The Great Bargain

Soon it’s all over, be it with a whimper or bloody beats of drums. Doesn’t really matter. The Tourism Authority has anyway quite a task ahead. The good news? Without great bargains the crisis will linger on even longer. The PAD turn out to be next year’s tourists’ biggest friend. Finally you’ll have again beaches again for yourself with prices, just splendid.

Weren’t we all complaining about Thai tourism’s yearly price inflation without really adding value? In 2009, expect some prices in the tourism industry you haven’t seen for some years. The Asian financial crisis, bird flu, Sars, the tsunami and coup, they all were a lesson for Thailand’s tourism industry. But nothing comes close to the PAD factor.

Hidden behind is a truly sad story. Thailand once was somebody. A proud tiger economy, a model for problematic states and regimes around the region. Today Thailand teeters on the brink of a failed state, with – sad to say – one of Thailand’s greatest assets in the eyes of the world, her women, becoming even cheaper, as dictated by falling incomes and increased misery and competition.

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November 30, 2008 | Filed Under Business & Economics, Politics, Property & Investment, Travel & Tourism | 5 Comments 

Of Foreigners As Political Bargaining Tools & The King’s Birthday Speech

The Thai crisis, holding a country hostage and bringing tens of thousands of stuck travelers to despair, is unique in many ways. The most outstanding singularity: The protesters brazen egoism due to their god-given sense of choseness: “We and nobody else.” No sincere foreign world leader would like to be seen shaking hands with a PAD-induced government, as the group’s tactics and values go hand in hand.

Looking back at other crises around the world the uprising non-state parties didn’t care much about foreigners. They let them go. They allowed foreign planes to evacuate their citizens while remaining concentrated on their political goals. Here in Thailand, foreigners are intentionally used as a political bargaining tool. Next escalation? Hijacking luxury hotels.

Only the months and years to come will show what price the kingdom will have to pay for this most ruthless and reckless of all strategies: Terrorizing the very innocent, trustful people that give the country more than they take with their stays and expenses. For millions and millions around the world though Thailand will remain a rogue state and therefore be shunned. Yet, no one here seems to really care.

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November 29, 2008 | Filed Under On Our Own, Politics | 38 Comments 

“Things Are Not Yet Bad Enough”

Tens of thousands of people stuck, a country on the brink, bloodshed looming and the impossibility of making sense of anything anymore – but the crisis is not yet bad enough for the military to enter the fray. That’s what a well placed security official tells absolutely:

“We wait for things to get really bad. With the last coup nothing was solved, we were just like a referee intervening. When we do it again then we’ll make sure that there is no chance in the future that the two parties can fight anymore.”

The current main problem: The silent majority is not yet vocal enough. “If the confrontation goes on,” tells us the source, “the silent part of the population might sart saying something.” But they’re shouting loud and clearly, I said, just read the newspapers.

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November 28, 2008 | Filed Under Politics, The Thai Mind | 16 Comments 

Oops, But Thaksin Just Got A Boost

No live-blogging and updating today. It was the probably busiest day of my life. And sorry for the good-hearted Southerners who tried to do good deeds and were therefore commanded by PAD chief demagogue Sondhi Limthongkul today for having “temporarily left their jobs, farms and homes to help support the PAD movement.”

Without those Southerners not much would have happened this week, as Bangkokians have deserted the PAD already in large numbers. But there in the South they found some good-hearted people and trucked them in; mostly elderly, always smiling and constantly hand-clapping people – maybe they’re about to realize what they’re manipulated into.

Sorry for this beautiful country to having become a tragic laughing stock in the eyes of the world. We all here know there must be a reason that the army and police let the escalation happen. We all know that it borders on the supernatural that the PAD is allowed to do whatever they want to do without its core leaders fearing any harm nor being arrested for a, well, longer list of misdeeds.

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November 26, 2008 | Filed Under Politics | 8 Comments 

Bangkok Airport Survival Guide

+++ Update: Tourist Hotline: 1672 +++ Bangkok’s international Suvarnabhumi airport is effectively locked down since 11 am Wednesday morning, after a last Iran Air plane with pilgrims heading to Mecca was allowed to take off. By now even THAI’s domestic air traffic via Don Mueang airport – inbound & outbound – has come to a standstill.

You’re stuck and want to get out of or into Thailand? Even usually reliable Bangkok Airport Online is currently quite out of the loop. Don’t believe the shown information. As of midday, November 26th, no plane is arriving at or departing from Suvarnabhumi. The airport is under the complete control of the PAD.

For first hand information don’t even try to call Thai Airways’ contact center at 02 356 1111, lines are hopelessly busy. There’s an airport hotline at 02 132 1888 – or the tourist police’s 02 643 5522. Or you may have a slight chance of getting through by calling THAI’s Silom office at 02 288 7000. The Bangkok Post has a dedicated emergency page.

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November 26, 2008 | Filed Under On Our Own, Travel & Tourism | 1 Comment 

PAD Shut Down Suvarnabhumi

Here it comes, the escalation: The self-righteous PAD manage to shut down Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi international airport, as The Nation reports. I don’t think the “reds” can hold themselves back much longer. But if you listen to the PAD’s top leadership, there’s justice in this move:

“We have tried to pressure the government for more than 50 hours but nothing has happened, so we need to step up our campaign by closing the airport to tell the world problems Thailand is facing,” said PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul at Government House Tuesday night.

Adds the Bangkok Post: “Sondhi announced at the anti-government stage at Government House that Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat must resign without any condition. He then claimed that the government was guilty of the October 7th riot, which left two dead and almost 500 wounded.”

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November 25, 2008 | Filed Under Politics | 19 Comments 

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