After the impact of last summers airport protests - now troops are on the streets again in Bangkok
BBC Report - and sadly they've opened fire.
Is this affecting any tourists in Bangkok or Thailand as a whole?
Reply to this Hi Ali,
Will let you know in few days...I'll be there in less than two weeks. As a general rule...tourists have never been involved in it, so nobody should really worry.
The army is more on the side of the reds this time, seems to be...so they are spreading around to secure the main corners of the city...and hopefully the airport .
What is sad is this involve a small minority of the population, and the main population is going to suffer a lot from this.
Guess many are cancelling their flights for the moment...
Reply to this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7996234.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7996370.stm
Sounds like the Asian leaders are holding their summit amongst the delights of Pattaya (obviously the government checked the Lonely Planet for a suitable venue first...) and the political protesters are using it flex their muscles. It seems nastier then last time, when the yellow team closed the airport and roads - tanks on the streets and guns and troops.
Anyone in bangkok/pattaya got news?
Reply to this My boyfriend has wanted to go to Thailand for a while because the last two times me and my daughter went without him. Now, he is saying he does not want to go there, even if we would not be going for a year. Looks like Thailand is even losing our tourism.
I wouldnt be put off myself from going because of what is happening at the moment, but if the airport incident of a while ago was repeated, I would seriously think about scratching Thailand off my to go to list, despite it being a convenient stepping stone to a few countries I want to visit.
There also seems to be other trouble which is not related to this, at the Laos and Cambodia borders.
Thailand used to be such a peaceful place.....
I hope the state of emergency action will not involve more reduction of freedom of the press.
Reply to this I'll fly to Bangkok next Thursday for connecting another flight to Kathmandu. Still don't know whether Thai Air Asia will cancel their flights or not if the situation gets worse.
Reply to this Just left Bangkok last night. When I saw BBC saying riots in Bangkok, my first thought was that they were refering to the arsehole tourists "celebrating Songkran" (yeah, right) on Khaosan Road.
I didn't see any protests around Khaosan Road or Grand Palace areas. Walking around other parts of the city (e.g. Governement House, Victory Monument) there were large groups of red-shirts. They aren't really interested in tourists; a group happily let me walk across a blocked-off intersection. Taxi to the airport last night had to divert around a group.
In short, no real problems for visitors, but be prepared for some minor delays and disruptions.
Reply to this I just heard on the news, that Germans are advised to only make necessary trips to Thailand.
Reply to this Well, now government they can control, just few people still make a problem. Hope will get better in few days,
Reply to this We're sunning our asses on Thai beaches. Nowhere near Bangkok to be honest, but if we didn't look on the internet we wouldn't even know there was trouble!
Reply to this lets hope they block the airport again eh, stephen? my friends were in lanta last time, had to stay an extra week... poor old them...
Reply to this I got some reports from friends there; red T-shirts were being sold as souvenirs on the streets in the early stages.
But the atmosphere was very uncomfortable - shops, bars, all the usual activities (the shows) were stopped and those not involved in the protests stayed home, or in the hotels.
The protests have now been quashed - anyone on the ground today?
Reply to this ...red T-shirts were being sold as souvenirs ....
That is weird. It is as if people cant take anything seriously.
Reply to this I was at the Songkarn water fight fest on Khao San last Sunday. Saw nothing other than tourists and locals splashing each other like crazy. On Monday as I was headed to the airport armed soldiers with shields, batons, rifles, and all types of gears designed to beat the living daylights out of people who look remotely disobedient were patrolling the streets of RAMA IV. My guess is that Khao San is still full of white people behaving poorly and shielded from the chaos by the very people who are sticking their sticks up the red shirts part of the anatomy where fully disgested food gets discharged.
Reply to this No demonstrations in Bangkok at present, has been that way for many days. If you were not in the area where the demonstrations were taking place you would not even notice anything. Tourists are not the targets for these protesters - just some more government change!
Airport is open and was never closed. Areas where the demonstrations were taking place are mostly cleaned up. The TV news programs make it look like all of Bangkok was having a problem when in reality it was confined to specific areas.
If you see or hear about problems in Bangkok just avoid those areas. Always have a back up plan anyway. If the airport is closed again you can fly home from of a different country, that is what I had to do in November. My airline just transferred the flight to Singapore and I left 3 days late. Used the RR to get from Bangkok to Malaysia. From Butterworth I went to Singapore via KL.
Have fun.
Reply to this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/8013487.stm
from the bbc's correspondant, radio and film if you can get the iplayer in your county
Reply to this have been in Bangkok since Friday....not a single worry to have.
We just had the first day of rain yesterday. I've been living in the region for 13 years, and I've never seen this. 2 hours of rain only, but most of Sukhumvit area was under 50 cm of water...more than impressive. Sad thing we didn't had the camera with us.
Reply to this Yeah, there can be rainy days in Bangkok, but not many. I was there during the rainy season a couple of years ago. There was one very rainy day, but on all the others it just rained at night.
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