Clutching a metal rod, Puttachai Rattanalangkan peered over a chest-high barricade of used tyres on a riverside road in central Bangkok. It was after midnight and Mr Puttachai, a 33-year-old engineer who owns a machinery plant, had joined hundreds of other male volunteers guarding the broadcasting hub of the royalist protest movement that has paralysed Thailand's government in recent weeks.
Earlier in the evening, a retired army captain in uniform had drilled the guards and told them to prepare to fight pro-government activists gathered nearby.
The previous week, one man died in clashes between the two sides, prompting the beleaguered government, which has been driven out of its official compound by thousands of protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), to declare a state of emergency.
But as the night wore on, no attackers emerged from the shadows at the end of the road. The guards, who carried slingshots, sticks, rods and golf clubs, began to relax. Curious backpackers from nearby budget hotels milled around, snapping photos.
Mr Puttachai said he had left his comfortable family home and driven to the protest camp because he wanted to show his support. When the call went out for overnight guards at ASTV, a satellite channel run by PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul, he volunteered his services.
Mr Puttachai, who wears fashionable spectacles and a boyish grin, says his motivation is personal and political. He's bitterly opposed to Samak Sundaravej, who was ordered to resign as prime minister on Tuesday by the Constitutional Court for moonlighting on a television cooking show.