Thursday, August 28, 2008

Thai protests-- a note

Some of you may have seen news about the protests here in Thailand over the past several days. I wanted to assure everyone reading this blog that we are fine, and not in any kind of danger from this.

Thailand is going through an interesting time right now politically, centering on the figure of the former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra-- he was the one deposed by the military coup in 2006, and he has now fled back to asylum in Britain to escape arrest. The People's Alliance for Democracy, the organization currently occupying Government House, is calling for the resignation of the current PM, Thaksin's supporter Samak Sundaravej.

(ETA: An online acquaintance who has lived in Thailand for over 10 years now posted a link to this CNN blog, which from everything I've heard is an accurate summary of the current situation.)

It's a complex issue and I'm no expert on the situation, but we are all hoping that one way or the other, democracy will prevail-- and no one gets hurt.

Back from Singapore!

Okay, so I'm back from a few days in Singapore. All in all, it was a fun trip-- I got to see the Orchid Gardens, some museums, and Chinatown, and Josh and I went to the zoo and the Night Safari together-- but I was more tired than I expected. I'll put up some photos here later on (they are already on our Flickr page).

For Labor Day weekend, we are off to the beach! Specifically, we are driving down to Cha-Am beach on Saturday, just about two hours outside of Bangkok:


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We are going to be staying at the Alila Resort there, which I am very jazzed about: it's brand-new and has gotten a lot of press because of its cutting-edge design.