British government warns against travelling to Thailand

Earlier this week the British government out travel advice statement for anyone travelling it Thailand.

We advise against all but essential travel to the whole of Thailand due to the increasingly volatile and tense political situation. Violent incidents of an unpredictable nature are occurring in many parts of Thailand.

While it is true that there have been incidents in certain parts of Bangkok it occured to me this was a somewhat heavy handed statement.

Before I got round to turning my tweet into any kind of post I spotted Mike from My Thai Friend's summary, written on his British Expat Directory (an excellent addition to his burgeoning collection of blogs), which hit the nail on the head...meaning I didn't have to.

Bangkok remains largely free of trouble apart from the upmarket shopping area. That said the protesters are waging a very mobile campaign against the Thai Government and may well strike in unexpected places. While these mobile protests remain mostly peaceful there have been several explosions over the last few days in and around the capital.

Travel outside Bangkok is subject to occasional delays by illegal red shirt road checks. There have also been several attempts by protesters to block police and troops being sent to Bangkok. As such the main tourist areas continue to operate as normal and are free of protests.

There have been some well publicised travel delays at BKK but this has nothing to do with the state of public order in Thailand.

Basically the country remains open for business.

Of course, this statement is clearly a backside covering statement from the embassy and diplomatic staff to ensure that, should something go horribly wrong for a British citizen out here, they had made the necessary strong announcement in advance.

What a shame those outside of Thailand may mistake this for the reality.