Being held captive....

November 26th Bangkok international airport, 3000 Thai PAD protesters take control of Thailand's busiest airport forcing the cancellation of every flight in and out of the country. The problem is I'm stuck inside the terminal with little way in or out. I'm a hostage!
Ok that's a little extreme and perhaps my boredom has taken over and led to hysteria but we're in a sensationalist world now. My captures have been pretty nice to me. Ive been here about 8hours and been given several bottles of water, a seafood rice dish, a Danish pastry, 4 bread rolls, a small cake and 2 packs of gum. Not bad, being a hostage is cheap living.
The thing is I'm not sure why they decided to take the airport. I'm by no means an expert on Thai politics and what I know mostly comes from Andy and although he calls me a Marxist I think he calls it pretty well. Essentially the PAD is the urban class and in the minority to the UND rural government. After some coup and elections they continue to lose. They claim the UND is corrupt and tied to Taksin former pre coup administration. There is there seems some truth to this.Back to the airport, I cant see the benefit of taking it. Yes it creates publicity but the PAD has had relatively positive media attention and this seems to be changing. The government has played it perfectly I'm sure its been noted abroad. They have just left the protesters to it not using any police or restrictions. Obviously this helps the govt because without confrontation there is no news. This was ok until pro govt supporters created the confrontation and gun shots were heard with 11 wounded in the city.I've just been notified that the govt has paid for all passengers to be put up in IBIS hotels across Bangkok. I'm now in a propaganda war and the protesters seem a little dejected that all the foreigners are leaving because this obviously takes away some of the prestige, some foreigners though were starting to lose their patience with the protesters. The hotel is nice but I have to share with a Belgian guy. Rumour has it that the military general ( a potential military coup is also possible) will make a speech and the president will arrive back from the APEC summit via Chiang Mai.
Just watched the generals speech he says he is behind the govt and will not use force (you'd think the president would decide this).The airlines and particularly mine 'Cathay Pacific' have been beyond useless , I accept its not their fault but there is no info, no staff, no assistance, their telephone lines are blocked, their website still says flights are scheduled and they still haven't told me what I should do.
The night came and went and still no news. The events in Mumbai though may help (I felt for the couple scheduled to fly from Bangkok to Mumbai, where do their troubles start) all international news coverage is no longer covering the Thai situation but Mumbai so now there is no coverage, no passengers and no opposition for the protesters. I'm unsure how the situation can end, pro govt supporters have rallied in Chiang Mai behind the president.Let's wait and see.

The next couple of days i spent in the cathay pacific office trying to get out of the country. Rumours were adrift that they were sending Hong Kong citizens home, this i thought was my chance so off i trotted down to the British embassy to see what our flagship provider was doing for it's citizens. Sod FFing all is what. I shouldn't of been surprised considering they couldn't put open a terminal up without fing it up. So after complaining and about the hong kong situation and trying to get sympathy with an impending marriage (white lies are ok) I was advised to go to the Chinese embassy. So i went there (the taxi drives could smell blood I'm sure) and they knew nothing about this. A cover up i thought so i trotted to the Hong Kong office. A possible solution on which i won't write about but got me on a emergency flight from the army base to hong Kong. Unfortunately I would miss the big wedding. In the airport it was chaos, imagine Chichester airstrip with Heathrow's passengers. One x-ray machine and 2 desks dealing with thousands upon thousands of passengers. I met a girl from Hong Kong who i befriended the day before and who was trying to get on the plane without a ticket. Needless to say a bit of blagging got her on board on what was a semi empty plane. We landed in Hong Kong with the nightmare (plus dreams of seeing anarchy) all over. I may never get to see a coup. The history is well still being written a coup has been avoided with law makers banning the president and his colleagues forming a new collation. This is certainly not the end of things and don't be surprised off a possible social uprising or dare i say it civil conflict.

Hong Kong was how i left it, bright lights, clean streets and the smell of colonialism.

A smalll dedication to Hoi-To and Joyce whose wedding i may of missed but i will certainly be there for the 50 year anniversary. Congratulations!!!