Protesters Shutting Down Bangkok - But We Are Safe

Many of you have asked me if we are safe given the protests going on in Bangkok.  I think we are!  The protesters have generally been peaceful.  They are more of a nuisance because they are very loud at night (we can hear them from our hotel), they have filled the streets and therefore it is difficult to get around by taxi or walking, they have forced the malls in our area to shut down early so no night shopping for me and they have taken over the large city park (Lumpini Park) so poor Cristiano doesn't get to go to the park.  The park is a camping ground now.

We are hoping things will not escalate but for now who knows.  We are obviously being very diligent with our goings and comings.  Saturday we are also scheduled to fly to Singapore for four days. Hopefully the roads will not be shut down and we will be able to make it to the airport.  It will be nice to be far away from the protests.

For those of your who don't know, the issue in summary is that anti-government protesters would like the current Prime Minister to step down and not participate in the next election. According to CBC, "Thousands of protesters are occupying the streets of Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, in an attempt to shut down the city to disrupt elections next month and oust the country’s prime minister.  While the demonstrations thus far have been reasonably peaceful, some observers fear that as this action continues, protesters could become increasingly strident and clashes with police could result in violence."  Here is a link to the article on CBC summarizing the issue for those interested to know more.  Click here.  

It's pretty crazy how organized the protesters are.  It looks like "Thailand Day" out there.  Everyone is wearing the national colours, from babies to the elderly.  They have head bands, t-shirts, whistles, wrist bands, shoe laces, etc, etc...whatever you can think of to wear they are selling in red, white and blue.

Here are a couple of  pictures taken today on our way to the mall.

To the left is one of the stages where entertainment is being provided.  There are even people passed the over pass; you just can't see them very well in this picture.

In this blurry (sorry!) picture you can see a tent and then some short of motorcycle with an entire family on it dressed in Thai gear. 

The first picture only shows one of the areas being occupied and the second picture shows only one of the hundreds of tents aligned on the streets.