Paul and I went out for a bit of a dance the other night, luckily someone caught it on video… hehehehe
Check it out: http://www.dancesisterdance.com/myvid/index.php?v=0289145c382a2

The first initiative of the new government has been to launch a new mobile phone service. Apparently this is designed to be more accessible to farmers and the rural communities.

(Spotted out the window of the cab on my way home from work yesterday!)

First up don’t worry we’re fine.

There has been a Coup d’état in Thailand overnight, whereby the military have thrown out the government and the current Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (who is conveniently in the USA addressing the UN at present). There has been a lot of political instability in Thailand for most of this year, resulting from the fact the Thaksin is by all accounts a fairly shady character and has “bought” most of the votes which got him, and his Thai Rak Thai party, elected. There are a great many allegations of corrupution on a grand scale and while he is very popular in the poor and uneducated areas of country Thailand (where the bulk of the population is), his support in among the middle- and upper-class people with money and/or education is minimal. In April there was an election where he/they were re-elected, but subsequently the country’s courts have declared this invalid and a new poll was scheduled for next month. Thaksin stepped down from power and then back up again into a “caretaker” Prime Minister role, but has been acting all along like a “full” PM rather than a caretaker.

Last night tanks and soldiers took up strategic positions around the city and have taken over key government buildings and offices. Despite Thaksin attempting to subvert this by declaring a “state of emergency” from abroad, they appear to have successfully assumed control of the city and surrounding areas and would seem to have the situation firmly in hand.

Today (Wednesday) has been declared a national holiday and for this and various “safety” concerns we’ve been told not to go to work. Apparently my office is closed today anyway. Paul has gone off to Thai lessons as his school is still operating. He said there were guards/soldiers on the main road.

I should stress though that there’s been no violence of any kind so far (touch wood) and the new provisional government has declared Martial Law and announced they are only going to retain power temporarily until a new government can be elected; ie they will return the country to democracy ASAP.

The people behind the coup are closely aligned with the “old government” here in Thailand and are also close to the highly-respected King who it is believed will intervene if anything looks like it’s getting too ugly. There is no suggestion that the King is behind this coup although my personal feeling is he’s unlikely to object too much. I suspect there’s not too much love lost between him and ex-PM Thaksin.

All the TV news from both normal and satellite services is on-again-off-again so we’re relying on the internet for a lot of info, but at this stage I can say that there doesn’t appear to be any danger whatsoever and that things should stabilise pretty quickly I think.

This weekend we went to explore one of Bangkok’s most famous shopping experiences, the Chatuchak Weekend Market. Paul’s Thai teacher, Khun Aom, and the office girl Khun Poo came with us. Obviously there was a lot of language practise during the day as well as shopping!

Chatuchak Market is allegedly the biggest (weekend market) in the world, which is quite believable when you’ve been there. Allegedly it’s got over 15,000 stalls and attracts 200-300,000 people visit every weekend. It felt like it too. Suffice to say we didn’t explore all of it, and there’s plenty left for next time! There’s huge areas with clothes, bags, shoes, and so on, but more interesting are stalls and shops filled with antiques, furniture, all manner of Thai artifacts and artwork.

Paul is very excited with his purchase of this bowl which apparently is from the ancient city of Ayudhya, the capital of Thailand long before Bangkok was founded. It’s supposed to be around 300 years old. We’ve been warned not to try to wash it!!

Just a quick stop off passing through to Koh Samui, Geoff and Steven from Hong Kong popped in for a one-night stay at the Hotel d’Pete & Paul. A bit of shopping in the afternoon and dinner later, a quick drink at Sky Bar… very nice. Thanks for visiting guys, don’t forget to avoid those Apple Martinis in future!