i am flying to bangkok today with my wife to stay for 5 days at the shangrila hotel executive suite to do some shopping and then heading off towards the southern parts to look at purchasing a few condos. will this shut down effect us? if it does i am going to be EXTREMELY upset. we have paid for childcare , tickets, and many other things to organize this trip. i will write to the thailand government if we are effected in any way and we will take our investment money elsewhere. we dont want our trip ruined by a few selfish people who dont think of others. thanks for any advise.

ok...you have known this was going to happen for some weeks now, dont know what country your coming from but pretty sure there will have been travel advisory issued over travelling to BKK over this period, but yet you have insisted on travelling anyway.... as to whether it will affect you....no one has a crystal ball accurate enough to tell you this

if something does happen write to the Thai goverment by all means....they will not care, your just another farang

No, but it may AFFECT you.

I've just sent an email to K. Suthep, sorry, don't have his mobile number, and asked if he can delay the shutdown for you.

You know about the shutdown? The one that has been talked about for the last 3 weeks?

Perhaps it has only been local news or you don't receive advisories from your country's embassy or consulate.

I would cut the shopping short and head for the condo purchases first, the Shang is within easy walking distance of the BTS so you should be ok getting around the major shopping (it was however packed at 6AM today).

ok...you have known this was going to happen for some weeks now, dont know what country your coming from but pretty sure there will have been travel advisory issued over travelling to BKK over this period, but yet you have insisted on travelling anyway.... as to whether it will affect you....no one has a crystal ball accurate enough to tell you this

if something does happen write to the Thai goverment by all means....they will not care, your just another farang

Looks like he had to make the trip because he has already paid for childcare..................

thankyou crossy, is the bts public transport? we are not really comfortable with public transport and would prefer a driver. we have already payed for the hotel

I'm heading down there tomorrow night, they better had all packed up and ****** off home by then.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I'm guessing the OP is from the UK, like me. This is based on:-

Tiny knowledge of spelling

Miniscule grammatical skills

Massive sense of entitlement

So, he will be just fine I expect.

thankyou crossy, is the bts public transport? we are not really comfortable with public transport and would prefer a driver. we have already payed for the hotel

The BTS and MRT are indeed public transport (metro rail), easy to use and cheap, going to be very busy though.

Driving around BKK is going to be a nightmare as major intersections will be blocked, you stand zero chance of getting to the central business district by road.

Oddly (or not) when I drove into town at 6.00AM this morning traffic was minimal and there was space at the park & ride, MRT was jammed mind, looks like the locals are using the two rail networks as the protesters have vowed that they won't be shut down.

I'm guessing the OP is from the UK, like me. This is based on:-

Tiny knowledge of spelling

Miniscule grammatical skills

Massive sense of entitlement

So, he will be just fine I expect.

Like you ?

ok thanks i guess it is better than nothing it will have to do. very dissappointing that they close down the city like this without any regard for others. i hope this isnt a regular thing

op doesnt use public transport. op is high society. he should be in favor of the shutdown........................lol.

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!).

Edited January 13, 201412 yr by householder

The MRT might not be as busy after peak hours,say between 10.30am to 3pm when those who want to will be at work.

Also,staying at the Shangri-La you are near the river so could use a riverboat taxi to get about a bit.

Definitely dont use a driver....it could well be a nightmare.....and dont wear red or yellow clothing !

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

thankyou crossy, is the bts public transport? we are not really comfortable with public transport and would prefer a driver. we have already payed for the hotel

Unless you have a private Jet, you will be using Public Transport to travel, fly to Thailand lol Get off your high horse mate....

Edited January 13, 201412 yr by lmfao

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!

Edited January 13, 201412 yr by householder

OP...as for me ...when I travel, I do a little research on my own....ie... google!

If you are going to be upset about the shutdown....there really is no one to blame other than yourself (and possibly your travel agent for their lack of knowledge of the situation in Thailand and failure to inform you)

You will be inconvenienced ....how much ....don't know ...but be prepared for long waits....

And NO this doesn't happen all the time....You just happened to book your trip doing a "historical" moment in time for Thailand....Enjoy it!

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

people like you are horrible. get off your high horse . i hope when you ride the bts you will be surrounded by low society people who smell like cammels............lol.

the bookings were organized by my staff and i am not aware of any warnings being given. nevertheless, we will be having some very stern words with the embassy if we are inconvenienced in any way. we were certainly not expecting to be herded onto public transportation like cattle with the local inhabitants.

Australia issued travel warnings for Bangkok this morning on the radio. This is unusual.

the bookings were organized by my staff and i am not aware of any warnings being given. nevertheless, we will be having some very stern words with the embassy if we are inconvenienced in any way. we were certainly not expecting to be herded onto public transportation like cattle with the local inhabitants.

Ahhhhh....the privileged class ....not wanting to be "herded onto public transportation like cattle with the local inhabitants"

Why on earth are you EVEN coming to Thailand when you apparently have such a distain for the Thai people! AND your considering buying a condo? get real? Buy in Monaco....more your style!

the bookings were organized by my staff and i am not aware of any warnings being given. nevertheless, we will be having some very stern words with the embassy if we are inconvenienced in any way. we were certainly not expecting to be herded onto public transportation like cattle with the local inhabitants.

sounds like your staff either want a laugh at your expense or you just hired incompetent people.

Warch out for the cattle prod while your being herded champ

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

I think they are all a bit pissed off about corruption. and incompetence

its a bit like brown and blair signing up for Euro and upping tax to 50 % or so. The corruption is just better hidden in the UK, or its like capital controls being imposed and the country being turnecxd into a fascist police state in the us, but they are just a bit more blatent there.

the bookings were organized by my staff and i am not aware of any warnings being given. nevertheless, we will be having some very stern words with the embassy if we are inconvenienced in any way. we were certainly not expecting to be herded onto public transportation like cattle with the local inhabitants.

Haha This guy is going to be raped/robbed of his money in Thailand by local inhabitants with that attitude, and too right lol

Edited January 13, 201412 yr by lmfao

At: "we dont want our trip ruined by a few selfish people who dont think of others."

You may consider it selfish if you only care about your trip and disregard that these people are fighting against vote buying and corruption for a better Thailand.

(If you agree or disagree with them politically, they are doing it to improve their country).

So if they are selfish...you would fit in perfectly.

(we had to close our company today, as 14 from 15 staff went to the demonstrations, and they aren't doing it for fun)

I'm 100% certain this is a troll.

But just to play along - why would you be upset at the Thai government? They're the ones that the protests are targeting, believe me if they could prevent them without escalating the conflict they would.

And your country's EMBASSY? Why did you bother contacting them beforehand and they told you everything's fine?

I'd say no one to blame but yourself, or if you really have staff take it up with them. This stuff has been on the news for weeks, months on sites like this focused on Thailand.

Next time before you travel check things out before you finalize your plans - you found TV.com in order to complain, why not be proactive?

the bookings were organized by my staff and i am not aware of any warnings being given. nevertheless, we will be having some very stern words with the embassy if we are inconvenienced in any way. we were certainly not expecting to be herded onto public transportation like cattle with the local inhabitants.

Haha This guy is going to be raped/robbed in Thailand by local inhabitants with that attitude, and too right lol

Sure these normal poor people are extreme infectious, dirty, smelly and of course extreme dangerous. I would warn everyone of the upper class like "cashpower" to come into contact with them. And it is of course the duty of the embassy to prevent any contact with the locals

Or maybe he is just a troll....

its a trool. who want to invest in jiahdism in the south.