# Recent Protests



## alyssa9933 (Jan 11, 2010)

I have been reading about the recent protests and am a bit concerned since I am set to move there in early May. Is it as bad as it seems? Do you, especially as foreigners, feel safe or is there cause for concern? I also read something about trouble in the South with some TT&T workers getting shot and burned and other horrible incidents (even beheadings). I know it is going to be a beautiful place and I have heard nothing but good things about it there but after these couple of recent pieces in the news I just want to make sure I'm not walking into a war zone. Excuse me and accept my apologies if I am sounding like a paranoid crazy person but I figure you all are the best people to ask about it.
Thanks in advance for your advice.


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## KhwaamLap (Feb 29, 2008)

Hi,

yes I can understand your worry. However, media like to make things out to be much more newsworthy than they actually are. Something like 100,000 protesters are currently in Bangkok. Red Shirts. They are demanding the PM dissolves parliament (which incidentally only His Majesty can do) and steps down. They seem to be a minority if the Thai media is to be believed, but this is somewhat contentious. They will certainly not be there in May as Mr. Thaksin's money would have run out paying that many people to stay for two months (at a reported 2,000 baht per head per day).

As to violence - there hasn't been any. Even last year when the army was out en-masse with live and blank loaded weapons, Reds setting up petrol tankers as bombs and ramming buildings with buses (and setting them alight), there were only two deaths - both thugs attacking shop keepers (probably looters). As a tourist (or expat) we are warned to stay away from certain areas while the protest is going on - yet walk along and you will see many standing taking photos etc. No foreigner has been hurt as part of the protest nor is it likely they will be n(unless they do something really stupid).

As to the South. The very southerly provinces in and around Yala have insurgents from neighbouring Malaysia. These are Moslem insurgents who attack and kill almost indiscriminately - including young and old monks (by young I mean primary school age), they have caused many explosions, set alight schools and police stations and so on. It is not the place to visit. So don't. Unless you like that far south, you will hear nothing about it except the odd news story (it may as well be in Timbuktu). This is also happening in the Philippines (southern Cebu) and several other countries, and has been more decades. Yet, all maintain healthy tourism numbers because it stays down there. 

Other than certain seedy areas in some of the more touristy provinces and towns like Pattaya, Phuket and parts of Bangkok, Thailand is a very safe country as far as violence goes. I liove in Chiang Mai and I often walk about alone in the early hours down quiet streets. Never felt frightened. In the UK I would not do that in town. I have stumbled about after a party or beano down Loi Kroh (the bar area of Chiang Mai) at 3 am when most bars are well and truly shut and the nonly assorting I get is tuktuk drivers offering to take me home.

Honestly, in my opinion Thailand is at least as safe, and mostly far safer, than most western countries. Keep your cool and you'll be fine. And if all else fails old your hands up in submission and call kot tort at lot - and even the most aggressive and pissed off Thai will most likely leave you be. Stay clear of drunker police men in karaoke bars though!


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## alyssa9933 (Jan 11, 2010)

*Thanks so much*



KhwaamLap said:


> Hi,
> 
> yes I can understand your worry. However, media like to make things out to be much more newsworthy than they actually are. Something like 100,000 protesters are currently in Bangkok. Red Shirts. They are demanding the PM dissolves parliament (which incidentally only His Majesty can do) and steps down. They seem to be a minority if the Thai media is to be believed, but this is somewhat contentious. They will certainly not be there in May as Mr. Thaksin's money would have run out paying that many people to stay for two months (at a reported 2,000 baht per head per day).
> 
> ...


Thanks so much for your enlightening response. I feel much much better now. One last thing though and I hope by asking this I don't make myself look stupid but what does 'kot tort' mean?


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## KhwaamLap (Feb 29, 2008)

kor tort means 'sorry' or 'excuse me'


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## Guest (Mar 18, 2010)

Just to second everything KL has said. I remember wandering through Bangkok during the airport occupation of a couple of years ago, and wondering what all the fuss was about. No red or yellow shirts in sight except in very localised areas, and even then they were all, in my experience, extremely polite to both foreigners and fellow Thais (except those brandishing the opposing camp's colours, of course).

The same applies in Chiang Mai, where my experience has been the same as KL's. I've been to a lot of redshirt demos to take photos, and I've never seen so much as a hint of violence. The demonstrators were curious as to what a farang was doing there in the first place with his big camera and telephoto lens... but once I'd explained, they were delighted that a foreigner was showing interest. Quite a few went out of their way to explain their stance to me, and they were really curious about the views in the West as to events in Thailand.

Thailand has always felt extremely safe to me, and like KL, I have been known to wander about at all hours. I too have always felt a lot safer there than in a town centre in the UK at night.

Of course you have to take a minimum of sensible precautions - some people just ask for trouble. You inevitably hear of the occasional bag snatch and robbery, instances of violence. But overall, in three years in Chiang Mai I was only hassled on two occasions. However on neither occasion was a Thai involved. The first time it was a drunken Glaswegian, and the second an even drunker Texan.


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