I am an American from Texas now living on St. John, US Virgin Islands. I am a digital graphic artist and I decided to express my feelings and perhaps others too on a T-Shirt so I had it made. It says it all, politely.

Dec 03, 2008 Bangkok UPDATE

What happened in Bangkok as a result of the armed PAD hijacking of most of the Airports in Thailand?

First lets look at the incident. The leader of the PAD decided to go to the main Airport to protest the arrival of the Prime Minister upon his return from another meeting out of the country. They did, in masses. As they arrived at the airport the Armed security forces and all airport personnel fled without a word to any of the tourists, leaving them at the mercy of the PAD armed group. After about 20 hours of TOTAL FEAR, the tourists were allowed to depart by busses to hotels, unharmed physically.

The PAD group continued to grow as gunfire and grenades continued to be used against anyone they felt was a threat such as the pro-government group (red-shirts.) It appeared that the PAD (yellow shirts) were getting full support by the Thai Military and police. The fact is no one can prove that, yet. The PAD placed thousands of vehicles blocking all entrances and barbed wire around the airport. The control towers of both airports were also taken control of by the PAD.

Over the next days many people were seriously beaten and injured by the PAD and even a few were killed by the PAD groups (no tourists).

From a tourist view and affect:

We recieved no information from anywhere. We were totally left in the dark as the days passed and we feared the worst. World news medias also. The stress was unbearable not to mention the financial burden. Many tourists could not sleep for days or since except for cat-napping and were afraid to speak to anyone locally. Our Embassies could not help with any information as they had none to share. At the time the major terrorist bombing in India overwhelmed everyone and that also added to our fears and stress of what could happen here in Bangkok. We were not sure if we would be caught in the middle of a civil war or not.

The Asian affect:

The main International airport is THE air HUB

of Asia, in and out.  All cargo and people go through it. It was criminally locked down. The local businesses, have no business now as did much of Asia and the economy of all countries have suffered a major financial loss in which they may never fully recover. The local thieves went crazy, stealing from any tourist on the street or from their hotels, anywhere, anytime, passports, cameras, bags and anything they could/can from the tourists.  It was and is still not safe in Thailand.  This is expected to worsen. The anger from tourists has on some occassions been directed toward the locals (not PAD) in violent retaliation. Fights have occurred and theft by some tourists have also began to occur in Bangkok due to their anger and frustrations and financial burdens. The locals raised prices astronomically and many tourists could not afford to get out of the country. Families around the world sent money to them so they could have a room and meals or get out of ther country.  A week after this began, the Thai government finally acted by allowing only 3-5 star hotels to credit tourists rooms/meals for 2000 bot a day. Tax and service charges of 17% still apply. If you stayed in a guesthouse or apt rental...nothing is paid for. That did not include the past weeks expenses.

The PAD has finally released their criminal hold of the airports and are allowing the airports to begin to reopen now.

It is the saddest day in the history of Thailand when such criminal events are allowed to occur and are supported by the government, police and military and its absolute refusal to intervene for so long toward the international criminal actions of its legal political group, the PAD..  Peoples Alliance for Democracy.?

Thanks for listening!