Army occupies Thai-Lao border to cut off Red escapes

[impulse]

Oh... wait... its only been just under 36 hours. :/

This is the start of the coup not the end game. If you think its the end game you're living in a land of unicorns, sunshine and rainbows.

Unless I read that travel brochure wrong, we are.

[TimTang]

Thai army has honour and cannot be bought with money.

LOL !!! ignorance is a bliss. Top of Thai army has been bought with money, opium, timber, gemstones, etc, etc...

Foolish man. Think before you write. That will be just the kind of stupid post the new internet censors will be looking for. This coup and martial law is not some joke you can laugh your way through.

Riiiight! When you're in a foreign country and there's a military coup it's always a good idea to publicly (over the internet) criticize the military. Should you be traced and tracked down that should guarantee you a spot for the Darwinian Award for the year.

[TimTang]

Um, how are they going to target them?

Certainly they are not going to be parading around in Red Shirts at the border?

They might just have a list of names and recent photos.

While Plaid does not make a good fashion statement this may be a good time to avoid solid colors of any kind.

[Tomtomtom69]

The Trans-Asia Hiway from the port of Danang crosses from Laos at the Mukdaham border. It is a fast route for containers from China & sundry other parts. They go to Myanmar, then further westwards, some into Thai, & vice-versa. This is an ASEAN set-up, so if the traffic is interfered with, the repercussions would go wide. Possibly, really desperate, fleeing VIPs need only garb themselves as truck drivers to 'escape', that is, if they grudge the 500B for a rowboat to cross the Mekong.

ASEAN is linked by treaty, commercially, to the BRICS trading bloc. This is a serious competitor to the rival bloc, which uses the US dollar for international deals. Now, who would be interested in sowing discord & mayhem within ASEAN to rescue their failing currency? Could it be the same powerful nation that trashed & smashed Iraq, Libya & Syria for similar commercial reasons?

As for tourism, with 20 million-plus Chinese fun-seekers in the pipe, who needs Westerners? Whatever, I devoutly hope Thai can escape international entanglements w/out harm.

Not sure what the point of this post is, but you have made a lot of inaccurate assumptions.

First of all, it is impossible to find Chinese container trucks traveling via Vietnam to Thailand because Vietnam refuses entry to all Chinese vehicles! All goods are offloaded at the Vietnamese border and loaded onto Vietnamese trucks. Currently there is a big territorial dispute between China and Vietnam that may be affecting incoming and outgoing trade between the two countries. That dispute has absolutely nothing to do with Thailand's internal situation, which in turn is 100% unaffected by the Vietnam-China dispute. Unless you mean containers arriving by sea from China which are then transported to Thailand by Lao registered trucks, or a combination of Vietnamese/Lao/Thai registered trucks. In any case, Da Nang port is not a major port in Vietnam, most containers are shipped to either Haiphong near Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.

Similarly, Chinese or Vietnamese trucks can't enter Thailand. Indeed, only Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian trucks can enter Vietnam, but only Lao and Vietnamese trucks can travel directly between the two countries (third country registered vehicles can't) - this means all goods coming from Thailand on Thai trucks can only go as far as the Lao-Vietnamese border before they must be offloaded and reloaded onto either Lao or Vietnamese trucks for the remaining journey into Vietnam. The same process occurs in the opposite direction - some Vietnamese trucks travel as far as say Savannakhet and then Thai or Lao (usually Thai) trucks enter Thailand for distribution and final delivery, other Vietnamese trucks offload at say Daensavanh on the Vietnamese-Lao border where Thai or Lao trucks (though usually Thai) drive all the way into Thailand from there.

As for Myanmar, Thai trucks can only go as far as the industrial zone in Myawady - anything west of there has to be on Myanmar registered transport. The border checkpoints where only opened by the Myanmar government for overland travel on August 28, 2013 and unfortunately the Thai side has temporarily closed it's checkpoint due to the coup situation.

So your first point is moot. With all this shuffling around due to vehicles from various ASEAN countries (and China) being refused entry into some member states despite the 6 country GMS cross-border transport agreement, it's hardly a quick process to clear customs and transport a container between countries.

The only problem I see here right now is that the temporary Thai closure of some border crossing points will affect both inbound and outbound Thai related trade. However, the coup has nothing to do with the refusal of some countries (such as Vietnam) to provide entry to vehicles registered in Thailand or China, for example.

Edited May 25, 2014 by Tomtomtom69

[OldgitTom]

Publicus & Impulse,

never mind Thailand, you don't grasp how easily democracy can be destroyed. You sneered at my warnings. So also, many Jews & democrats ignored the danger signs when the Nazis took over in Germany & Austria. I know, since I'm old enuf to have known a few who didn't laugh, but managed to escape. Many laffers stayed behind, & ended in the death camps. "It could never happen in the USA"? Habeas corpus has been annuled, you dreamers. It is now perfectly legal for the almighty state to imprison a/one, w/out trial, & to hold them in secret indefinitely. And in secret cells, who knows what happens to you, or cares? You are very foolish posters.

[impulse]

Publicus & Impulse,

never mind Thailand, you don't grasp how easily democracy can be destroyed........You are very foolish posters.

The thread is about blocking one border crossing to prevent a targeted group of people escaping with (or without) truckloads of ill gotten loot.

It's not about the New World Order, or Nazis or genocide.

Lighten up. Quit worrying about what may happen (that we have absolutely no control over anyway). You may actually enjoy life.

Edited May 26, 2014 by impulse

[OldgitTom]

Impulse,

if you are a happier turkey by not thinking about Xmas, good luck. But I hope you are not with the many expats who seem to think an army overthrow of a democratic system is a good idea. I don't think so. Not that Thai politics has a/thing to do with me, or vice-versa. The big danger to all of us is what happens in the USA, or more accurately, what is happening. If democracy falls there, we can kiss it goodbye globally. Let's hope the Obama boys & girls have not been taking notes, or are too busy in the Ukraine.