Cancelled Thailand trip issues

Personally I'd still go.

You could easily just catch a domestic flight from Suvarnabhumi airport to somewhere like Phuket, Koh Samui or Chiang Mai. None of which are affected by the problems in Bangkok.

Although tbh, I'd even quite happily go to Bangkok. Avoiding the trouble would be easy enough for anyone who knows the city reasonably well.

Cancelling the trip altogether is madness.
 
seek said:
Personally I'd still go.

You could easily just catch a domestic flight from Suvarnabhumi airport to somewhere like Phuket, Koh Samui or Chiang Mai. None of which are affected by the problems in Bangkok.

Although tbh, I'd even quite happily go to Bangkok. Avoiding the trouble would be easy enough for anyone who knows the city reasonably well.

Cancelling the trip altogether is madness.
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Can only agree but , I think i'd opt for a flight straight out of BK ASAP , as has been said in the news , red shirts are moving around a lot and disregarding whos wrong or right I wouldn't want to get caught in the middle of it by mistake like I did a few weeks ago ............ Although it was all friendly then , it just shows how easy it is. I'd been there 3 times before and I still wondered into that area
 
As said earlier, having not long come back from Thailand, I would be more than happy to fly out there tomorrow if Bangkok was purely an airport to transit through.

Just speak to the tour operator to move some of your trip to areas that are no where near the troubled areas ie Bangkok and Chiang Mai if you are that worried.
 
Bear said:
Just speak to the tour operator to move some of your trip to areas that are no where near the troubled areas ie Bangkok and Chiang Mai if you are that worried.
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Don't mean to correct you bear , but I have a mate in Chang mai and have literally just got off the phone to him and all is good. Certainly within the old town where he lives just for clarification for people travelling there
 
divaboy said:
I'd been there 3 times before and I still wondered into that area
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Which area? Silom?

When I was there they closed the Siam Paragon and customers were being redirected to MBK.

The only place outside of Bangkok I saw even the slightest thing was in Pattaya, there was a small friendly demonstration. Aside from that it was business as usual.
 
seek said:
Which area? Silom?

When I was there they closed the Siam Paragon and customers were being redirected to MBK.

The only place outside of Bangkok I saw even the slightest thing was in Pattaya, there was a small friendly demonstration. Aside from that it was business as usual.
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It was way before it got to this level , I actually got on the wrong bus BACK from MBK and got directed by a local and misunderstood what he said and took the 1st bridge instead of the 2nd one :p

Either way it was sort of near Democracy monument , TBH when I got there was a bit nervous because 2 Thai people started shouting at me I didn't understand what they meant pleading my innocence. Luckliy for me a women born in Birmingham UK then , brought up in thailand "resuced me :p "

TBH she was nice had a chat and a beer and she educated me on why the red shirts are doing what they are. She was armed with UK copies of newspaper reports and apparently according to her The Times reported the most accurately

This like I said was around early April time when it was peaceful.

Make what you want of that . I'm pretty shocked its come to this, although she did say at the time they were prepared to stay as long as it took........
 
divaboy said:
Don't mean to correct you bear , but I have a mate in Chang mai and have literally just got off the phone to him and all is good. Certainly within the old town where he lives just for clarification for people travelling there
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No problem at all. I wrote it only remembering when I was out there (Koh Samui) that they were warning that there was potential trouble up in Chiang Mai. Not having been there I didnt think any more of it and just repeated what I heard. :)
 
No theyre not relenting, having mentioned ABTA etc theyre confident that theyre only sending customers to safe parts of Thailand and jsut said that the FCO doesnt advise against all but essential travel to Thailand at the moment.
 
robjf said:
No theyre not relenting, having mentioned ABTA etc theyre confident that theyre only sending customers to safe parts of Thailand and jsut said that the FCO doesnt advise against all but essential travel to Thailand at the moment.
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As I suspected, legally they don't have to refund you. They might have done out of niceness but hey ho.
 
Citizen420 said:
Why did you cancel the chance to witness a populist uprising against a corrupt and tyrannical government????

You should have just strapped on a pair and went bro, as long as you don't camp in the blockade with the redshirts there is no danger to you....

Seriously, I'm disappointed you cancelled for such a pointless reason.
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lol what?! You can't say the redshirts are no danger to you. The majority of them are fine yeah, somewhat annoying to the locals, but we're also talking about a good number of what we call Terrorists, which is why the government is resorting to lethal force.

"I tried to leave in the last hour-and-a-half but a protester put a grenade in my face and said: "You leave, you die." "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8684405.stm

Yeah, I know a lot of thai people, and they say it's fine, just stay away from the danger zone, but things could easily change. If the government storm the barricades then the red shirts might be dispersed and take guerilla warfare on a much wider scale, rather than concentrated to that one district.

I agree that the government is illegitimate, the coup happened right before democratic elections, but the red shirts and Thaksin are no saints, there are lots of sponsored votes, and sponsored protestors, which IMO is corruption, the very charge Thaksin was outed for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K6bGlnirgk
 
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iamTakeo said:
lol what?! You can't say the redshirts are no danger to you. The majority of them are fine yeah, somewhat annoying to the locals, but we're also talking about a good number of what we call Terrorists, which is why the government is resorting to lethal force.


"I tried to leave in the last hour-and-a-half but a protester put a grenade in my face and said: "You leave, you die." "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8684405.stm

Yeah, I know a lot of thai people, and they say it's fine, just stay away from the danger zone, but things could easily change. If the government storm the barricades then the red shirts might be dispersed and take guerilla warfare on a much wider scale, rather than concentrated to that one district.

I agree that the government is illegitimate, the coup happened right before democratic elections, but the red shirts and Thaksin are no saints, there are lots of sponsored votes, and sponsored protestors, which IMO is corruption, the very charge Thaksin was outed for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K6bGlnirgk
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Not enough to cancel a holiday which could potentially be ruined by it :/
 
I wouldn't cancel either, I'm planning on going in July, But know that there is serious risk involved, accidentally getting stuck in crossfire - in a country which you've never been to before - should never be on your holiday list;

Sunbathing,
Tourism,
Shopping,
Photography,
Getting stuck in crossfire,
 
seek said:
Because the airport is outside of Bangkok?
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Obviously, but I was under the impression that was included in FCO advice not to travel to Bangkok. Just checked the FCO site in detail though and it says:

Suvarnabhumi airport is operating as normal. The route to the airport from Bangkok city remains open but you should look at our travel advice and the media for any other information. For advice about travelling abroad see the local Travel section. FCO advice against all but essential travel does not apply to passengers transiting Bangkok airport on their way to other destinations.
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So all is well if you're travelling elsewhere, I'd be a bit miffed with missing out on Bangkok though.
 
seek said:
Fly to Suvarnabhumi airport --> Domestic flight to Phuket --> Win.

:cool:
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Exactly or you could just stay here, dont have such a good time, miss out on the roasting hot weather, the fantastic people, great food and lose a load of money --> Lose.

Also as a bloke you can say crap to everyone and its all good:cool:
 
Fly to Suvarnabhumi airport --> Domestic flight to Koh Samui --> Boat to Koh Tao --> spend a couple weeks diving ---> Win.

:)
 
Have just recieved a very shakey phonecall from the MD of the company saying we will be getting a full refund today due to the change of advice on the FCO website. Result!

Now we got some travel insurance for this trip specifically, and as the trip is not due to start until saturday and has been cancelled, can i get the money back for this aswell?

Regards

Rob
 
Good work on the refund. You should go to Vietnam instead.
A friend of mine I worked with in Thailand sent me some pictures today of the protests and bloodshed in Bangkok; I was absolutely horrified and appauled at the level of violence.
 
panthro said:
horrified and appauled at the level of violence.
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I disagree. There have only been 6 people killed (officially), and yet this has been going on for quite some time. Even if you double that number it's still a tiny amount considering the scale of the protest and military countermeasures (particularly regarding the crackdown, which was expected to result in many more deaths but actually went relatively smoothly according to reports).

It seems to me people are exaggerating the violence/aggresion for the sake of sensationalism.
 
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