Coup? What Coup?
I was on holiday most of this week in Krabi Province, where I awoke Wednesday morning to find nothing but films about the King running on the all Thai channels and reports on BBCWorld that there’d been a coup d’état in Bangkok. Needless to say, I was a bit taken aback at news video showing tanks around Government House, but all in all it seems to be about as much a non-event as such things can be.
I don’t really know the ins and outs of Thai politics, and as a guest here, it’s not really my place to speculate very much, but so far the new bosses haven’t been very heavy-handed, and most people that I’ve spoken with thought something had to be done about the previous régime, which they’ve said was increasingly corrupt, divisive, and ineffectual. On my return to the capital yesterday, I took a taxi all the way across the city from the airport (dropping off Nui in Ladprao before going on to On Nut), and saw exactly two soldiers the whole time — they were standing guard at an expresway tollbooth and looking extremely bored.
So far, at least, there doesn’t seem to be much to get excited about. Life in Bangkok appears to be going on pretty much as normal, and I’ve decided to carry on as usual until I see a reason to do differently.
(Which for me means catching up on about 800 emails and posting some holiday photos to my gallery, which I’ll try to get done over the weekend.)
Glad you’re OK. I wondered what your situation was when I heard about the coup last week. How’s your conversational Thai coming along?
Hi!
My working vocabulary is now up to about 3 dozen words, and I’ve learnt enough of the alphabet to decypher the odd licence plate or road sign. This week I’m looking into taking a Thai language class or finding a tutor.