Hi Everyone,
I
thought I had better give a bit of an update after all the chaos that's
happening here at the moment. I am sure you have all seen the news that the mad
PAD protestors have taken over the airports in Bangkok and all flights have stopped coming
in or out. They are doing this to try and make the prime minister resign
because they think he is corrupt. So far he hasn't and in true 'Thai' style
that means that the airport stays shut, everyone is inconvenienced and people
are getting a little tense.
Mike
was in China
for work last week and was due back in on Saturday night. He may have been able
to get a flight to one of the other airports that are still operating in Phuket
and Chang Mai (9+ hours drive away) but he needs to be in Indonesia at the end
of the week and he probably wouldn’t be able to get a flight out again. So he is
moving around between China,
Hong Kong, Vietnam,
Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia! He should be back by the
weekend.
Some
people think that the police or military will go in and break the protestors up
but they don’t seemed to want to at the moment because they say they don’t want
to use violence (I think they want the government gone to). There are some
pro-government protestors as well that have been fighting with the PAD, which
is what you see on the news with the guns and grenades. That violence is
happening at the airports and at government house, which we are staying well
away from. Government house is in a completely different part of the city, no
where near us. We are closer to the airport, but not really a dangerous
position.
There is a court case tomorrow that may dissolve the government because
of corruption (Thai politics are just ridiculous). If that happens, they think
that it should break up the protestors and open up the airport. But if not then
not sure how long it will go on! I think the military or the pro-government
protestors will step in to get rid of them if it goes on for much longer. It’s
caused so many problems already, it just cant go on. It’s also the King’s
birthday on Friday and because of how much they respect him, I imagine it will
be over by then! If not I am sure the King will mention it on his birthday
speech, and whatever he says will happen. If he quietly mentions that it should
be over, it will be. The Queen likes the PAD, so I am not sure what he might
say but closing the airport is doing the country a lot of damage. Tourism is
the main industry of the country and already they think less than half the
number of people that came this year, will come next year.
So who knows what is going to happen. But its still safe here and I’m
not too worried about it. I just hope Mike can get in without too many problems
and that it’s all blown over by Christmas.
Work is flat out busy, busy. I have been travelling heaps lately. I was
due to go to Vietnam
toady but alas, closed airport! I went to China
and Japan
last month. Tokyo
is the coolest place ever! I will put some pictures up here for you to see. It
was a really, really, cool!
I went to a Thai wedding on the weekend for a guy that I work with. Alison,
a fellow Australian and I got dressed up in traditional Thai clothes, we were
the only people to do so, and we were all foreigners so we felt like a complete
morons! We even participated in the wedding! Then they had the party! There
were maybe 600 people there! It was huge! There was maybe 45 minutes of speeches,
cakes, thankyou’s and then all the oldies left and oh my gosh, did it all break
loose. The Thai’s certainly know how to party. It was a great night!
Ok, well I will leave it here. I hope everyone is well!
Tara-lee xxx
