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Hello all,
Hope you are well. We are getting used to life going back to normal again here now all the excitement has calmed down, thank goodness. Managed to escape to Saigon for the week which was a welcome break from the sporadic but persistent sound of gunshot, other suspicious bangs, deserted streets and nightly curfew's. Everytime we heard a bang in Saigon we thought it was a gun! When we returned to Bangkok on Saturday night, it was just after curfew and for a minute we thought we'd have to sleep at the airport, as the taxi driver laughed at us when we told him where we wanted to go, but we had our passports and boarding passes as proof of travel and managed to get home. It was the fastest journey to or from the airport ever and we hardly saw a soul, v v odd. The next day, along with several other thousand rubber neckers, we went to have a gawp at the burnt buildings that we had been watching on the news.
Although the army have now all disappeared along with the protestors at our end of town, the area around my school was hit
with fires and fighting so there is a big old mess to clean up there. I think I counted every single phone box smashed on the way to work and there are still piles of stones around and burn marks in the street where tyres were set alight. The politcal chat about the situation goes on and round in circles as there is clearly no easy answer whatsoever. The gap between the super rich who shop in countless Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada stores to name a handful, and the farmers who earn £60 a month is staggering and that is just the tip of Thailand's iceberg. So yes, we may have got a bit more excitement than we bargained for, you can rest assured though we have seen or heard it all from a safe distance!
The unexpected flee to Saigon was useful though, and wasn't so much because we were worried about safety, but more that Chris' boss was concerned he couldn't do enough work in Bangkok. I feathered our new nest a bit and went into visit my new school which looks amazing and a return to working very hard, not a bit like the cushty supply
number that I've got now - I'm just enjoying it while it lasts. The staff were all very welcoming and I have got answers to countless questions which is comforting, I now realise that I'd be wise to use this time to get my head into gear again well in advance - I think I'm going to need it! Chris's last day is tomorrow so he is all geared up for the move now. He is looking forward to working with a new team and practising his Vientamese accent (it's all vowels). Just got a leaving do to attend where I think he may be embarrassed for the third time with a very public singing of 'Happy Birthday'.
Hello all, Mr Cwiss here again....
So the time to stop playing down the whole situation for the sake of worried parents and concerned others has arrived. It was pretty bad for the past couple of weeks! Although we have lived in Nottingham (Gun Crime Capital of the UK) for many years, we have never experienced going to sleep to the sound of gunshots and explosions for 3 nights in a row. Luckily our apartment was around half a mile from
the 'front line', if we had been much closer it would have been a bigger worry. Seems the huge military and police presence for the last few weeks was justified and also appreciated, as the truckfulls of troops certainly stopped the protest area from widening towards the business district where we live. If it had spread then no doubt my office would have been a key target and our street may have got a little dicey.
The whole thing was a mess, and to be quite honest I can see both sides of the argument (government and redshirt) but if I have to take sides then I suppose I'd be a red. The country is very divided as Mrs Moss has described. There's a lot of money in the country and it's not shared around very well at all and although it's a democratic state in name, the current government is basically a puppet of the army to a large extent. The government seems very weak and dealt with the whole situation very badly at every stage - everything they did, they seemed to get wrong and they let it drag on for months before the eventual, predictable finale.
The reds ended up acting like the very naughty children and the state, the crap parents.
Anyway, on the positive side, everything seems to be very calm now (if you came here on holiday today you wouldn't notice anything different in most parts of town, apart from the odd burnt out building), and we've experinced living in a place where the end of the road is on the news every night. Things will stay calm now I think and Lucy's new pad is well out of the way.
Talking of that, more changes are nigh. Tomorrow is my last day at work in Thailand and then we fly to Vietnam together on Friday. Lucy will stay until wednesday so we're off on our holidays (again!). This time to a beach resort a few hours out of Saigon, should be lovely. Lucy then comes back to Bangkok for 5 weeks and will be living at some friend's apartment who are back in Australia. It's not going to be pleasant having Team Moss split up for a few weeks but we'll cope. I can say that maybe with greater confidence than Lucy, because it just so happens that the World
Cup fits nicely inside this period to keep me company!
As most of you know I officially entered middle age yesterday. Working on a birthday is never ideal but I had a very nice day. I didn't think hardly anyone at work knew until all 50 of them gathered around my desk with a cake and singing happy birthday. Last night was lovely - Lucy had planned for us to go to one of the fanciest places in town which is alfresco on the 63rd floor of a hotel. Unfortunately the rainy season is now upon us and the subsequent thunder storm rained on our parade. No matter, we went to our favourite restaurant in Bangkok up the road instead which is very fancy in its own right - I had one of the best steaks I've ever had and a good night was had by us both.
As Lucy had mentioned too, we went on the much anticipated birthday brunch on sunday and my oh my was it an experience! A 3 hour festival of eating the finest foods and drinking wine until you can't do it any more. We ate our way around most of the
hundreds of dishes and peaked just at the end when we entered......The Cheese Room. Now, it's probably difficult to convey quite how magical this was to you, but I like cheese (quite a lot) and this is a country that is virtually cheese-less. After 4 months of cheese famine it was a positive feast! A fitness regime is planned in Vietnam.....
That's all for now folks. We survived! On to the next stop.....
Cwiss and Lucy
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Mum Bev
non-member comment
very angry wiv Mr Cwiss and Mrs Moss!
Oh thanks very much, Mr Cwiss and Mrs Moss, for your reassurances during the recent 'troubles' which I totally believed. I am sobbing reading the truth. I am however very glad its all over and that you are both safe. I will be happier when you are both together in Saigon. Telling off over. Glad you had a fun birthday Mr Cwiss and I look forward to your next blog. love you both very much. Mum xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx