Honestly, now.

First things first.  I’m alive and well.  Nothing remotely bad or scary has happened to me.  My travel plans went from simple to stupidly complicated, but things should work out alright.  I was supposed to fly from Bangkok.  Obviously, not going to do that.  My flight was canceled and then re-booked.  However, I’m flying out of Chiang Mai.  Meaning I have to get to there.  Tomorrow evening, I’ll hop on a bus sit there for 12 hours on my merry way to Bangkok.  Hopefully, I’ll get to sleep through most of it.  Then, Monday morning, I’ll catch either another bus or a train from Bangkok and chill for another ten hours on my way to Chiang Mai.  I’ll arrive just in time to find a hotel, crash, wake up, and get on the plane.  I’ll fly to Taipei, transfer, and then on to LA.  After that, it depends on how well I can butter up the airline staff into changing my ticket.  I’m currently flying into New Orleans.  However, with all the current muck, I’d rather just come home.

That’s the plan, anyways…….

The current situation is rather icky.  Basically, a lot of people want to get rid of the Prime Minister because they feel that he’s just a puppet of the old government that they overthrew last year (they are also very much for the king-but that’s almost never mentioned).  Demonstrators have taken over all of the government buildings.  The Prime Minister is planning on bringing is the police.  This part I’m sketchy on.  A few months ago, something similar happened.  However, when the Prime Minister ordered the military to pitch in, the military did……….nothing.  There’s a lot more, but I’m still confused by it all.

That’s about all I know right now.  Most of my information comes from either Thais or the foreigners who can read Thai.  I find myself getting more and more annoyed with the Western reporting on the situation.  There’s a whole lot of focus on the  tourists.  One article even went so far as to say that they were “hostages to a deepening political crisis.”  Yes, it sucks that this is such a mess, but hostages?  For me the word “hostage” implies that someone is sitting there, trembling and helpless, with a gun to their head.  Okay, people might be trembling, but aside from a very small percentage of cases, people aren’t helpless.  There are dozens of routes to get out of the country.  Yes, people will have to do some legwork, but if you’re sweet to the locals, they’re more that happy to help you out.  I feel for the people who have limited mobility of other health problems, but I’m increasingly annoyed with everyone else.  Sure, it stinks for the tourists, but what about the people who say that their not afraid to die for their cause, that they will not back down, and they are willing to be human shields.   Isn’t that information a little more pertinent?

P.S.  I passed my CELTA.  I’ll have to wait a week to receive my final grade.