Back To Bangkok
Well, the media had hyped the violence over the poll on Feb 2 which Yingluk introduced in an attempt to mollify people and stop the protests. These were at my On Nut skytrain headed downtown.
So Bangkok hotels are pretty empty…including my VXTheFifty guesthouse. But I was welcomed back by the proprietors and the maids as an old friend.
There have been some shootings in isolated areas with, I think, about 6 people killed but of course the media hypes it up and travellers are avoiding Bangkok. Well, good for me but bad for business and the people who live and work here. Thailand is really taking big losses again as they did in 2010 when I was here when the upcountry pro-government “Reds” were demonstrating. Over 90 people were killed in that mess so guess Thailand isn’t doing so bad this go-around. So far anyway.
The protesters led by Suthep, an old politico with an agenda of his own, tried to interrupt the voters from voting so of course the opposition was accused of being against democracy. Only 45% of the people showed up at the polls with many giving a “No Vote.” But the poll stations were disorganized and many didn’t have poll takers so they weren’t even open. Now the anti-government Democrats will take it to the courts to have the poll annulled claiming that it was unlawful in the first place.
Sutep promises he will keep leading the protests until Yingluck steps down. On top of all that twitter was abuzz with the fact that when Yingluck voted in a high profile photo shoot she stuck the ballots in the wrong box. Nobody typically said anything at the time. Only in Thailand.
Tags: Bangkok, Thailand, World Watching And Politics
Zoe
Glad to know that it’s the media hyping things up and things really aren’t as bad as they’re made out to be. I’ve heard from some people in Thailand that it’s really just internal within Thailand, they won’t touch tourists or anything.