Wednesday 26 November 2008

Today's situation in Bangkok

Today's situation in Bangkok

It's not getting much better unfortunately. After the closure of the Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday evening, at least four rounds of bomb attacks rocked Bangkok early Wednesday, injuring at least 12 people. 3 bombs at Suvarnabhumi airport and 1 at the old Don Muang airport.

THAI Air flights are diverted to Don Mueang, U-Tapao airports, my parents are on a shared Thai/Lufthansa flight, due at Bangkok around 1.45pm today, so i wonder where they will end up and how in the world they will get to Samui, since Bangkok Airways, Thai Air Asia cancel flights.
Airport negotiation with PAD fails.

Tourists urge to check with airport, police at these phone numbers

My personal problems aside, this will hurt Thailand. Tourists will consider twice where to go to without having a chance to either not being able to arrive or leave!

PAD being PAD is stating 'We'll be here till PM quits". More and more people seem to lose their faith and patience with PAD and I'm definitely amongst them. Don't get me wrong, whatever the previous governments in the last 10 years achieved under direct or indirect influence of Mr. Thaksin is not good and I don't think an entry of Mr. Thaksin into Thai politics is a good thing..

One reason the situation doesn't diffuse is because said Mr. Thaksin keeps trying to get his grip on power back.
There may be some friction in that camp also; Why Somchai no longer sees eye to eye with Thaksin.

The whole situation is heating up the military, police are urged to act against PAD.

It's going to be an interesting one!

Camille

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Camille, Barry from Ireland here, I had messaged you a couple of months back when things were unstable in September. I was in Thailand and spent 2weeks between Ko Samui and Phangan in mid October. We were very fortunate with the weather and had an amazing time we loved it we stayed at the chaweng regent in Chaweng.

So sorry to hear others won't be as lucky as we were regards the political situation. This could dent Thailands tourist industry phenomenally if this isn't sorted soon and it drags on for a few weeks or escalates further. I sincerely hope for the Thai people this is resolved sooner rather than later. Best wishes and I hope your parents arrive in Samui safely.

Camille Lemmens said...

Hi Barry,

Thanks for your comment and moral support!

The parents seem to be fine, they arrived in ChiangMai and are supposed to travel to BKK tonight, stay a night there and move to Samui tomorrow.

A solution for the current situation may be the call from the military to the PAD to end the siege of the airport in BKK and for the PM to dissolve the parliament and have new elections.

Anonymous said...

Let's hope the PAD see sense and see that what they are doing however rightly they feel they are doing, it will not benefit their country as a whole in the long run!

Camille Lemmens said...

We can only hope for that but it seems that they have locked horns and neither side wants to release the lock!

Anonymous said...

Wat een zootje in Thailand. Wordt er niet vriendelijker op. The 'land of smile's is een klein beetje in tranen. Hopelijk komen je ouders goed over.

Camille Lemmens said...

Hoi Richard,

Mijn ouders zijn uiteindelijk goed in aangekomen en wachten nu totdat ze door kunnen naar Samui.