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Home » Reader question » Reader question: Should we in Thailand fear for the safety of us and our children?
Dear readers,
What should have been a nice prospect now gives us sleepless nights. We have booked a tour through Thailand from July 27 to August 7. We travel to Bangkok, River Kwai, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Khao Sok and Krabi.
Can you advise us if it is wise to cancel this trip given the coup d'état in Thailand? We fear for the safety of us and our children.
Sincerely,
H. Nomden
As the situation is now, there will be few problems. Keep an eye on it, look at travel advisories and follow the news in the Thai newspapers and on this blog. There is enough time to cancel the trip if the situation escalates. If it is no longer sweltering in June/July, you can travel as usual. Maybe don't stay too long in Bangkok? If something happens, it will probably be there.
Why would you cancel, there is no war here... those soldiers have sent the troublemakers home in yellow and red... dear people, listen, daily life continues as normal. Just come, the television here is running again. As a Dutch person, I live in Bangkok, nothing to worry about, just now a curfew from 22.00 p.m. to 05.00 a.m. soooo, we sleep early anyway, you can travel wherever you want. So don't cancel and don't be frightened by the media who inflate everything for good viewing figures.
It is also the case, if you arrive as a traveler within the curfew of 22.00 to 05.00, you can travel to your destination in a normal way.
If a soldier detains you and you show your valid travel papers, you can continue your journey..that applies to arriving in Thailand and leaving Thailand.
I'm going myself July 15 to the end of August with my 3 children!! Where you have sleepless nights, I'm sleeping better and better. Think we should be happy that the army has intervened, the fuse has now been taken out of the powder keg just to put it to say!!! Especially if the army now provides a democratic solution, calls for new elections, etc. then the situation will only improve in the short term!!
Go to Thailand with peace of mind and enjoy your well-deserved holiday and have fun!!!
Cities like Bangkok and Chang Mai are many soldiers on the street, but in the smaller cities and countryside you don't notice that much.
Would Bangkok girls and your trip adjust something, for example go to the islands, but keep in mind that there is now a curfew throughout Thailand, so after 22.00 p.m. you are not allowed on the street, this usually does not take very long.
So inform the authorities in Thailand well, the Dutch are generally not well informed
Hope you can do something with it.
Feel free to go to Thailand, it has never been so quiet. Have fun and keep the embassy's website at hand to check/read once a day if anything changes for the neighborhood you want to visit. (As you know, you know that there have been parts in the
south of Thailand is not recommended to go due to terrorist threats)
Make it an unforgettable holiday, it is great, especially if you want to get to know the Thai culture.
We are now used to the fact that the media in the Netherlands blow things up quite a bit. BVN showed
last week images of the disturbances, barbed wire barriers, victims, etc. from a few years ago and therefore made it much worse than reality. Many here are happy with this coup - on the news, of course, we see protesters, barely realizing how necessary this intervention by the army was, screaming kitchen maids - and to be honest, the last few months have not been as quiet as the last few days.
In short, advice – go on holiday and enjoy all the beauty this country has to offer.
If you avoid any demonstrations and protests then it seems to me no problem to visit Thailand.
Any outbreak of violence is not to be expected against tourists from any party involved in this conflict. However, if I were you, I will make sure that you buy a local prepaid card in Thailand and pass this number on to the embassy and your family. In addition, this website, Bangkok Post and / or the Nation will keep an eye on whether there is any news that could affect you. may be important.
I drove from Bangkok to Koh Chang the day after the coup, on a small military roadblock just before Trad, no military seen.
As a parent to my children, I would think that soldiers with loaded guns in the street would not give me a sense of security.
The curfew and the ban on gatherings will not make your tour any easier either,
I understand this is giving you sleepless nights.
NO ONE can assure you that you are safe during the tour.
In my opinion, a country that is under a military junta is not a tourist destination.
You will have to decide in good conscience whether you cancel or not.
I wish you much support and understanding for your choice.
Dear Pi.
I imagine you advise what you advise.
Your children are an anxious “possession”.
However, I want to come back to your comment that soldiers with a loaded rifle do not give you a sense of security.
But……
Suppose you go to the US on vacation.
A country with an incredibly large possession of weapons.
A country where a good 16 million citizens are arms bearers, albeit concealed, but still.
Moreover, the training in safety and use is not really optimal.
And where the eagerness to shoot of the “law enforcement officers” is a well-known phenomenon.
Suppose you go on holiday in your own country, or you leave Schiphol to elsewhere.
In the Netherlands, some 60.000 citizens own one or more weapons, although 99,99% are well trained in the safe use of weapons, but it only takes one blunder by the police to release an idiot.
And there are estimated to be a good 1 million, yes you read that right, illegal firearms.
And those “holders” are really not trained in the safe handling of weapons.
And how about the patrols of the Marechaussee at Schiphol.
They walk open and naked with a LOADED pistol machine gun through the arrivals and departures hall.
they are, of course, well trained, soldiers themselves.
My point?
Well, soldiers, including Marechaussees, are well trained in the use of firearms.
It's a bit less with the regular police.
Yet.
And that also applies in Thailand.
Take it from me that the police in Thailand are not stars in the safe use of firearms.
And certainly not the average civilian gun owner who has it for “safety”, and often does not know how such a thing works.
Real!
I don't feel very safe about that right now.
The average Dutchman has been talked into such an unreasonable fear of firearms that it borders on the idiotic.
A loaded firearm placed in a safe will NEVER go off and fire on its own.
People pull the trigger.
And trained people don't do that easily, just because they know what the consequences are!
Nevertheless, the whole situation outside Bangkok is not too bad.
The curfew has been reduced to some reasonable times for the time being, the gathering ban is reportedly applied rather selectively, as a tourist you will not actually be bothered by it.
A country “under a military junta” not a tourist destination?
There are countries in the world, what am I even saying in Europe, where there has never been a coup d'état and which are much more dangerous than Thailand.
Different travel advice is given per country, and all of them actually indicate a "be careful" in Bangkok.
And I see very little of that stooping outside of Bangkok, except in the south.
In short?
It's all okay.
Feel free to come to Thailand with the children.
To be on the safe side, skip a few places in Bangkok.
And for the rest: welcome to Thailand.
Dear HansNL
Indeed, you put the finger very precisely on the wound where you, quite rightly, state that “firearms do not go off by themselves, but that it is people who pull the trigger”.
Let that very thought frighten me! After all, humans are excellent
(in)human actions, regardless of whether or not they are trained in the use of weapons.
Kito
I have daily contact with my wife in Bangkok and everything is calm.
Travel advice from Belgian and Dutch embassies can be found on the following sites respectively and I have also just sent this translated to my wife:
http://diplomatie.belgium.be/nl/Diensten/Op_reis_in_het_buitenland/reisadviezen/azie/thailand/ra_thailand.jsp?referer=tcm:314-75917-64
http://thailand.nlambassade.org/nieuws/2014/01/demonstraties.html
Tip: when communicating with loved ones in Thailand, use 2 communication channels if possible, e.g. Line app on smartphone and email. If one of them fails due to network overload - or closure by the army - you can still reach each other in another way. That's how we do it now.
At the time of writing, everything is quiet, except perhaps for a few isolated places. My wife doesn't notice it.
Greetings,
Bruno
Today I drove from Hua Hin to Bangkok by taxi and I am there now, no military seen.
So pack your bags and have a nice holiday. Ron.
The curfew really won't last forever and, rumor has it, will likely be changed to 11pm soon. Many tourists can still enjoy a happy hour set in several hotels between 10 and 12 o'clock. 'in the evening. Thailand, not for the faint hearted but quite safe if you use your common sense. Just go!
You say that you have booked a “Round Trip” in Thailand. Isn't the organization of that tour the right place to ask your question?
Posting your question here on this forum will give you all the pros and cons opinions that you can't weigh on their reliability because you don't know the authors. It just makes you more confused.
Don't you think that the organizers of your tour will take great care (even excessively) not to go to places where it could pose the slightest risk? After all, they benefit much more than you if nothing happens because it affects their future business.
The countless opinions of all kinds of people who live in Thailand (like me for 10 years) or have a wife in Thailand, or often go on holiday there or visit this forum for whatever reason will not offer you anything to hold on to. They may just happen to live in one of the places you visit (like me in Chiang Mai) but chances are very few live and really know about the places you visit.
My general idea is that Thailand is safe, dare I say safer under the “military regime” than it has been in recent months. And then even when there were demonstrations there was no problem for tourists, not even in Bangkok where it was all going on.
And certainly if you travel in a group you are safer than in the Netherlands, I thought.
The curfew (curfew) does not seem to be a problem for you at all, if it still exists when your trip starts, if you are traveling with children you will usually be back in your hotel or guesthouse before 22:00 PM.
Tonight, here in Chiang Mai at Tapea Gate, I offered a Chinese tourist whom I saw photographing two soldiers (with rifle!!!) to take a picture of her in the middle of the two soldiers. That was accepted without further ado and the result was three smiling people in a photo. Everyone was happy. That's how it goes here.
There is no reason to panic or sleepless nights. As stated before; the media blows things up quite a bit.
I myself travel through Thailand several times a year, alone and not in groups and have been doing this for 15 years.
There was always something going on, demonstrations, heavy flooding, etc. However, this never stopped me from going.
Also visited in February this year and then only stayed in Bangkok, there also no hindrance due to the demonstrations.
I never regretted it, felt unsafe or anything.
The curfew will most likely be lifted in the course of next week.
Just go and have fun!
There is of course something going on in Thailand with a coup.
There has also been a lot going on in recent months with demonstrations for and against the government and the associated violence.
You could say that the whole 'thing' is now happening behind closed doors. There are still relatively small, non-violent demonstrations against the coup and yesterday I read that a pro-coup demonstration is also planned for today. In numbers and emotional anger not comparable to the situation of recent months.
Indeed relatively small, non-violent but certainly emotionally charged demonstrations. There were several in Bangkok, in Chiang Mai and Khonkaen.
Don't forget that the military has a reputation for responding to demonstrations. In 1973, 1976, 1992 and 2010, at least 300 people were killed and thousands injured. That also means that today's demonstrators, under martial law and with the threat of a court-martial, are extremely courageous. Hats off.
In the radio news of yesterday evening 19:07, a military speaker asked that everyone in the social media circuit (everyone = without exception) would stop trying to make the situation worse and make it worse if it is true.
He said: many talk about things they cannot know and judge and create an image that is completely wrong. That is very harmful for Thailand. End seat.
I think we should all think about that and count to 10 before we write what we suspect on media. For months it was not as quiet in Bangkok as it is now.
Moderator: please don't chat.