johnbernstravelblog

About four and a half hours ago the phone calls started coming in: “Hey, did you hear that there are rumors that a coup is being staged?�

That was just before 11pm local time, Tuesday the 19^th of September.

I was at a friend’s condo, we switched on CNN and CNN was reporting that it appeared that a coup was under way. The Thai TV channels were all showing pictures of the King and playing music–not the normal program for the evening.

For the next hour or so the situation got very weird; rumors were flying fast and furious. There were tanks in the streets. Troops loyal to the Prime Minister had mobilized to head of f a coup attempt. No, it was opposition troops that were mobilizing to take over the government. It was impossible to make out what was happening–for every piece of observable evidence (and that evidence was mostly tanks in the streets) there were at least two or more conflicting stories coming from different quarters.

It was disquieting not knowing what was going on around me. There was no way to really know what is REALLY happening at the moment.

While the local channels were silent, the international news channels were playing the Thai coup story non-stop. Pictures of tanks filled the screens. Again, the news reports from the Internet and the international news channels conflicted wildly.

Around midnight the international news channels were blocked and an announcer came on Thai TV declaring that the military had taken over power and suspended the constitution.

Taking a taxi home at 2 am this morning the normally crowded streets were all but empty. It was a bit eerie.

Not much to do right now but wait and see what happens over the next few hours.