Is Thailand Safe – 2009 – 2010 Season?
November 5, 2009 by Vern · Leave a Comment
Is Thailand Safe for the 2009-2010 Season?
Tourist season is in full swing – and it’s not that swinging yet. I wonder what the outside interpretation of Thailand as a safe place to visit in 2009-2010 is…
From inside the country – it’s business as usual. The violence from the deep south has yet to spread to other provinces, and Prime Minister Abhisit seems to even be entertaining the idea of giving autonomy to those that are killing for it. Probably that would be a great way to have the country rally behind him as prime minister. Well, more people than are now.
Thailand always seems safe from the inside. I don’t know any tourists or resident expats that are nervous about going out and enjoying whatever city they happen to be in. I know a number of people in Bangkok and nobody has mentioned anything to me about not feeling safe in Bangkok or Thailand as a whole.
From outside the country the violence that stopped months ago seems still fresh in their minds. The news of your home country probably replayed it over and over – maybe more so than here in Thailand as they don’t like to scare the tourists that are in the country.
I haven’t heard about any new updates at the foreign embassies calling now an unsafe time to visit Thailand.
Things are rather stable at the moment – at least all appearances are that. The country is waiting on good things from Abhisit. Thaksin’s contingent is not all that patient and really would love to usher in another Thaksin Prime Minister era. I really believe we’ll get there within a year. He’ll return and do a hell of a job this time – hopefully without corruption since there will be a serious need for transparency if he does make it back into office.
Is Thailand unsafe for this tourist season?
I’ll say what I usually say when I write one of these safe/unsafe articles about Thailand…
Today Thailand appears pretty safe. You can come and visit and have a blast. You can stay in Bangkok and where ever you like in the entire country except the deep southern provinces.
In a week – who knows if Thailand will be safe or not? Nobody knows. I can guess that we’re going to have a safe couple months as this tourist season gets up and running and passes.
After that? No idea how safe Thailand will be at that point. Ask me then…
Hiking in Thailand
I went hiking in Thailand yesterday. Snake hunting really. It’s a nice mountain climb – about 90 minutes up, 40 down. I saw some footprints ahead of me – fresh. I never did see the hikers though. That was odd. There’s supposed to be one way up the mountain and one way down.
There are some great hikes here in Thailand but you can get lost if you don’t have a guide that’s familiar with the trail. Last night I was up until after midnight with a group of about 50 Thai rescuers trying to locate a visitor and his wife that had become lost on a mountain climb. They’d been gone 13 hours before being found. It should have taken them 3 hours. They were quite happy to be found before having to stay all night there. They were burning pages from a book to keep the insects away.
There are plenty of poisonous snakes and other pitfalls in the Thailand jungle – made worse by nightfall.
Always have a couple things… LOTS of water. Mosquito repellant. Flashlight – even small. 7-11 sells them for 70 baht + AA batteries. Long sleeves and long pants and socks with sport sandals or sports shoes.
Sound does NOT travel far in a jungle I learned yesterday. As I approached some monkeys in the trees I noticed – it sounded like they weren’t that close – they were almost right above me. Sure, 60 feet above me… but, it was weird and I noticed. Then, after I’d passed I realized I’d only gone 50 meters and the sound was very reduced…these were the howling monkees that make that supercool bombs dropping noise.
The idea of sound not traveling well in the jungle was later reinforced as I realized the lost couple couldn’t hear the beeping of my motorbike horn as I went all around the base of the mountain – even within 1km of where the guy and his wife were resting (because it was pitch black even with the full-moon).
Later I really got a shock when the policeman I was with fired two shots from his pistol into the air. I was on the phone with the lost guy – and he said he heard one shot just faintly and the other shot – not at all. He was only about 1km from there!
A whistle would still be a good investment to bring if you’re hiking – it will go further than your voice. Their voices were hoarse after yelling for so many hours.
Be careful in Thailand – it’s fun, but it’s literally wild too. There are Asiatic black bears that could attack you while you’re hiking. They’re supposedly the most aggressive bears on the planet and only about 100lbs.
Watch out!
Welcome to Krabi…
May 7, 2009 by Vern · Leave a Comment
I just saw a blog post:
http://www.thainewsportal.com/swiss-tourist-found-strangled-on-krabi-beach/
A tourist strangled to death at Noppharat Thara beach – a 30 year old Swiss woman died today apparently. She was found with her handbag strap around her neck and face down in the sand.
I just blogged about the 2 Phi Phi deaths that nobody is explaining yet – but cyanide was found in one of the women that died. That’s enough to do it.
Krabi is usually a very safe place, and there’s no reason to stop going there – it’s just very strange we’ve had 3 foreigner deaths from 2 different causes in the last day or so.
In my opinion Krabi is safer than Patong Beach, Chiang Mai, Bangkok of course, Pattaya, and Samui and the other islands Tao, Pha-ngnan.
I wonder if we’ll see a mass exodus from Krabi this week… that’d be difficult because there are very few people there at the moment.
