Amy and are in are in northern Thailand, safe and far away from the political unrest in Bangkok. We're in Chiang Rai to be exact which is in the far north of the country near the Laos border, around 12 hours from Bangkok which is near the center of the country. The political 'crisis' is currently only in Bangkok, and based on our limited understanding of Thailand's political history is likely to remain isolated to that city. In fact, from what we can gather, many residents of northern Thailand are so apathetic with regard to federal Thai politics that as of this morning they are completely unaware of the airports shutting down. Furthermore, they don't really care which corrupt Thai administration/regime is currently in power as the vast majority of their votes are bought by corrupt political candidates/parties during their 'democratic' elections.
Our previous itinerary involved travelling to Bangkok around one week from now (11/8/'08) to meet up with some friends (Toma & Eric), but we're obviously watching the news very closely and doing some contingency planning. To alay the fears of you worry warts (you know who you are!), we were conservative in our trip planning and bought a special travel/medical insurance that is intended to assist us in exactly these types of situations:
http://www.internationalsos.com/en/forindividuals.htm
Aside from potentially re-routing some of our flights, we don't expect the political unrest to affect us much, especially considering this is internal Thai political unrest that is not directed at foreigners at all. As far as we can tell, the main reason they are protesting at the Bangkok airport is because the prime minister they are trying to oust is arriving back in the country via that airport. If the situation escalates out of control and we're in a bind, our insurance provides 'emergency evacuation and repatriation' services.
FYI, the US Dept of State has useful travel alerts which are updated frequently:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1766.html
and here is a primer on the political environment:
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/26/1689630.aspx
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4 comments:
so glad to hear you are ok and sounds like you've got a plan in mind for everything so that is really good.
happy thanksgiving! miss you guys!
We are thinking of you two. I hope things are going good for you. Take care.
Cindy
Hi goys
We got back fro m our Caribbean cruise yesterday afternoon. we had a great time, beautiful weather......so relaxing.
gLAD TO HEAR YOU DIDN'T GET MIXED UP IN THE POLITICAL TURMOIL OVER THERE. oN THE SHIP WE DIDN'T FOLLOW YOUR BLOG SO WE WERE CONCERNED about your safety. now that we read the blogs we're relieved. You could just as easily have been in the taj hotel in mumbai. Happy to hear you're not.
Sorry to hear you lost your camera. it sounded like things were going pretty well.
So what's with the blisters on your leg, joe? I saw the pics and no explanation.
And why don't you stay in that hotel in hanuman whatever it was? I guess you have reservations somewhere else, though. And there is so much to see and so little time.
A belated happy thanksgiving to you two. Have fun
rich r
Hi....time to come home.only kidding...we had nice thanksgiving...but missed you so...Do you have to fly out of that airport in thailand to get the japan for your flight home?????Be safe xoxoxoxoMommyU
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