Bangkok Thailand - rafts float along the Chao Phraya River, tuk-tuks dart over traffic on contantly congested roads, and markets are crammed with vendors and customers bargaining over handcrafts.
"We didn't feel like working anyway in this kind of mood," said Bam, the manager. "Everybody was crying." Like most of those we have talked to for this article, she refused to give her full name because of her care over Thailand's strict laws against maligning the king.
Nonentity was really sure when the night clubs - particularly the fleshy ones - would resume. On Monday, one sex professions said hopefully. In a week, said Maya, the manager of Bangkok Bunnies A Go Go, who also did not feel snug giving her last name. Many of her artist have left the city to return to their home towns to wait out the break, she said.
As near as anyone could remember, the place had been open at night since a retired U.S. airman named T.G. "Cowboy" Edwards, who was biased to a straw boater, opened up the first bar there in 1977.
"This is incredible," said Fabrice, an Air France flight attendant who came Saturday night to take in the historic shuttering. "But we know how the king is in the heart of the Thai people. We understand that and appreciate that. It's something we've lost in Europe."
"They're waiting for the good times to come back," Srikaew said. Another sex artist plying her trade on the same street Sunday said she had twofold her business to more than $200 a day since the men had no other else place to go.
"If I wasn't already committed Friday night I would have picked up and gone to Laos or Cambodia. If I had known it was going to be like this," he said, waving his arm at the empty street.
"Thailand and Thais are incredibly resilient," Fraser said. "Having lived here for over 16 years, I have seen a number of dramatic events, including royal deaths, natural disasters and epidemics. In each case, Thai pragmatism, and sense of duty, prevails, and the nation normalizes very quickly."