Coming to meet some relatives who will be in town for a few days. We usually stay on Suk not far from Nana BTS. Hard to tell how bad things are in general--is it safe for a family visit or will we be holed up in the hotel room the whole time? Is the violence very localized? Thanks for any advice.

I live and work around Asoke. It's the site of one large barricaded protest area. More of a street festival nowadays than a dangerous protest site. If things continue like they are, you'll have a great visit.

If they get worse, nobody knows.

I wouldn't pass up a chance to meet relatives because of the problems. Nana is bracketed on both sides by protest sites, but it's business as usual on Suk right there. (BTW, that's not a family friendly area on a good day with all the porn and marital aids) If you're real nervous, I'd pick a spot closer to BTS Ekkamai than BTS Nana and you'd be hard pressed to tell there's anything unusual going on in Bangkok. Well, any more than the usual unusual...

Then you can take the BTS and either blow right by the Asoke protest site to get to Nana, or many other points of interest.

Here's an excellent resource.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=210550963008557722983.0004ea041241da07d86cb&msa=0&ll=13.758894,100.548248&spn=0.107544,0.184364&dg=feature

Edited February 24, 201412 yr by impulse

If you live in CM, then you know the Thai modus operandum. Pretty much as Impulse says above. Things are fine at the moment. The main thing is to keep abreast of the situation (easy to keep abreast near Nana!!!) Things can change quickly and what's a carnival atmosphere one minute can turn into mayhem the next. We live near Victory Monument and have only experienced minor inconvenience over the past few months.