Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

State Of Emergency Declared In Thailand

Mandrake just send me an urgent SMS saying “You’re not in Bangkok right? State of emergency has been declared”.

I’ve switched on the tv in my hotel in Pattaya. All the Thai channels are only showing videos of their King walking around visiting villages in his youth. BBC says that tanks have moved into the capital of Bangkok.

What the hell is going on???

11:55pm - BBC: tanks in position at Thai gov HQ
11:57pm - Chulangkorn Uni professor: Opposition parties have seized control of the tv and radio stations.
11:58pm - Realized I am drinking diet coke whilst I am living through a real-life coup. Discard diet coke and open the mini-bottle of Bacardi instead.
12.09am - The army now controls Bangkok and have entered the gov house
12:30am - Now onto 2nd mini-bottle of Bacardi
12:44am - BBC wonders who is staging a coup on whom. They’re not sure.
12:50am - Yumei reports that the soldiers are wearing yellow bands. I inform her that yellow means “I Heart The King”.
12:57am - There’s a old dude in a suit with a yellow tie and a yellow king symbol on his heart speaking on all the channels now!!!!
12:58am - UN assembly totally ignoring situation in Thailand
01:00am - The old dude in a suit is the leader of the coup. He has declared that they have taken over the government.
01:03am - It’s clear now that the coup is being staged by the army.
01:11am - BBC reports that BBC, CNN etc are all now off the air in Thailand. I have no idea how I am still able to watch them report this.
01:18am - The Thai currency begins to move on a downward trajectory
01:30am - The Thai military declares nationwide martial law
01:33am - In case you’re wondering what’s been shown on all Thai TV channels, here’s a taste (taken with my phonecam). Click on them to get a larger pic

01:40am - Military chief insists that the armed forces have control of the nation now.
01:45am - Here is the old guy in a suit with a yellow tie (identified as Lieutenant-General Prapart Sakuntanak) that keeps on annoucing something on the air. I think he is asking for everybody to be calm and that the military is now in control.

01:47am - Thaksin says he is still Prime Minister and will give a speech at the UN General Assembly soon.
01:50am - ChannelnewsAsia: Thai armed forces’ seizure of control is temporary and power will be “returned to the people” soon, coup spokesman Lieutenant-General Prapart Sakuntanak says on television. He adds that the coup is necessary because PM Thaksin’s government has divided the country and corruption is rampant.
01:53am - People in Thailand are emailing CNN to inform the rest of the world what is going on.
2:02am - A sudden storm has crept up. Violent winds and rain are howling outside my hotel window.
2:06am - ChannelnewsAsia: MFA advises Singaporeans planning to travel to Thailand to monitor developments
2:08am - The army has suspended the cabinet and parliament
2:27am - Deputy Prime Minister Chitchai Wannasathit and Defense Minister Thammarak Isaragura na Ayuthaya - two close loyalists of Thaksin - have been arrested and that Chitchai agreed to resign.
2:38am - All your base are belong to Commander-in-Chief Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin.

Click here for more updates

Technorati Tags: bangkok, coup, Thailand, emergency

OMG Cowboy you take care! Where are you now, still Pattaya?

Hopefully they don’t cut your Internet connection. Events like these are where bloggers come in to fill the voids. Time to check technorati for thai bloggers.

I am in Pattaya.

Now CNN says it’s an attempted military coup.

Hope it won’t affect you much in Pattaya, and that you stay safe.

Holy cow!!!

Do come back in 1 piece. Take care.

Kaoz I getting more update from refreshing this page than searching google news!

cowboy you’ll be fine… somemore my dad says once the king gets grumpy and tell everyone to “Diam!”, they’ll back off and everything’s back to peace and happy and cheery… Only methinks too bad for Thaksin, get mutinied while he’s not in the country.

yeah man. i seem to get more updates here too..

Heheh the BBC says that they have been cutoff from Thailand… so how am I watching them on the tv? Maybe my hotel’s cable connection is satellite?

u should go down on to the streets, bring us first hand reports with ur hp!
You be hailed a messiah of news! lol

but pattaya to bangkok is about 3 hours by car wor….take care dude.

Cowboy no need update liao la… everything is fine right… should get some sleep now man

Gosh take care!

Haha, all your base indeed!

Nice phone shots. And yeah, Kevin is right. This is where blogging becomes such an important tool for world news.

hey, is this what MM Lee meant, when he said the army will step in? harhar…if it only happened in singapore..

can we have pics of thai girls now?

LOL, I never thought that I’ll see this again in Thailand.

- MENJ

Hey CCB, take care yuh? Use your lasso in case (touch wood) they come.