Timing is everything – On December 03, 2008, BANGKOK DANGEROUS was the featured story on the front cover of the New Straits Times, one of Malaysia’s most popular English dailies. This of course referred to the ongoing political unrest in Bangkok and the continued occupation of the two international airports by PAD, a group of concerned citizens – mostly from the educated middle and upper middle classes - who have been trying eradicate the cronyism and corruption that has plagued the Thai government over the last 10 years. Exiled former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra and his family have been PAD’s primary target.

As always, in the newspaper business, sensationalism sells papers. Wouldn’t you know it, come December 4, the political conflict in Bangkok dissipated after the courts declared the current regime as being illegal and the two opposing factions – the yellow shirted PAD and red shirted pro-government supporters - put aside their differences and a truce was put into the place. It was then that PAD ended their occupation of the airports - both airports reopened and the many stranded tourists were able to leave. It was business as usual. A day after the sensationalist headlines, Bangkok was no longer dangerous! Timing is everything…