Backpacker on the Thailand Coup: “Nobody’s Up in Arms About It”
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 09.20.06 | 1:53 PM ET
Apparently the banana pancakes-eating, hair-braiding backpacker set hanging out on Bangkok’s Kao San Road continues to, uh, chill, despite the tumultuous events of the last 24 hours in Thailand. It was 21-year-old Scottish traveler Amy Farquhar who remarked to USA Today about the bloodless coup to remove Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, “Nobody’s up in arms about it.” Farquhar was referring to her fellow Kao San travelers, we imagine, and not the tank-driving, arms-wielding military who staged the coup. Some travelers are a bit more engaged. Self-proclaimed vagabond Paul Karl Lukacs has been filing reports about events at the blog Knife Tricks. Among other posts, he writes: “This evening, I saw ten soldiers stationed at Tha Phae Gate, the central crossroads in the tourist section of Chiang Mai, Thailand. I rarely see soldiers in the city, so this was clearly a show of force.” According to USA Today’s story, the U.S. Embassy is urging its citizens in Thailand to “monitor the situation closely.” For the time being, Americans are not being advised to leave the country.
Photo by Jim Benning.
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
