Monday, October 06, 2008

Bangkok: some more protests

Background: There were widespread anti-government protests in Bangkok before I arrived. At one point a few weeks ago, the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency. All that was over about a week before I arrived, however.

Anyway, applying to an English school today, I picked up a newspaper and saw that negotiations between the PAD (People's Alliance for Democracy) and the Thai government had broken down, because two senior PAD leaders have been arrested. Taking the 72 bus back to the hostel tonight, I saw a protest happening on the royal plaza. (Outside the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, to be more specific.) A protest complete with riot cops. Peaceful, though. The riot cops weren't doing anything - they were just there. I assume it was PAD protesters, because that's what I expected given today's news, and because they had the same yellow headbands I saw on the news before coming to Thailand. But really, I don't know, do I? So, uh, I guess I'll keep an eye on that while I'm here. Updates to follow if this affects my life in any way. Otherwise, you can just read the paper like everyone else, I suppose.

News Articles:

3 comments:

Bike Nerd said...

Hey, Thailand. Why not?
Was that your decisionmaking process?
Rock.

Alice said...

WELL HELLO! nice to see you out and about in blogland again :-)

what spurred the move to thailand?

thailand is waaaaay up on my "must visit before i die" list.

Matthew V said...

Pretty much the thought process, I guess. It's nice here. And Alice, you should just come on over. My girlfriend and I will definitely have a place to put up guests in by the time you get your vacation time okayed, so you should just start planning now.