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Published: August 1st 2010
Red shirts protest
Streets full of protesters, all friendly. Later in the evening the protests erupted into violence. Bangkok, ThailandI was glad to leave India and so landing in Bangkok I had a huge sigh of relief. Going through the usual customs rigmoral was its normal pain but I didn’t care, I was in Thailand! Leaving the airport I was met with this expanse of colour. And organisation! Yep, a complete contrast to India. Getting to my hotel and then walking the streets it was as if I was some long lost cousin….the people were polite, friendly and loved to chat (and sell!). I immediately fell in love with the place and was extremely happy to be here. It felt safe too…..for a moment.
Sadly that safe feeling wasn’t to last. I hadn’t really been feeling too well since the first trip to India and returning there didn’t help and my stomach bug seemed to get worse. That evening Anne & I went to a local restaurant but I couldn‘t stomach any food to just drank water and some coke (no, not the kind you snort!). Chatting to the owner he told us what was happening in Bangkok regarding the Red T-Shirt brigade, that tensions were high and that we ought to really stay local and
avoid areas were many of the demonstrations were being held. Still, I had heard something about the demos but was told they were largely peaceful. I felt sure everything would be fine.
The following day Liam & I went in search of a chemist. After describing my symptoms I was given a 5 day course of antibiotics (which worked!!!). Wandering the streets we happened upon this mass group of Red Shirts, all friendly, chatty and making as much noise as they could. At no point did we feel threatened or in danger. There were TV cameras and a military helicopter circling overhead. But there was tension in the air. After taking a few pictures I remarked to Liam that we were watching history in the making (aren’t we always???) and decided to heed the warning from the night before to avoid these areas, so we continued to shop.
As I was looking at a new travel bags and attempting to haggle the shop keepers suddenly started acting nervously and began packing their stuff away, mid haggle! She accepted my first price much to my surprise then asked us to leave politely. This obviously made us nervous so we
headed to the nearest bar for a drink. We couldn’t quite make out what the problem was but knew it had something to do with the Red Shirt demo’s. Eventually we headed back to the hotel and for dinner in the evening. Then it began….First we spotted the troop carriers, then bus loads of troops, armed vehicles, military Hummers, a couple more helicopters all zooming past. ‘Hmmmm….this doesn’t look good, mate’ I said to Liam.
That evening we first heard what we thought were fire crackers. It turned out it was gunfire. Standing on the balcony we could hear the firing of what sounded like live rounds, load bangs, helicopters….it was a warzone. I felt like John Simpson of the BBC surrounded by the horrific noise. It was quite surreal. Turned out it was all happening in the next street! We popped downstairs to ask whether they thought we should go out or not and they told us to stay local, so we did. Shortly after a group of battled fatigued troops and riot police came bounding through. Some locals were shouting at them, crying. The look of fear on some of their faces was haunting and one told
me that they were hating the fact that they were fighting their own people. Thai vs Thai. Some struggled with this but they had a job to do. The fighting was still going on later when I eventually went to bed. Great, go to Bangkok when they’ve declared a state of emergency!!! This meant that we couldn’t visit large parts of the city but, it was enough for me to know that I would definitely return in the future. Despite all this I loved Bangkok. Now for a 12 hour drive to Koh Samui.
Koh Samui After the mammoth drive and short ferry crossing we landed in Koh Samui in the dark, so headed straight to our resort. And boy what a place! Bearing in mind this trip is on a strict budget, my room, or rather my beach hut, was right on the sea front. For the next for days I would awake to the sound of the sea gently breaking against the shore. Heaven.
After debagging some of us went straight into the sea, which was akin to climbing into an nice warm bath! This truly is a paradise island. The following morning Liam & I
hired some scooters and went for a drive, forgetting that this was their New Year. We hit the roads and were immediately hit with water.
‘SPLASH!‘ What the f**k?!!’ ‘SPLASSSSH!!’
For as far as the eye could see, all along this main road were locals throwing water and covering everyones faces in white powder. It was almost non-stop water throwing and partying. It was great. We were drenched! And white! This is how they celebrate the New Year (apparently because its supposed to be the hottest day of the year, hence the water). This went on all day and it was such a laugh. Cant quite imagine us doing the same thing in the UK at -5 or something!!! lol
Koh Samui is not a big Island and so we decided to explore, finding waterfalls that we found too late in the day, thus not making it to the top. I loved Koh Samui. I could live there. hhhhmmmmmm…..I wonder how much it would cost to buy a bar there??
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Vicky
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Samui
That beach looks epic - what is the name of the bungalows?