Editorial - Political Crisis 20.09.08

You could get the impression from listening to the international press, that Bangkok has lately been a city under siege. A dangerous war zone with clashes in the streets, martial law reining supreme (until recently anyway) and a generally high level of uncertainty.

From their perspective, the only thing more incredible the political conflict itself is the fact that life in the Capital does not seem to take notice. At all! Sure, if you insist on going to government house, there are protesters there, but if you do not know the city, that is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Many an office worker has mourned that the nature of the conflict has meant business as usual - not a single day of so far!

The conflict does have its effects, however. Chief among them is that the presence of such a large number of protesters, and the tendency for any sorts of trouble to break out at night, means that the police needs to be on hand to take care of any problems that might arise. This is turn means that there are less police available elsewhere to, say, shut down town in order to deny the young at heart a good time. In other words, the Bangkok party scene is rocking like it has not in a long time. With the exception of the odd foreign performer who does not show up out of fear of this "dangerous" crisis, the nightclubs are open later than for a long time while the after hours places operate freer than in recent memory. You can actually go to a nice, mainstream, nightclub until 3 am these days, meaning that not only can you party late, you also avoid the dodgy places which in turn means that less police is actually required. Everybody wins.

Of course this political stalemate cannot be allowed to last forever, and we would certainly not like it to, but we would like to tell tourists that far from being a bad time to come here, it is actually the best in recent memory. Lets just pray the fun is not shut completely down again, once the authorities are not busy playing politics anymore and return their attention business as usual. Until then - party on Bangkok!