alive and well

It is now 2 in the afternoon on the day after the take-over and things are pretty much normal. For those of you who don't know what is going on, the military overthrew the Thai government last night while the Prime Minister was in New York. Apparently this Prime Minister is quite corrupt, and rumours of a coup have been circulating for weeks, but we didn't think that it would actually happen.

This all happened downtown in the exact area where we ate supper last night. We left downtown at around 9 and it all started around 10. We just checked, and the very street that we walked down last night is now filled with Thai soldiers and tanks. Apparently groups of more than five people at a time have been outlawed because of rioting, and you can get six months in jail for just walking in a large group. Crazy, but kind of scary. I have never been more happy to live in the outskirts of the city!!!

This all actually worked out quite well for me, since I didn't have to go in to school today. We were awake last night from about 3 am, when we first heard about the situation, until around 5 when we finally went back to sleep. I was a little worried because the school has my passport for visa purposes right now, and we weren't sure at all what this whole situation meant (ie. if we would need to leave the country). I called my boss this morning, and he said that the school was closed today, and that we shouldn't really worry because things would get back to normal soon.

So I went back to sleep and slept until 11, and then we went walking around because we were bored of being inside. We had been told that all of the businesses would be closed, but everything seems to be open, and all of the buses and taxis are running as usual.

I looked on the Bangkok Post website (www.bangkokpost.com), which is the English newspaper here in Bangkok, and it gives a lot of information, including English translations of the statements given by the new "government". We live right at the edge of the city, so we haven't seen any tanks, soldiers, etc. Everything is happening downtown, which is about an hour away and which happens to be the main tourist area. I can just imagine the backpackers on Khao Sarn road, which is right downtown, coming out of their hostels and going to see the Grand Palace, only to see tanks driving around the streets, it would be pretty scary if you didn't know what was going on.

I'll keep you posted as to what is going on, but you probably know more than I do since they have cut most television stations because (old) government officials had been giving interviews to BBC and CNN, and the military, obviously, didn't like that very much. As far as I know, the king has not yet made a statement, which will greatly affect the outcome of everything, because the military claims to be doing this all in the name of the king.

Let me know if you hear anything over there!