The quote before the rally was as put in this quite by Reuters:

“It’s no longer rural versus urban and it has ceased to be the case for some time,” said Charnvit Kasertsiri, a political historian.

“There is a lot of support for the reds even in Bangkok. The question is: Can they bring them out to the streets?”

AP:

The caravan stretched at least six miles (10 kilometers) along Bangkok’s streets, and Metropolitan Police commander Vichai Sangparpai estimated the number of participants at 100,000.

Large crowds cheered the procession from the sidewalks as it passed with red flags and ribbons fluttering and car horns honking. Some motorcyclists plastered their license plates with stickers reading “The Red Shirts love Bangkok people.”

“Please come out into the streets to change Thailand. Time waits for no one. No matter what color of shirt you wear — it doesn’t have to be red — you can join our cause if you love equality and democracy,” a protest leader, Natthawut Saikua, said as onlookers showered him with red roses.

The caravan included rural pickup trucks, taxis, minibuses, luxury sedans and Bangkok’s iconic three-wheeled “tuk-tuks.“
…
The protesters planned a 40-mile (70-kilometer) loop through Bangkok, setting off from their encampment in the historic center of the city and driving through the central business district, Chinatown and outlying residential areas.

The Nation though:

The Metropolitan Police estimated that about 25,000 red-shirt people took part in the march around Bangkok Saturday.

Pol Maj Gen Piya Uthayo, the spokesman of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said before the march the number of the protesters stood at about 25,000.

BP: Isn’t that before the march figure or the number who took part? It is The Nation though…. The ASTV affliated TAN Network tweets “Metropolitan police release official estimate of protesters at 65,000, 10,000 motorcycles, 7,000 cars”.

Despite the reasonable numbers, Abhisit’s spokesman Thepthai is dismissive of actual support for the red shirts and is quoted in Matichon as stating that each protester was paid 2,000-3,000 Baht and those who waved on to support were each paid 500 Baht “โดยว่าจ้างรถปิคอัพคันละ 2-3 พันบาท ให้มาร่วมขบวน…นอกจากนี้ยังมีการจ้างคนเชียร์ในลักษณะจัดตั้งอย่างน้อยคน ละ 500 บาท”)

Reuters:

Thousands of opposition activists paraded through Thailand’s sprawling capital on Saturday in a bid to win over of Bangkok’s middle classes to their anti-government campaign.

The red-shirted supporters of ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra moved around the city of 15 million people in a 13-km (8-mile) convoy, handing out leaflets saying “We love Bangkokians” and calling on urban sympathisers to join their push for new elections.
…
Pitch Pongsawat, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, said many residents sympathised with the movement, but chafed at the prospect of being labelled a Thaksin supporter.

“They have many followers in Bangkok, but these people are ambivalent because of the stigma of Thaksin,” he said.

“The Thai media is their obstacle, it portrays the ’red shirts’ as blind followers of Thaksin, which means if you join them, you approve of Thaksin.”

Below are some photos from those cheering on the red shirts:

march20_reds1

 

march20_reds2

Source: Journalist who wishes to remain anonymous

BP: Also see these images from AP of today’s protests to say some of the supporters coming out to support the reds and pictures of today’s protests. Also, see some some photos here. You can view individual photos/slideshows of photos here (and plenty more here).

2bangkok.com has a 10 minute video (yes, that is how long the convoy is and it is still far from ending when the 10 minutes is up although this is also because they stopped at the red light) of the red shirts moving along Rachadaphisek Road. The colors of the video appears distorted with the red appearing almost as orange in the video. You can see though on the side of the road and others cheering and waving on encouragement.

Nirmal Ghosh in his blog post of today’s events also notes this:

I walked up to the head of the procession, which started rolling around 10am. It was a long walk. I saw quite a few locals happily cheering the red shirts. One, a 60 year old street food vendor, who gave his name as Sommai – and who was not wearing any red clothes, told me ‘’70 per cent of the people in this country are poor. The Prime Minister (Abhisit Vejjajiva) can hardly go outside Bangkok. He only has the support of the army.’

 

There was some pushback (perhaps, some would call it resistance from the rural hordes). TAN Network:

It has been hard to gauge the reaction of Bangkok residents as red shirt protesters marched through the city today. Many could say that the reception that the encountered depended on which area of the capital they approached.

The overall sentiment on the streets was one of tolerance as the procession caused heavy throughout the route they passed.

However, there have been reports that throughout the distance, red shirt protesters encountered a good reception as residents in many areas brought them water and greeted them with smiles.

Matichon reports that at 2pm at one location there were some people holding a sign opposing the red shirts asking them to think of Bangkokians. The same article also notes that at another point in the rally someone threw a watter bottle from a building and it almost it hit one of the red shirt leaders. Also, that there were no incidents of violence or fighting at all.

BP: Does it count as a success? Well, after the blood throwing stunt, well anything would likely be a success, but from all reports, the protests were reasonably orderly and there was no violence. The red shirts set to continue their protests for the time being and show no signs of giving up. While there is significant latent support for the red shirts, the longer the stay and the more they disrupt traffic may result in less people being tolerant.

h/t to Tumberblog for one of the links.