Bangkok Protest Update — Andrea hits the city streets

Andrea heads into the heart of Bangkok to get a sense of the unrest for herself…

Since the protests began January 13th I’ve been getting daily updates from my team in Bangkok and have developed a good sense of the day to day changes and developments of the demonstrations.

For the last 10 years, whether it was a tsunami, a military coup, an airport shutdown, a mall on fire or flooding throughout the city, I haven’t had to rely on daily updates and instead have been able to report back to my guests from Southeast Asia. I decided that this latest development deserved the same treatment. So here I am, staying in downtown Bangkok and seeing the demonstrations with my own eyes. For the last few days I’ve visited the protests in the morning, mid day and in the evening, gauging the different climates and chatting with different participants trying to figure out if there is an end in sight and if this is a situation I need to approach with caution or merely awareness.

My assessment for the moment is that these protests have very little impact on the visiting tourist. While the media has some rather dramatic photos of road blocks and angry faces, the real picture is much more relaxed and in fact the word “festive” comes to mind. Due to road blocks at the Silom/Lumphini intersection Silom road, one of the main thoroughfares is closed down, but this is Bangkok and no space will ever go to waste so almost overnight stalls have been erected up and down the street. Selling food, clothes, trinkets and the obligatory “Bangkok shutdown” memorabilia, the city’s retail entrepreneurs are out in force. Walking down Silom Road browsing and shopping it’s easy to forget that the gatherings are due to political unrest.

The sky train and metro continue to run on schedule and traffic is actually no worse than usual as most Bangkok locals head to public transit to avoid the road closures. Getting in a taxi that doesn’t know the roads can be a hazard as detours wind around protest sites, but if you stick to public transit you have nothing to worry about.

While we have been recommending guests stay in river front hotels, I didn’t take my own advice, wanting to be in the thick of it. Choosing the amazing Four Seasons and the modern and chic Sofitel So, I have had direct views of the protest site from my room, but generally “the thick of it” was actually fairly anticlimactic.

This weekend marks the planned elections put on by the current government. Everyone I talked to felt that if there was going to be violence this would be the time. With that said, the numbers of protestors appear to be dwindling and I did not get a sense of a large push to get numbers back up. I will stay in Thailand through the elections to see what happens and judge for myself if guests should be heading to Bangkok. The next few days will give everyone a better idea of what is to come in Thailand.

My initial reaction is that this is Bangkok being Bangkok and through tsunamis, coups, protests and floods, life goes on and the risk and impact to tourists is minimal. As long as the situation stays as it is now then I encourage my guests to visit as planned!

As always, this is Andrea, reporting live from the Land of Smiles !