From Peter’s Travel Detective Blog…
There’s so much recent stuff in terms of travel news, most of it not good, from the terrible events in Mumbai to the closing of the airport in Bangkok.
And, it’s almost 2009 and we’re talking about pirates? Can we all say argh?!
I think they should have piracy on every ship as another kind of on-board activity.
Then there is the economic meltdown in terms of travel, but this story has a silver lining. Many Caribbean resorts are running at 25 percent occupancy. Can you believe that?
I mean, it’s one thing to say, OK it’s the fourth quarter and just before Christmas, which is a pretty dead time in terms of travel. But we’re looking through March now and we’re seeing absolutely no activity.
We’re seeing deals that we’ve never seen before, and yet, we’re not seeing any demand. People are just staying close to home. So if you have an idea about traveling anywhere, you might find some good deals because they’re there.
PIRACY
So, piracy on the high seas. What is going on there? One by one they’re either seizing a tanker, or they’re seizing a freighter, or they’re trying to attack a cruise ship. And, by the way, we’re not talking about huge pirate ships—we’re talking about guys in row boats with outboard engines and about five guns. It’s just wild.
So, think about this: A cruise ship with 1,000 people on board is attacked, and what does the captain do? He says OK everybody, stay inside all the public areas, don’t go near the windows, full speed ahead.
What’s full speed ahead on a cruise ship? Twenty-three knots? So the pirates can easily outrun them, but they can’t outlast them because cruise ship has a little more fuel on board. And what happens is, of course, the pirates turn around and go back.
Not to mention something that almost every cruise line is carrying now and doesn’t want to talk about: a machine called the sonic blaster. It looks like a search light, but it’s not. You point it at the person and it sends such an intense sonic wave that’s eardrum shattering and … that’s it!
Cruise lines don’t have weapons on board. They don’t have mortars or rocket-propelled grenades. They now have the sonic blaster.
Again, I think they should make that an organized shore excursion and everybody should wear an eye patch and just have fun on the ship.
THAI AIRPORTS
As to the events in Thailand, if you ever wanted an example of how to completely shut an economy, just close an airport. That was the wake-up call.
So many countries depend entirely on travel and tourism, so the bulk of their foreign exchange comes in the form of people getting on airplanes, cruise lines, trains, or buses and going there. And when you take a country like Thailand, which is so dependent on travel and tourism, and you literally shut an airport for 10 days, the economic impact is absolutely staggering. It’s almost incalculable and governments will topple if they cannot keep that airport open.
And guess what just happened in Thailand? The government toppled. Simply because they closed the airport. The protesters said, “We don’t like the government and we’re not leaving until the government leaves.” And guess what happened? The government left! How about that? It’s as simple, powerful and staggering as that.
Now, would I go to Thailand tomorrow? You bet. When they have a coup in Thailand, you know how they do it? They go to the king and ask permission: “Can we have a coup?” and the king goes: “OK!” And they roll the tanks in the street and they go, “We’re having a coup now!” the government leaves, they put flowers in the muzzles of the guns, the tanks go back to the garage and life goes on.
It got a little violent, but more or less, they just shut the airport and said, “We’re not moving from this airport until the government leaves and then we’ll let everybody go back to normal.”
Well, guess what? The government left, the protesters left the airport and everything’s back to normal. So if you’re thinking of going to Thailand, despite any other government warning you may receive, I’m giving you permission.
You know why? Because I’ve been there so many times before in situations like this and guess what? Nothing happens.
The situation in India however, is a completely different story.
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