Who ordered coup?

When I heard that a military coup took place, I called my travel agent, and got there as soon as I could. I arrived in Thailand on Thursday Sept 29, and if anything, it looked more peaceful then when I left it a month earlier. Traffic was normal, garbage was being collected, and people were on the streets. I woke up the next day, and went about town to look for signs of trouble. Once again not much to report, all I found were a few Army soldiers directing traffic (with yellow ribbons on their guns). I asked a tok-tok driver how he felt about the coup, and he replied that he was very pleased with it. I asked if he could show me where the soldiers are, and he said he would.

We had to look hard to find them, and once we did I was quit surprised. Several tanks and APCs had been parked outside the central Government offices, and barriers erected around them. The barriers were not to deter the crowds, but rather control the hordes of Thais taking pictures with the tanks. It was all quite bizarre, but in a positive way. I couldn’t resist, and took a pict to…

When I left a week ago, Thailand was calm. The new Airport had just opened and local people seemed glad to be ride of the former PM Thaksin. While military coups are for the most part a bad thing, the general feeling in Thailand is that something drastic needed to be done in order to progress. The important question that remains open is if the military return power to the people gently, as promised, or through bloodshed, as in the past. As of now things seem to be progressing in the right direction.