September 21, 2006 - Thailand Coup
by George & Merima

With the news of the coup in Thailand, we asked Merima & George, who are currently back aboard Moonshadow in Singapore, if and how this will affect their SE Asia cruising plans. Following is their initial reply. We expect a more detailed report from them soon.

As for the coup in Thailand, I'm not sure what will happen at this point, as we don't have enough information. The good news is that we bought a WorldSpace radio so we can tune into CNN, Fox, BBC and NPR daily to get news updates. I suspect that this is somewhat similar to the coup in Fiji in 2000. Most of the action was centered in the capital city, and the outlying areas were not really affected. We didn't change our cruising plans then, but did keep a close eye on the news. I suspect that this may end up being a similar situation. So far no shots have been fired and tourists seem to still be in Bangkok. That said, we'll probably forego plans to visit Bangkok and stick to the islands. We only plan to be there for a month or so to get a new main built and provision up for the trip across the Indian Ocean.