Bangkok Shutdown: Information and Help Centers for Tourists
Foreign tourists can ask questions at seven places in Bangkok from Monday. A central information center will be set up in the Hua Mak Sports Complex; smaller centers will be located at Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi Airport, Siam Center, Hua Lamphong station and Phaya Thai and Ekamai BTS stations. The Professional Tourist Guide Association of Thailand deploys 50 volunteers to help tourists.
International tourists who cannot depart within eight hours of their missed flight due to the protests are entitled to US$100 compensation per day from the Thai Hotels Association.
The Association of Thai Travel Agents says tour operators have shifted tourist destinations to the outskirts of Bangkok and Pattaya. Hotels have minibuses available around the clock, especially to take guests to one of the airports.
On Monday, anti-government protesters will gather at seven locations (see map). Tourists staying in hotels near the Ratchaprasong intersection will experience the most inconvenience.
Centara Grand in CentralWorld has stocked up on enough food and drinking water for a month; normally the hotel has one week stock. The hotel is open as usual, but the number of guests will be smaller next week. Most Mice reservations are postponed (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions). The occupancy rate will reach 50 percent this month, compared to 80 percent in January last year.
The management expects medium-sized events to return within three months and large events after a year due to the long preparation time. Domestic Mice events can recover within a month.
(Source: Bangkok Post, January 9, 2014)
Photo homepage: Action leader SuthepThaugsuban is out of luck.
The photo on the homepage with Suthep and that little boy is sublime. Take a good look at that boy's face. And you know it: children and drunk people speak the truth.
I would like to stay informed, I will soon be in Bangkok, Silom Road and wait a while before canceling the hotel there.
Thank you
@ Sabine As soon as we know something, we'll report it. I suspect Monday will be a busy day for the Breaking News section. Unfortunately I don't speak Thai otherwise I could bring the news from the TV; now I have to wait for a Breaking News item on the website of Bangkok Post and they are not very fast at BP.
Thank you Dick van der Lugt and of course the rest of the people here on the blog for keeping us informed.
We leave for Bangkok on Thursday and stay 3 days in the Eastin hotel Makkasan in Bangkok to continue our journey from there. Hope everything will go smoothly.
Thanks also from us for the excellent information!!
We also leave on Thursday, same hotel as Brenda.
We follow thailandblog closely, and hope that our first Thailand trip will be unforgettable! (in a positive sense of course)
hi brenda, i am also going to stay at the eastin hotel.
What have your experiences been there about the protests?
Regards Anita
We leave for Bangkok next Tuesday and stay there for 3 days before we continue our journey. From memory we stay in the Ibis hotel Riverside.
We are also curious what we will find, can we go to our hotel or?
If anyone has more info I'd love to hear it
@ Joke Ibis hotel Riverside is in an ideal place I would say: at Krung Thonburi BTS station and the river where you can take a ferry. From Suvarnabhumi take the Airport Rail Link and change to the BTS at Phaya Thai. From Krung Thonburi station, take a tuk-tuk to the hotel.
@Dirk thanks for the info. Gr joke
We arrive in BK on Jan 28 and stay in Sukhumvit Soi 18 Park Plaza, are there blockages expected there too?
@ Martin Dejong January 28 is two weeks after the start of Bangkok Shutdown. The question is whether the action lasts that long. The Sukhumvit-Asok intersection is blocked, which is soi 21. Soi 18 is quite a distance away. There you can not be bothered by a possible blockage.
happy in cha-am in thailand at the moment