On Tuesday night Bangkok citizens witnessed tanks of the Thai military rolling into Bangkok and heading for the government building. Shortly after, TV stations were interrupted. No news were issued for some time.

The current Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was in New York at the UN the moment when the coup happened. He tried to address the Thai people on TV but the connection was cut off before he could finish. He did announce a state of emergency though before he was cut off.

TV stations were showing old videos of the king, playing old songs that in the past were always connected to Thai military coups. Thai people were told that a video message is imminent. The news message finally came but was only saying that the Thai people should not worry and stay calm. The speaker excused himself for the “inconvenience”.

Most Western Nations issued travel warnings for their people and asked them to reconsider traveling there until the situation is clarified. The US for example advised its citizens living in Thailand to exercise discretion when traveling through Bangkok.

As of today, the coup was 100% peaceful. There has been no fighting or any news about it whatsoever. Of course, the embassies have to be very careful in issuing warnings. So I understand all of the warnings they gave.

As I am living in Bangkok I didn’t hear or see anything violent happen yesterday nor did I see any changes on the streets of Bangkok today. People are going on with their lives and walking on the streets I didn’t see any changes to Bangkok life at all.
Yesterday, the tanks around the government building were more an attraction than a danger. People were standing around taking photos of each other standing in front of the tanks (see picture).

When traveling to Thailand you might want to check your flight again as there maybe some delays for some reason. Otherwise I wouldn’t see any reason to not come here. There doesn’t seem to be any imminent danger for foreigners.

There have been numerous military coups since Thailand so the military has had a big influence on Thai politics in the past 80 years since it became a democracy. The last coup was 15 years ago and many people thought Thailand is finally out of this stage. One the one hand it is a bad thing for Thailand because many other countries and important trade partners will be very careful in the future. It will definitely not do any good the ongoing Free Trade Agreement Negotiations between Thailand and the USA. On the other hand, Thailand might be close to an end of the political turmoil that has plagued it the past months since the demonstrations against Prime Minister Thaksin started.