Thailand no more..

I was pretty adamant that I was going to go to Thailand with my class tomorrow for quite a while. I figured we'd work things out while we were over there and surely the situation would not escalate any further. Last night we called an emergency meeting and decided to give it a miss on the basis that;

• 34 people have been killed in the last 2 days.
• Health insurance won't cover us there.
• TV stations in Phuket (the area we're going to) have been hijacked by the rioters.
• Civil war may break out any day now.
• Our contingency plan to get out of the country in case of civil war wasn't exactly top notch and involved a lot of "Sure we'll get a taxi out/find a boat somewhere/it's not like the borders will be closed" phrases.
• And most importantly, I look great in red and yellow and I can't wear them over there. Apparently the Red Shirts have dibs on that.

And so although we're still flying into Bangkok and staying overnight (in the airport only) we're going to fly over the Bali to meet some friends and mix it up with a few trips to Jakarta and Vietnam. No flights have been booked as of yet as we're not sure if the crappy volcanic ash will clear up in time. Talk about stress? Either way, 30 of my classmates will be partying on the beaches of Bali so we'll have a ball!