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The incident that happened, is ongoing and giving rise to other issues in next-door Myanmar this week would indicate otherwise.

Violent crime against foreigners has happened in Yangon, but it's rare and isolated.

This incident happened in the very expatty Dagon area in/near downtown:

https://www.dvb.no/news/un-employee-stabbed-by-unidentified-assailant-in-rangoon/28920

There was another report of an expat street robbery but I can't find the link right now.

They're the only two main ones that come to mind.

Both operators have been laying A LOT of preparatory work behind the scenes pending licence approval, so things should move quite quickly now. I'm hearing rumour of those who bought the special SIM cards for the SEA games having near-enough unlimited data usage; can anyone verify this? And also whether the 4G was either switched on for the games and subsequently switched off?

If you want a laugh, check out their E visa website: https://www.myanmarevisa.gov.mm/

Back in early 2012 it was 'pilot testing'. Now it's undergoing beta testing. It may not be ready in my lifetime; I wouldn't get excited about anything when it comes to Myanmar immigration intentions/proposals/announcements!

From Democratic Voice of Burma:

Authorities in Rangoon and Magwe divisions have detained the Chief Executive Officer and a local reporter from news journal Unity Weekly. The arrests came as a result of a report published in the journal last month alleging the existence of a ‘secret chemical weapon factory’ in Magwe’s Pauk Township.

Unity Weekly CEO Tint San was arrested on Saturday morning by police officials who came to the Journal’s office without a warrant, according to staff.

The night before his arrest, Tint San told DVB that the reporter Lu Maw Naing had been arrested by police in connection with the report titled; ‘Secret Chemical Weapon [built] by the Former Senior-General, Chinese Technicians and the Current [burmese Military] Commander in Chief’, which featured on the front page of the 25 January issue.

Should Suthep now switch to encouraging a mass turnout and indicating "No Vote' on the ballot paper? Would this achieve much?

Nope, can't see anything beyond the usual overpriced rubbish. Not even the independents/B&Bs have lowered prices, whether through brokers or on their websites. Are they preferring to cut staff rather than rates?

Deleted my post as video posted by Lite Beer with more info and attribution etc.

Video from scene:

Reports of a fatal shooting of NPSRT person outside a temple in BangNa in the last 30 mins or so ostensibly by Red Shirts. Any idea if there's polling stations near there or is this a separate clash?

EDIT: Wat Sri Iam or Wat Sri Aium, depending on source.

Funny how those "reports" already know who did it.

Don't know the details yet of what even happened, but we already know who did it.

Hence my use of the word 'ostensibly'. Keeping a very close eye as it's a very short distance from where I'm staying.

More good PR for the MOB. Dear Obama. we are not intimidating or blocking elections.

You really want to see fascit mob rule, wait until we get in power.

More non intimidation and no violence. Communists as well.... and army. What a shambles.

How many times does it have to be pointed out that a person's choice of headgear or clothing doesn't necessarily indicate their political leanings? One person with a red star cap doesn't mean there exists a communist cell, active or sleeper.

Context lacking so can't draw conclusions at all

Reports of a fatal shooting of NPSRT person outside a temple in BangNa in the last 30 mins or so ostensibly by Red Shirts. Any idea if there's polling stations near there or is this a separate clash?

EDIT: Wat Sri Iam or Wat Sri Aium, depending on source.

So we appear right now to have:

a. An anti-government protest group - on the instructions of whoever - determined to disenfranchise voters regardless of preference or support, by blocking voting stations in support of a laudable yet rather nebulous cause

b. An Election Commission desperate to avoid doing its job and in some cases not even turning up to the polling stations - EDIT: and has just unhelpfully advised that voting can be delayed for a week, which negates the point of an advance poll in the first place!

c. Security forces unable or unwilling to protect the voting sites and voters to ensure the voting takes place

d. A lame duck government ostensibly run outside of Thailand anyway, that declared a useless and seemingly premature State of Emergency, didn't bother to meet the EC in advance to sort their positions out - thus advance voting is going ahead for a poll that is almost certainly going to be postponed to a date not yet known and therefore makes the whole exercise today pointless, a huge waste of money and embarrassment for all concerned (after all, subsequent events may influence voter opinion yet those voters will be bound by today's ballot cast) - and employs fierce rhetoric against its perceived opponents with absolutely zero action and really doesn't seem to care about ensuring that voters who do bother to turn up can vote.

The average non-politically active Thai citizen (beyond casting a vote), therefore, appears to be the one screwed most by this staggering confluence of arrogance, ineptitude and weakness by all sides involved - absolutely nobody on any side seems to give a dam_n about them, from what I can see.

These parties have all perhaps unwittingly worked very very hard (even in making sure they don't do any work at all) to make Thailand a laughing stock.

I really don't care about the politics whatsoever, but feel sorry for the Thai citizens getting the net result of all this.

Whether one supports Suthep, Shinclan, or neither, I'm struggling to see how the country as a whole benefits in any way from what is going on right now?

Some photos show police standing around doing nothing at all to stop the blockading.

Look up failed state and Thailand now most certainly seems to meet most of the defining qualities.

Chatrium Riverside is pretty nice. Stayed in a Riversuide Club suite a while back and it was good all round.

Maybe I'm missing something, but why did this need an SoE to effect?

I love the Eleven typos/bad English - they had one recently where they tried putting out a bus fire with fire 'distinguishers', which apparently didn't work, although I'd imagine the inferno ended up very well separated and categorised.

Nobody died or was injured, fortunately.

thanks for the information, i wish we had been told about this earlier. of course it is expected that sometimes one will encounter unexpected delays in this part of the world but as we have no interest in the local politics we should not be expected to know about every minor squirmish when seeking investment opportunities. indeed, it would have been nice if someone had let us know when the bookings were being arranged

Depends how far back you booked this - the shutdown date and details was announced in the first week of January and an indication was given in December. If you booked earlier this wasn't known and so nobody could have advised you.

Had you booked between the initial concept of the shutdown being floated and today, this is perhaps something the travel agency could/should have advised you of, so that you could check the situation and decide for yourself whether to travel.

At this stage though you are unlikely to suffer any loss, only some inconvenience depending on where your itinerary takes you, and it's certainly not unsafe to travel to Bangkok in general for now. Hopefully just some delays are the absolute worst you encounter - which in fairness you would have had to deal with even without the protest, given the state of Bangkok's traffic system even on a good day!

who do we contact to get a police escort from the airport to our hotel? is this service available for first class passengers? we also need an escort for shopping trips. i cant find any information please help

If your airline is a major one, it might already have experience of serving many First Class passengers with similar requests in the past.

Hence you could contact your airline and ask them if they can facilitate, at least from airport to hotel.

At your suite at your 1st class hotel, the hotel management should be able to make any arrangements for your family's shopping trip.

Hotels are getting hit hard by these protests, so I am sure they will do all they can to accommodate the wishes of high-paying guests.

Good luck.

+1 - this would be a good week to be a premium customer in terms of services going the extra mile for you!

I thought Suthep vowed that the Democracy Monument (which was clearly no longer an appropriate location for an anti-democratic protest) was going to be dismantled? It now appears to be set for a takeover by the Dharma Army.

You really have to read between the lines with this guy, as well as what he doesn't say holding more weight than what he does say. Good luck Thailand!

It's not regular in the sense of it happening frequently, but this shutdown may last for quite some time, or descend into something even more chaotic and fraught. If you have access to a driver with intimate knowledge of Bangkok's road network, that may save you some time and frustration. Depending on where you plan to shop, however, the BTS or MRT may be the only feasible option for accessing some of the shops. Now might be a time to check out the outlier malls (Central and Mega BangNa, for example - in fact that strip of BangNa-Trat Road has huge shopping complexes and large specialty shops all along it!).

In a boring part of Eastern Bangkok, got a little extra just in case, and don't see any threat to life. Anyway, it's that or taking chances on the roads, which are way more dangerous!