VIDEO After The Headlines: Now is the Time to Visit Thailand Where Life Is Dramatically Different Than Portrayed in the World Media

[Nicholas Snow]

By Nicholas Snow

As a foreign correspondent living and working in Thailand for over three years, I have lived through a military coup, the reign of four prime ministers, airport closures, etc. The recent events in which ill-informed red-shirted protesters wreaked havoc on the Kingdom is yet another painful saga in Thailand's evolution. However, even during such events for the most part it has been life as normal for most residents and tourists here.

From my perspective, Thailand is still one of the most amazing places on earth. Also, what people do not realize, is that the chaos this past year has been created by relatively few people in relatively small areas and for most, life has continued, including during this Songkran Week, 2009, at the same time Bangkok was under a declared state of emergency.

Nicholas Snow with soldiers as seen at Songkran 2007

In the following episodes of Snowbiz247 I bring you footage of both the Songkran celebration on Silom street (one of many throughout the country) and I take you for a ride on the sky train - to demonstrate the contrast between the international news coverage of the red-shirts' assault on the country and what many of us were actually doing at the time. These videos were shot on the afternoon of April 14th, 2009. While a select few were burning buses and brandishing real guns, tens of thousands of people elsewhere were celebrating Songkran with water guns.

By all means, listen to all official travel advisories if you travel anywhere, but know that now is the best time to book deals of great value to Thailand because most people won't understand it is still one of the best places to visit - the isolated incidents and the way they are reported internationally make it seem as though what I show in my videos could not have been happening at the same time. Life is great in Thailand, and for the most part a very gentle experience.

Out of my own love and support for Thai people, Thai culture and all that is good about the Kingdom, I invite my readers and viewers from around the world to come and experience "Amazing Thailand" for themselves.

Songkran Festivities on Silom in Bangkok, Thailand - April 14, 2009

From Wikipedia: "The Thai New Year (Thai: สงกรานต์ Songkran, from Sanskrit sankrānti "astrological passage"; Chinese: 潑水節) is celebrated every year from April 13 to April 15. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia. The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water. People roam the streets with containers of water or water guns, or post themselves at the side of roads with a garden hose and drench each other and passersby. This, however, was not always the main activity of this festival. Songkran was traditionally a time to visit and pay respects to elders, including family members, friends and neighbors. Besides the throwing of water, people celebrating Songkran may also go to a wat (Buddhist monastery) to pray and give food to monks. They may also cleanse Buddha images from household shrines as well as Buddha images at monasteries by gently pouring water mixed with a Thai fragrance (Thai: น้ำอบไทย) over them. It is believed that doing this will bring good luck and prosperity for the New Year. In many cities, such as Chiang Mai, the Buddha images from all of the city's important monasteries are paraded through the streets so that people can toss water at them, ritually 'bathing' the images, as they pass by on ornately decorated floats. In northern Thailand, people may carry handfuls of sand to their neighborhood monastery in order to recompense the dirt that they have carried away on their feet during the rest of the year. The sand is then sculpted into stupa-shaped piles and decorated with colorful flags."

Nicholas Snow rides the sky train in Bangkok, Thailand.

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