Coup in Thailand

(September 20, 2006)

Mary and I are alive and well in Phuket Island of Thailand.We were staying at a nearby beach bungalow last night without email or tv, so we were a bit out of the loop. We headed back to our friend's home an hour ago. They filled us in on the situation. Here's some history behind the coup.

The Thai King celebrated his 60th anniversary of his coronation earlier this year. He is well loved by the people. He was away at college (MIT?) when he got the call to become King. He spent his early days getting to know the wants and needs of his people- so needless to say he is very well loved. The Prime Minister on the other hand is not very well loved. Alot of people were upset about a telecomunications sale of a Thai company to a Singapore company that was tax free the prime minister stood to make 500 million (people were upset that Thailand was not making money off of this) and apparently there have been multiple calls for early elections (he approximately has 3 years left on his term). The elections were dodgey affairs called on a one-day notice, one of which, people had a choice between him and "nobody", more people checked the box "nobody" than the Prime Minister's name, but he still stayed in power...?

When we flew into Bangkok last month, there was an attempt on his life. There is widespread speculation that he may have planted the attempt himself....Currently the Military coup has the support of the King, and appears most of the Thai people. Essentially the coup is overthrowing the consitiution and restoring more power to the King. It seems that reading reports from the Drudge Report, people were not approving of the method, but were happy that it happened. So given, all this, it seems that things are fairly stable. Governments, banks, schools, and _tvs were shut down today, and our friends (who are teachers) were given the day off. All flights are operating normally.

We will stay abreast of the situation and keep trying to find out about any travel warnings. Our plan is to fly up to Bangkok tommorrow (Thursday), spend the night and then fly to Camobdia the next day (Friday). We'll be in Cambodia for a couple of weeks with the possibility of a detour to Vietnam. We fly back to Bangkok on October 11 and head up to Chang Mai for a few days before making one last stop in Phuket for the Vegetarian Festival and then off to Malaysia on November 1.

Thanks for all of your concern and especially all the love. It's good to know we have eyes everywhere keeping tabs on what's happening in the world. Rest assured knowing that we're probably, like today, on a beach somewhere far from harms way.

Matt & Mary