Clothing for Thailand trekking?
Discussion
History has given a political flavour to colourful clothing. This from 2006:
http://philipgolingai.blogspot.com/2006/11/yellows...
But there is also a political undercurrent in the yellow fever sweeping the country. “Those demonstrating against (Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra) have urged the people to wear yellow shirts,” Baker says.
The red T-shirt protesters are pro-Thaksin, who's treading a fine line between wanting his job as PM back and wanting more - so regardless of the revered status of the monarchy in the population, the politics isn't red-yellow colour blind:
The protests were reminiscent of the political paralysis that gripped Thailand last year. Those demonstrations, which were sometimes violent, forced the previous government to abandon Government House, paralyzed the workings of the administration and eventually shut down Bangkok’s two major airports. The protests were led by the “yellow shirts” of the People’s Alliance for Democracy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/world/asia/09tha...
http://philipgolingai.blogspot.com/2006/11/yellows...
But there is also a political undercurrent in the yellow fever sweeping the country. “Those demonstrating against (Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra) have urged the people to wear yellow shirts,” Baker says.
The red T-shirt protesters are pro-Thaksin, who's treading a fine line between wanting his job as PM back and wanting more - so regardless of the revered status of the monarchy in the population, the politics isn't red-yellow colour blind:
The protests were reminiscent of the political paralysis that gripped Thailand last year. Those demonstrations, which were sometimes violent, forced the previous government to abandon Government House, paralyzed the workings of the administration and eventually shut down Bangkok’s two major airports. The protests were led by the “yellow shirts” of the People’s Alliance for Democracy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/world/asia/09tha...
The reality is that the Thais are not, or will never deliberately target foreigners in this set of protests. So the danger is just getting caught up in the public disorder. At worst for most foreigners this may mean travel disruption if they blockade airports etc, but I doubt most holidaymakers outside of Bangkok even notice any difference, it's business as usual in most places.
Don't quote me on this, but I believe the trouble is isolated to BKK, and only in certain areas. I think there has been trouble recently on the Thai/Cambodia border, unrelated, but kind of a military stand off that has been brewing for a while. If it was me, I would go... although I was there in Oct and returned just before the protestors shut the airport for 10 days!
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