wwinit

The 18th coup took place on 22nd September. Are all Thai people fed up with this bloody vicious circle like a Banana Republic? It is not a simple question though. There are always three groups of people. Group 1 has many names, i.e. the left wing, new breed, idealist, communist, student radicals and Red Shirts so far. The group was originally small in size, but now gets bigger possibly around 40-50% of the whole population. Group 1 consists of hyper-royalists, soldiers, business people, influential figures and advocates for the "Democratic Party". After 2006, they are now known as 'Yellow Shirts'; yellow is the colour of Monday when the King was born. It is relatively a small group (20-30%), but controls nearly all public and private sectors. Lastly, Group 3 was at first the majority of people, but nowadays around 30-40%. They are lay people who are inert in politics and want to make ends meet only. They simply do not care about who will govern the country and are still happy as long as their tummies are full. Apart from three people groups, there are two types of politics - monarchy and normal levels. This make it so complicated to discuss politics in this Land of Lies (tolae-land) with people lying to each other all the time about nearly everything.

Since the Thai revolution on 24 June 1932, there have been 18 times of coup d'état with or without the support of royal family. This time is no exception, as the army seized the power with the assistance of somebody in the royal family, or so-called "invisible hands". With the overstatements of wiping out corruptions and restore order, most coups by the army have actually aimed to overthrow elected governments, weaken all parties or root out all democratic movements. People in Group 2 and most in Group 3 are absolutely delighted to see this army show as usual, but Group 1 will certainly fight back. Just wait and see what is gonna happen. With the support of "invisible hands", the fight between the democratic clan (Group 1) and royalists (Group 2) will expectedly move on until most people agree upon the rule of law and share of power. Probably the United Kingdom of Thailand with North Thai and South Thai is a best solution, i.e. Group 1 living in North Thai and Groups 2 and 3 in the South.

For all Britons, you do not have to take side or do anything. Just come to work or enjoy yourself and refrain from any political activities. From my experience, there is no serious violence in this "Buddhist country"; just a handful of people are likely to clash with soldiers. Let Thais bite each other until they have learned from their mistakes or realized how to live in peace and harmony with various views on politics or other issues. One good thing from this chaotic situation though is the pound getting big again - 55 baht/£. Any comments on this bloody coup?

nonthaburi

Interesting times as they, my wife and kids went back for the summer on Monday night and they said the plane was only half full, so I'm guessing that that is an indication of tourist arrivals being down. They probably won't stay down though, once people realise it's business as usual.

I'm wondering how long the curfew will last for, the last time there was a curfew things started staying open later and later pushing the boundaries on it. Restaurants and bars must be pissed off about it.

I'm also watching the currency, it was sliding before all this and against the SAR not much change so far, about 8.5. They call Thailand the Teflon economy because nothing sticks.

On the whole I can not see any way out of this whole situation soon. Whatever you think about Thaksin, he has got a whole load of people into the idea of being a stakeholder in the country, and the idea that with your vote you can get the government you want. I think more and more Thais are less willing to just go along with the flow and accept whatever the government in BKK says, the usual "Mai pen rai" attitude.

Have to see what happens, I'm arriving there in a few weeks for my summer vacation so I'm hoping there will be some good deals on hotels. I think the Chinese were the biggest visitors to Thailand in 2013 with about 5 million. They are exactly the kind of visitors who will now stay away because of all this.

Until you know what happens, the country will just continue to be a mess in my opinion, and after that, who really knows.

It's never boring though!

wwinit

The nighttime curfew has been shortened to four hours from 0.00 to 04.00 am only, so you will be fine. Just change your SAR to US dollars (US$ 1 = SAR 3.76 NCB/SABB) and keep the dollars, as it might be slightly better. Given all difficulties, your life in Thailand is certainly better than that in the magic kingdom, such as good food, freedom (except critising NCPO or the royals), being able to wear 'shorts', no abaya, etc.

nonthaburi

I don't know really, personally I quite like it here in Saudi. We have an easier life here than we did in Thailand and it's quite a relaxed place too. You can do what you want here really. I wouldn't say my wife is so keen on the place , but she has made a lot of Thai friends here through the embassy now. So there are Thai parties that we go to all the time and it's just like being in Thailand again. Gives me a chance to keep my Thai language skill up to!

Before we left Thailand two years ago I was pretty bored of the place and we couldn't save any money there too. Being here will hopefully make me appreciate it again, and give us the means to a good life when we do go back.

I do wear shorts here, I think the rule is so long as they go below the knee you're okay. No German tourist speedos just yet for me. We have found that we can get most food we want here, it just comes at a price. 300+ baht a kilo for some namdokmai mangoes from Thailand! I'm leaving them until I can have them for free from my own trees. On the plus side, good dairy products and bread are way cheaper here in KSA.

beaull123

Wow. Good post and discussion.