Peaceful? Maybe not..

As most of you may have heard Thailand has been undergoing various protesting breakouts. The first big outlash began in December which resulted with the "yellow shirts" called the PAD taking over the airports in "hopes" to overthrow the Prime Minister and take him out of office. Some violence came out of these protests and thousands of people were out of jobs and Thailand took a huge toll in their economy by losing millions of Baht (Thai's currency) from the loss of tourists wanting to even travel during one of the busiest times of the year. There were two groups involved in these protests; the PAD (yellow shirts) who were for the king and then the "red shirts" who were with the government. Anyone seen with either of these colors were cautioned and foreigners were told to not go out in no larger than 5 in a group.

So this caused alot of unrest with the tourists, foreigners and even locals who were shocked to here about the various violence and lock downs they caused. The biggest unfortunate was the fact that many of the protestors were only involved becuase they were paid to do so...

As you may have heard here in the past week and before the Songkran holiday (April 13-15) more protesting has lashed out. I was near Kausan Road which is one of the most famous tourist places to visit. It is known as "backpackers alley" which is right in the middle of Bangkok and near alot of the Goverment buildings. On Thursday, April 9 I was with Ashley Angelo and her mom taking a quick trip to do some last minute shopping before their departure the next morning. As the sun began to set, we went to find a local tuk tuk to see if we could possibly catch a temple before we headed off. As we began to talk to the tuk tuk guide, he almost laughed in our faces their at the entrance of Kausan when we told him where we wanted to go? He pointed down the street, and to our surprise we saw tons of red shirted people creating baracades across one of the major highways, and the way we needed to go to get home?? So... We decided to not take the tuk tuk guides suggestion of one wayaround them but yet instead made our way towards the red crowd.

After hearing my students talk about these various protestors I was getting a little nervous. They are always telling me to be careful and watch where I am going as to not get right in the middle of these people. And yet we went right towards them.. It was actually ok at first. They had a few people sitting in the middle of the road with some policemen observing. Pheeew! I felt a little better with these policemen around. Then as we continued to walk down I was noticing that.... "We are the only white people here...?!" and that everyone around us was wearing red. And all I could hear was the shouting of some protesting leader yelling to the hundreds.. yeah HUNDREDS! of red shirted protestors below him.. Ok yeah it was time to get out of there! As we continued around the paved circle we saw a barracade and a line of policemen dressed in black with helmets in a line right outside of these metal fences. We were bookin it trying to get out of crowd and getting nervous of who know what was being and said and what was going on. However the police just smiled and kind of gave a little chuckle as we flew by...

This past week has seen the worst of these Red shirt protestors; which they are for the government and wanting a former Prime Minister back in to office named Taksin. I am glad to say that I was out of the city when all of this unfortunate violence took place. Apparently there was talk of protestors violating some schools and even taking over Prakanong exit which is right down the road from where I live. Much violence was taken place out of these protestings and foreigners here in Bangkok was on "Red alert" and advised to stay in their hotels.

There has been alot of hype and craziness going on in the news. Most pictures and stories are more graphic then what it really is. Bangkok is a very big city and "thank the Lord" we are all safe and sound, no harm was in our way. Let's just keep praying for Thailand and even for everyone living in these times. It is coming to an end faster than we think and can even comprehend. If you haven't committed to God now.. NOW is the time. He is the Truth the Life and Way. You cannot live and do without HIM.