers!

I counted twelve (!) "no photos" signs around this one small stall, and they did not like me one little bit! They tried to tell me there was a fine for taking photos, and then one lady said she was going to go get the police and I said she was welcome to do so. I was in a public space so there's nothing they could do (although if security had turned up they would have asked me to move along because I was causing a disturbance -- or rather, I was making the stall owners cause a disturbance). However it was very interesting the amount of trouble they went to to stop me taking photos of the squirrels, which were all common species.

Chlidonias I wonder if they have had trouble from some one else and are now (by the look of it) paranoid may be they have something to hide behind the scenes.? are they pet squirrels or edible ones

@ Chlidonias: I have been seeing on the news feeds that there are a lot of protests and political upheaval in Thailand at the moment. Now we know who started all the trouble!

Arizona Docent said:

@ Chlidonias: I have been seeing on the news feeds that there are a lot of protests and political upheaval in Thailand at the moment. Now we know who started all the trouble!

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well, only the ones around the squirrel stalls

But yes, lots of disturbance in the city. It makes it very time-consuming getting anywhere because so many roads are blocked so I haven't done much.

dean said:

Chlidonias I wonder if they have had trouble from some one else and are now (by the look of it) paranoid may be they have something to hide behind the scenes.? are they pet squirrels or edible ones

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these are pet squirrels. Most of these were young adults but in 2006 they were lots of unweaned babies (probably due to the time of year).

They certainly are very paranoid at this stall -- possibly they have been nailed for illegal activity in the past. I did also wonder if the guy (visible at left) maybe even recognised me from last time by the way he acted. It might sound silly, but I tend to get remembered by people I come across in Asia. One time in Indonesia I turned up unexpectedly in a village after a gap of two years, and the guy I had come to see walked out of his hut and greeted me with my full name -- I was very surprised! Of course most places I go to are frequented only by birders and sometimes surfers, and I don't look like either. In Bangkok I probably don't stand out much from the dregs of societal rejection which clutter the backpacker scene. Anyway, when I walked past the stall I paused to take a quick look into the cages -- "casual interest" -- and the guy immediately came out from the shop so he was behind me. I walked on a bit, turned on my camera (just a small point-and-shoot) and turned off the flash, glanced back and he was still standing there glaring at me. I walked back and he immediately started "no photos!". I lifted my camera anyway and he tried to take it off me so I gave him a warning. Then he grabbed a newspaper and held it up to try and cover the view, I took a couple of photos of him doing that, and then they just started piling stuff all over the front of the shop! It was hilarious and quite surreal.