IS IT SAFE TO VISIT THAILAND?

I tried to search for this topic and found nothing here, so I'm starting a new thread, because we need to know whether it is still ok to travel in Thailand considering the political commotion and the bid flu problem.


My fiance and I went to Thailand last Feb and had a wonderful time. Even before the end of the trip, we'd thought that we'd go back as soon as we could and take our time to really enjoy this beautiful country. A few months ago we decided to go back next Jan and spend a whole month there.


We will not stay in Bangkok. Our itinerary includes the islands of and around Phuket, Ko Samui, Koh Tao, and lastly Chiang Mai, which we missed last time.


We have been looking forward to this trip, but we understand must put safety first. We need to know whether we should carry out our plan, or shorten it, or avoid certain destinations, or to avoid Thailand entirely......

At the moment I don't think you can get into Bangkok... I just posted this on our News Features:


Protests shut down Bangkok airport


BANGKOK: Anti-government protesters swarmed into Bangkok's main international airport late Tuesday, prompting officials to cancel all departing flights and bringing Thailand's political stalemate to a crisis point.


As the protesters occupied the highway to the airport on the outskirts of the city, traffic to the airport slowed to a trickle. Separately, elsewhere in the capital, a group of demonstrators fired handguns and beat government supporters with metal rods in fierce clashes, injuring six people, according to video footage shown on Thai television.


The incursion into Suvarnabhumi airport, as the capital's new airport is known, represented a bold and serious challenge to the government, which in recent days has sought to placate the protesters and has tried to avoid confrontation with them.


Riot police were called into the airport complex late Tuesday and squared off with protesters in and around the terminal.


"For the safety of all passengers, I have to stop all the flight operations and close all exits in the passenger terminal until the situation returns to normal," Sereerat Prasutanon, director of Suvarnabhumi airport, said.


"I'm very worried about the situation now," Sereerat said. "I think it's time that the army comes out and helps to take care of the situation."


Suvarnabhumi airport is the world's 18th largest in terms of passenger traffic, handling 41 million passengers last year. It is the main gateway for tourists and businesspeople arriving in Thailand and a major transit hub for Southeast Asia.


Earlier, protesters put razor wire across the entrance to the airport, leaving only one lane of the main highway open and causing severe congestion.


Throughout the day Tuesday, thousands of protesters kept the Thai government on the run, blocking the entrance to the government's temporary offices at the old airport north of the city and massing in front of army headquarters. In the violent clashes, one pro-government supporter was shown pleading for his life as protesters wielded long knives at his throat.


Tuesday was the second day of what the leaders of the long-running protest vowed would be their final push to unseat the government of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat. On Monday, protesters forced the cancellation of an important session of Parliament and temporarily cut electricity supply to the police headquarters.


Many Thais have grown frustrated with the protests, which have been held on and off for about three years.


The Thai print media, which over the past three years has been generally critical of the government and supportive of the protests, has recently run articles skeptical of the daily street demonstrations.


One columnist in the Nation newspaper Tuesday called the protests a "never-ending saga that is futile and a drain on society."


"A rethink has become an imperative to put an end to the political turmoil," the columnist wrote. "It is time for all sides to stop the political melodrama."


The People's Alliance for Democracy, as the group leading the movement to unseat the government calls itself, still has a remarkably loyal following, mainly among middle- and upper-class Thais, students and some union members.


The alliance raided and took over the prime minister's office compound in August, forcing the government to operate out of the VIP terminal of Don Muang airport, the capital's older airport which is now used exclusively for domestic flights. On Monday, protesters blocked access to the government offices at Don Muang.


"You don't have to doubt what we will do next," Somsak Kosaisuk, a protest leader, said Tuesday from a temporary stage set up at Don Muang airport. "First, we will not let the cabinet use this place for their meetings anymore. Second, wherever they go for their meetings, we have our special troops that will follow them."


Somchai Wongsawat, the prime minister, is scheduled to return late Wednesday from a trip to Peru, where he attended a summit meeting of Asia Pacific leaders. Protesters say they plan to disrupt a cabinet meeting that was initially planned for Wednesday but may be pushed back.


The underlying conflict in Thailand is over the question of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's role in Thai politics. Thaksin, deposed in a coup two years ago and convicted in absentia last month for abuse of power in a highly politicized trial, now reportedly says he is eager to return to Thailand.


"With me at the helm I can bring confidence quickly back to Thailand," Thaksin was quoted saying in an interview with Arabian Business, a magazine based in the United Arab Emirates, where he is believed to be in exile. "We have to find a mechanism under which I can go back, that is why I must tell you that I will go back into politics."


With Thaksin still abroad, protesters say their first goal is to remove the current government, which it accuses of being Thaksin's proxy.


Yet as the Thai economy slows down amid the global financial crisis and as the stalemate between the government and the protesters deepens, an increasing number of people are hoping for an end to the incessant protests.


"How is it going to end?" said Bharavee Boonsongsap, a 34-year-old producer for MTV Thailand. "I keep asking people but they have no answer. Thais are fighting Thais. People have become aggressive, and even children have been taught to hate the opposite side."


http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/25/asia/thai.php

am also worried about the situation in thailand as am planning to go there next weekend. i might just skip the bangkok part and heading to the islands...but still it seems pretty serious right now for entering bkk airport as its the transit place to other places in thailand.

That's not relevant to the topic... the concern/question is re: the political situation

I suspect that if the King doesn't put an end to this forcing the govt to step down the military will force a change (again...). Surely they cannot allow Bangkok to remain cut off from the world particularly with the busy Christmas tourism period less than a month away...

geez...thanks to everyone for providing up-2-date info here, sure not all media give much time to this story any more because of all the other chaos happening everywhere else.


guys, can't you see that the thai people, those who are actively involved in this commotion, whatever side they are on, don't really give a damn about the farang tourists at this juncture?


we had been paying attention to all the news about thailand for months since the begginning of this protest. i had always thought the same thoughts a lot of us are having on mind--surely they won't sabotage their own livelihood (tourism), and of course the tourists will still be safe as this is a purely domestic issue....that assumption of safety is getting farther and farther from me in the last couple days. an italian friend of mine who has lived in thailand for over 15 yr told me just 4 days ago to go ahead to chiangmai, the protests wouldn't affect our trip. guess we are not the only ones surprised by the protester's action.


at this point one shouldn't think that it'd still be safe to enter thailand as long as they avoid bkk........the undercurrent of anger and conflicts is under the radar to us foreigners. no one can guarantee what will or will not happen.


it's still 40 days from our planned travel date, fingers crossed that this will be settled and things can go back to normal in thailand. yet another part of me is begginning to ask, even if things seem to return to normal this time, who can guarantee it will not happen again during our visit?

I don't think it's advisable to visit Thailand just yet. But enough is enough, don't you think? For better or worse, Thailand chose to have free and universal elections. The minority lost. The majority choice may not be the right one. But unless the election was rigged (and there's no indication it was), they will just have to abide by the result and not try to reverse it and, in the process, destroy the nation.

My husband just came from there. He had to get home via Chiang Mai and Taipei, and finally to HK. It cost him a lot of extra money.

If there is a flight directly to Phuket, you may be all right (for the record, the person who said that Samui was raining can note that the weather is different on either sides of the country - Gulf of Thailand of Andaman seaside - if it`s raining on Samui then Phuket is probably nice and sunny).

But you`re going 40 days from now? I wouldn`t expect things to go on that long.

hi Jallore


thanks for the tip, glad your hubby made it home. yet if i remember it right, those same people forced phuket airport to shut down for one day too a couple months ago--i had had bad feelings since.


things were getting booked up pretty fast in thailand last time i checked, if we are still going we'd need to buy all the tickets and rooms now. but at this point we just can't commit to the plan any more. we are studying the philippines, it looks really beautiful and the costs might even be lower than in thailand...god bless we won't run into angry muslims there...fiance is american

If this continues for much longer I believe that it should end or at least settle down temporarily by the 5th of December as this is the King's birthday. In the past such protests and problems have been placed on hold or ended on auspicious holidays. Although the King doesn't have any real power in official decicions anymore, I am hoping that the huge respect the people have for him will prevail and things will cool down.

Depending on what tickets/hotels you're booking, you can still retain a fair amount of flexibility. Cathay short-haul tickets generally cost you HK$600 each to cancel/change and you can book hotels with no commitment to pay up until the night before arrival. Given flight costs typically rise as you get closer to date of departure you may feel it a worthwhile investment to book and see how the cards fall. Or book two flight options - one for Thailand and the other for Bali, say. This way you'll definitely lose HK$1,200 (assuming only two of you) but you pick up tickets at today's prices and can be reasonably certain you'll get to go somewhere nice. This may be an acceptable cost for you.


We're booked to go to Thailand for Christmas and New Year, flying into BKK. Certainly hope this mess is cleared before then but getting concerned it won't be. We're now looking at alternatives (Bali, Malaysia etc) with a view to booking flights soon (because many flights are already pretty expensive and going fast as people switch from Thailand) and living with a HK$1,200 hit.

I'm booked to go to BKK just after Christmas for 3 days and then down to Phuket for 6.


Now that the airports are open and the King's birthday is this weekend, what is everyone else thinking?


We don't have too much money to spend on new tickets (we booked through Air Asia and their direct destinations are very limited).


DIVE BUM (and others with travel plans to Thailand in the next month)-- are you keeping your plans?

We're still hoping to go to BKK for Christmas and then up to Chiang Rai for a few days and then BKK again for New Year. Not sure it's a done deal, though. There was one comment attributed to the PAD in the SCMP today along the lines of 'we might be back gain in 10 days time'. Hopefully the government will takes its time in choosing new party names and a replacement PM. I wouldn't be surprised to see the PAD supporters throwing their toys out of the pram again and there seems no will from the police/army to support the government in preventing this. I still believe tourists and tourist areas will be relatively safe - that said, a flare up between the opposing groups could certainly lead to 'collateral damage'. I'd also be bummed out if the PAD chose the Paragon complex for its next sit in! Less likely perhaps as that's where their sponsors' wives/mistresses like to spend a lot of time.


We ended up deciding against purchasing insurance (tickets for another destination that we could cancel for HK$600 each) because there was nowhere else we really wanted to go over the Christmas period. Nice hotels in beach locations price gouge you at this time of year. So, our plan B is now to spend quality time in HK...we may still nip over to Singapore for a long weekend - Cathay seems to have very cheap rates (for them - HK$2,100 net or so per person) over the NY period.

no, unfortunately even though the bkk airports are open again, my fiance thinks the trouble is far from being over. dive bum summed it up pretty good there. we're heading to the philies instead...have fun guys, and be safe!

We've canceled our trip as we just don't think the problems are gone. Plus conserve cash as all hell will break loose in the markets early next year, unless your looking at it as a last holiday before you hunker down for the recessionary haul.

i'm flying to bangkok on friday, then to phuket on satuday. i wouldn't worry - it's not burma (yet?).. you can't predict when bad things happen - look at mumbai - may as well live your life in the meantime.

Hi guys! I have been staying in Koh Samui a week now, nothing happened here, seems nice and quiet. if you guys thinkiing about thailand, i guess Samui is a nice place to visit. i took direct flight from HK to Samui. if you guys are into diving should take a ferry to Koh Tao or Koh Pha Ngan as i just been there. nice indeed!

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