ak333

Almost home - in SFO at the AS Boardroom.

Actually, I wasn't scheduled to leave until Thursday, so I did need to verify early checkout. I actually considered staying, until I twice heard the gun shots (yes, this is a peaceful coup, but I know what I heard, just like no shots were fired in '92). Could it have been celebratory? I know that I didn't want to find out. And since a "holiday" was declared, I wouldn't have been able to get my work done anyway.

There is also a weird feeling you get when you are visiting a country when martial law is declared.

I like Thailand, and look forward to returning once normalcy returns or whatever passes for normalcy.

milepig

Glad you're almost home, and thanks for the checkout clarification - all makes sense now.

billp

Well, of course the guy's entitled to cut and run if he feels uncomfortable or threatened, but what I found absurd was reporting on it as if he barely made it out by the skin of his teeth, when in fact he was checking normally out of his luxury hotel, driving to the airport in a limo on the toll highway and boarding first class onto a scheduled flight, which left on time from a normally-operating airport.

I personally have been caught in situations where real warfare or civil unrest was going on, and there was no option to take a limo to the airport. If the OP was watching CNNI that night, he would have seen that this was all happening with a large peaceful crowd watching it unfold at government house. And the shots were either in his imagination or a motocy' backfiring or something.

ak333

I made it home OK except for some ATC delays arriving PDX.

I was also only in J and if you know hotel limos, you know that they are not really "limos," but upscale cars, and it happened to be included in my hotel rate.

I'll quote what the woman checking out next to me said this morning "I've been in many countries as a visitor when coups have broken out. It's always best to leave for a little while so things settle." If that's cutting an running so be it.

flysas

maybee the 'gunshots' u heard was a tuk tuk backfireing, a very usual occurance in Bangkok

ak333

I hope that I am wrong about the gun shots since by all accounts everything so far has been fairly peaceful. Those three rounds though at 3:20AM were very suspicious though.

biggestbopper

Gosh, and I thought a coup might be when the guy with less votes gets "elected" by a bunch of judges.

ThailandBangkok

You have become the laughing stock of Bangkok. The whole expat community is reading it in amusement.

I am sure walking through some seedy suburbs of NY or Washington would have been a thousand fold more dangerous.

Sounds like a good story for your friends i bet !

ak333

Welcome to FT ThailandBangkok.

Up until that moment, I have always felt safe in Bangkok, and as I said earlier, I plan to return.

sllevin

I think you did the right thing. What did you have to gain by staying? Very, very little. Perhaps expats who truly know people and the lay of the land have more to lose, but, IMO, you absolutely did the right thing to cut short by a couple of days and come home.

Saying "it will be peaceful" sounds great in hindsight...but in foresight has a great potential to become "famous last words."

Steve

dave111223

Its not the fact that he went home early which makes him a joke, its the way he relays this story, as if there were bullets flying past his head while he slid into the first class lounge, escaping great peril.

sllevin

I guess some of us just don't see it that dramatically. Me, I would have waited for the sigh of relief until the aircraft was clear of Thai airspace. Until that point, you never know exactly what might happen.

Steve

Remo

Maybe I am wrong buts it not a case of Ha Ha Ha on the guy who chooses to leave, we all have to do what feels best for us and no can argue that

I havent lived in TH that long and its not really a case of it being an "inhouse" joke from people who have lived here for a while

I found out hours later than you probably did, I looked at how all the news agencies were reporting it, if I looked online I could read CNNs headline
"Thailand in Chaos after Military Coup" which was very differnt to how Reuters or BBC, or other agencies were reporting it 7hrs after the event

And CNNs version was as close to the truth as I am to Venice Beach

And still no one does know what will happen, and for someone who pops in and out TH it would freak them out

The decription of events was well written but read like the script to the next indiana jones movie

Be 000's of miles away from your home and tanks on the streets be concerned

Gun fire, tanks on the street, lucky escapes just all sounds very entertaining

And yes a limo in TH is just an "upscale car" but outside of the US limos are tacky and a Limo service from a good hotel is something German

Breathe your sign of relief as you leave the airspace and why not you did not feel comfortamble - but at least try and get a better understanding of the situation - I dont mean oh well there have been coups on the past but at least spend 20 mins trying to understand what is a credible version of news

Thailand is not zimbabwe and is not a 3rd world country (as some have suggested) , developing maybe but not 3rd world

ak333

I was actually quite disappointed in the coverage that I saw on CNN while I was there. I'm not a first timer to Thailand; quite the opposite it was my 19th visit. My wife really wanted me out of there and my family and friends were sending me emails/ims advising the same.

Although this coup has so far been peaceful, it still isn't over. I'm not going to debate Thai politics in this forum, but if Thaksin does decide to leave his hiding place in London and return to the county, things could change in a hurry.

sfuller82

As dave111223 put it so well
"Its not the fact that he went home early which makes him a joke, its the way he relays this story, as if there were bullets flying past his head while he slid into the first class lounge, escaping great peril."

Mr. ak333, could you kindly respond why you wrote your original tale with such a sense of impending peril when you were nowhere near in any danger? You made yourself look silly, not for leaving Bangkok early, but for the dramatic way you wrote your story.