State of Emergency

The political situation in Thailand is beginning to heat up. Anti-government protestors (People's Alliance for Democracy, or PAD) claiming the current government committed electorial fraud in December and that Thai prime minister Samak is simply a proxy for his ousted predecessor Thaksin have been peacefully protesting for the last couple of months for the government to step down. Recently, mobs of protestors took over various government buildings (Ministry of Education, etc) and shutdown domestic airports throughout Thailand (not the international airport though). The first violence occurred early yesterday morning when pro- and anti-government supporters clashed. One person was killed and at least 40 were seriously injured. The government issued a state of emergency, making public gatherings illegal. In response, state enterprise labour unions that support PAD have threaten to disrupt public services (water, electricity, transportation, telephones, etc) today for all government buildings or ministry homes.

With all that said, Meg and I are fine. The protests are isolated to the government buildings, which we are sure to avoid. If anyone would like to keep an eye on the situation, the Canadian Government Foreign Affairs department has a travel advisory website that is regularly updated - http://www.voyage.gc.ca/dest/report-en.asp?country=290000. Also, we are in contact with the embassy here and they are sending us updates on the situation.

Personaally, I think the situation has reached a point of no return, meaning something has to happen. PAD is not going to back down so unless the government does resign then things will probably escalate. Regardless, I don't think we are in any danger - as long as we don't partake in the demonstrations.