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Well despite what you have seen on the news Thailand was fine, for me at least. There are serious fissures in Thai politics and in society in general that have been on display for the world to see. It would take a long blog entry for me to give the political problems the air time they deserve. But it should suffice to say that the news has not done well at providing the complex view that is necessary.

Thailand is a young democracy and it is going through turmoil and still working to define itself. The news has shown this as two sides, Red Shirts and the government, facing off. If only it were that simple--then it would already be over. From my count there are at least 4 sides and each of those sides has multiple internal divisions and competing agendas. Pictures of the violence make for good news but the real story is much deeper and involves fundamental political changes that are afoot in Thailand.

All of that said, I was in Bangkok from Tuesday night until early Friday morning. Not once did I see a protester or encounter any violence. Bangkok is a large city and the protests are confined to a limited area. So other areas are not impacted. Yes, there was a degree of tension in the city but by in large life went on as usual and away from the protests you would hardly know what was going on.

With the exception of one meeting in the vicinity of the protests I was in the safe zones the entire time. Still on Thursday night things seemed to be going south so my colleague and I made the decision to play it safe and leave a little early on Friday. Now I'm back in Taiwan and all is well, for me at least.