Bloody Bloodless Coups

Yesterday I was pretty much oblivious to the coup and its impact on life in Bangkok. But today its not so good. Firstly a normal 25 minute bus ride to Future Park took a good 1 hour because of the traffic jam near the tanks. Future Park is a big shopping mall about 10km south of Thammasat (5 minutes bus from Zeer Rangsit). Basically like a Westfield mall but much larger. I have done most of my shopping there (fridge, fan, groceries, etc.), mainly at a department store/supermarket called Big C. Its probably a mix between Kmart, Target and Coles or Woollies. There are other similar department stores and supermarkets that I've also looked into, e.g. Carrefour and Tesco/Lotus. Everyone is now stopping near the tanks, taking photos and giving the army food and drinks. The second impact of the coup was that the shops shut early on Wednesday night - 8pm instead of the normal closing time of 10 or 10:30pm. So I was at Future Park looking for food at 7:30pm but everything was closing. Eventually went to a German restaurant that I had been to before. Not really German, only Thai people there and all Thai food and singing/dancing, but do have 3 beers that almost taste German. Anyway, a good meal and drink. Other than some traffic jams and slight inconvenience at shops, I haven't noticed much more. Although I am a good 40km out of the CBD. It may also impact my plans to travel somewhere next week. Will see ...

Created on Thu, 21 Sep 2006, 9:46pm

Last changed on Thu, 23 Nov 2006, 11:35pm