October 14, 2006 - The Coup in Thailand
by Al & Beth Liggett

We were still traveling Stateside - I think visiting with friends from Guam who now live in Nevada - when the military coup ousted Prime Minister Takshin Shinawatra from power in Thailand. I just remember hearing "coup in Thailand" out of the corner of my ear during a newscast on TV. Of course, that was about all that was said. We have found it EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to get any international news from either television or newspapers in the USA. It's like, "We're the only ones that count; who cares what is happening elsewhere!" We are currently in the San Jose/Silicone Valley area of California - an area with a HUGE number of Asian residents. Local paper has one page devoted to Asian news - and that is largely filled with ads of the latest sales in department stores. Go figure...

We went online to check on some news sites - CNN, BBC, Herald Tribune - to get more of the Thailand story. And we e-mailed friends in Thailand to see if they were affected in any way. They weren't.

Our friends did report that there had been some tightening in the visa rules. This was a blow - things had just been getting a bit looser for traveling to Thailand, especially by boat. Well, it's one of those places where things change all the time. You never know what to expect from day to day; that's one of the reasons we prefer to hang out in Malaysia instead of Thailand. We will see what the latest visa rules for Thailand are when we return to the boat in a few days.

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