Last year our travel plans to Thailand were nearly dashed as the country was languishing in political turmoil.  December 2008 saw the yellow shirt brigade blockade the airports and stranding thousands of tourists and preventing many from entering the country.  Not to be deterred by these events we booked our trip with the confidence that like every thing in Thailand, it would be fixed soon.  Our itinerary for this trip was straight forward:

Depart Melbourne 10/04/2009 then on to Khon Kaen and Nong Pai on April the 12th.  We then spend two weeks with the family and friends celebrating Songkran.  The 24th of April sees us going back to BK and then on to Phuket the following day.  This trip will conclude on May the 3rd.

Departure time minus two hours – phone call from one the many nieces in BK, the red shirts (UDD) have set up a blockade near Victory Circle.  Victory Circle includes the bus interchange so setting up a blockade there is like putting your heart in a vice.  We decide to go as planned.

Having arrived in BK in a plane that was light-on for people (=comfortable flight) we were informed that all was well in BK.  The red shirt brigade had relocated to Pattaya for the Asean conference.  Lucky us. 

The following day we went to check out Victory circle.  The entire place was as normal.  Victory circle has some of the most sensational food vendors so of course we stopped off to see my favourite soup lady.  Having consumed a lovely soup I once again surprised by Thai ingenuity. Imagine if you will a mannequin dressed in police uniform propped up in the middle of one of the busiest round-abouts in BK.  He doesn’t work alone, there’s another one on the opposite side of the circle.  It was not possible to gauge the success of the two hardest working cops in the Thai police force as most of the BK Thais had already vacated BK to go home for Songkran.  It is Songkran that will be the main area of interest for this trip.