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I'm still here, still alive but not too much happening due to the political situation in Thailand at the moment, for those not watching the current news or reading this in the future there has been an ongoing 92 day sit in at parliment house and the national airports taken over by the P.A.D. wealth backed protestors.
The fallout of this is the country came to the brink of civil war (again) and the national economy has been destroyed as tourism plummets to an all time low, many, many hotels, bars and other tourist based industries will go to the wall in the coming months - it will be a national disaster, bad times are ahead for sure.
But for me personally what does it all mean....
Well it basically screws my recent plans to work here indefinitely in a growing and thriving movie industry, severla US based films were set to film here and a venture capital firm was looking to set up a serious movie studio arrangment that would bring in several lower budget films a year, providing ongoing and reasonable profile work for myself and other expats.
In effect I would be able to continue to live and work in Thailand. Now the only way I can do this is to make and produce my own movies here - something we have proved possible with Bangkok Adrenaline (due out Jan 2009 depending upon the political situation).
Or make the move to somewhere else.
Where else?
Well I am off to Hong Kong in January 2009 for a fairly big movie that'll have international cinema release, but I think HK will be more of the same as here without the political instability.
Where else is there? The US is the only answer to this question.
But I don't want to live in the West anymore. I like living in the East with all it's difficulties and eccentricities, corruption and instability, the racism and language difficulties. Life here is much more 'interesting' with anything possible each day, and almost never will a week go by without something that will surprise or shock you - no matter how long you have been here.
It'll be at least 6 months before Thailand regains some of its former reputation as the air travel hub of SE Asia, with a very real chance that they will lose this economic honour due to their latest attempt to completely screw tourism in Thailand...
No more 30 day visa on arrival. Now it is just 15 days.
This means if you are a tourist from a select group of countries (most wealthy western nations) you can only stay in the Kingdom for 15 days then must leave, previously you could stay for 30 days with a stamp at the airport as you arrived. So now you must go the the nearest Thai embassy and apply for a visa before you leave on holiday, and if you want to visit other countries in the region you must plan around your Thai visa and entry/exit stamps.
Just one more nail in the coffin as those in power try their hardest to remove foreigners from Thailand. Why? I have no idea but it ruins their economy.
I just hope it doesn't turn too violent when the rural poor can no longer afford to eat and the jungles that used to provide food in times of hardship have all been turned into rubber tree / palm oil plantations. And yes I really do think it will get that bad.
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