Update

It is Sunday morning, and luckily we are not in Bangkok, where the situation has gone from bad to far, far worse. The red shirt leadership finally provoked the government into a confrontation that so far has left 18 dead and hundreds injured. And it's not over.
It's not clear yet how people died. In their attempts to clear the protestors out of two areas of the city they had occupied, the troops used tear gas and "rubber bullets." They don't sound lethal, but maybe they are. Four of the dead were soldiers and one was a Reuters photographer.

We are in Hua Hin staying until Monday with Simon and Poe. Then we'll go to the nearby seaside condo we rented briefly back in January. On Friday we'll return to Bangkok and leave for home on Monday night the 19th.

We flew south to Surat Thani last Wednesday and then went by car to Our Jungle House, Dick Sandler's jungle hideway tree houses at the edge of Khao Sok National Park. We liked the place a lot, but it was too hot to get up and do anything. April is the hottest month in Southeast Asia. We should have gone in January. Joe did one limestone cave excursion and a short hike. But mostly we sat and perspired. And listened to the jungle sounds: birds, lizards and insects that made noises like police whistles, Asian percussion instruments made of brass, and the shower scene music from "Psycho." Simon came down for a few days, and when he drove back to Hua Hin yesterday---six hours on excellent roads---we came along.

Now we are watching Thai TV and checking the internet for news from Bangkok. It feels unreal. The Buddhist New Year Songkran holidays have begun, and Hua Hin is peaceful. Last night the mood in the restaurant where we all ate was cheery even as the big-screen TV broadcast Bangkok mayhem in the background. Poe just came downstairs and said a friend in Bangkok reports that there are no cars on the road on Rama IV, the neighborhood we all know.

The international TV reports, especially the BBC, are so busy being "even-handed," they are missing the plain evidence that the red leadership provoked this. I am not wearing my red shirt bandana today. More later.