BLOG: Military presence… what military presence?
Our latest poll on TravelMole shows that a large proportion of travel agents are currently not booking Thailand. Whilst I have no empirical evidence to back this up, one would suppose that this is because of the recent coup and associated curfews. Having arrived in the country yesterday morning for the Thai travel mart, I, like most of the people, was interested to see what changes were in place. The FCO site says to ‘allow more time for airport transfers’ and that there will be an ‘increased number of Thai soldiers in Bangkok’.
I am sure the situation can change quickly and I have no reason to ignore the advice of the FCO but I have been reminded today of the famous quote by G W Bush "….fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me…. you can’t get fooled again." Well I am convinced there is no fooling the President but our transfer from the airport was one of the quickest I ever had and that’s saying something because Bangkok traffic is generally awful… however, tell me a city in the world where it is not.At least on the way in you have the opportunity to appreciate what a different commute it is here in Thailand as opposed to back home.
As for the military presence it’s very difficult to comment as apart from a couple of guys outside the Kings Palace I didn’t see any. Not one. The closest I came to officialdom was at an outside reception for UK and Ireland delegates where I encountered a charming policeman who had escorted our fleet of tuktuks. It was as hot and sweaty as a camel riding jockey’s underwear in a very hot and sweaty race in a very hot and sweaty place. In other words it is business as usual in Bangkok.
Diane
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