So far I love living under martial law. With gatherings of more than 5 people banned, there aren't too many crowds, and the media, having been encouraged to be "responsible," are cheerily reporting an interim prime minister will be named in the next 48 hours. Despite an announcement the military may retain a wee bit of power even once the new congress has been appointed, so far so good on the bloodless coup.

In fact, the only violence I've heard was in the voice of a Thai banker, Nopporn, who twice a week feeds me lunch, reads the English-language newspaper out loud, and then hands me a wad of cash. "I hate George Bush," she said. "Why does he think he can tell other countries what to do? My country. My coup. Leave us alone!"

I'm not exactly sure what GWB said about the Thai coup, but I think my friend was irritated in general at the West's perception that a coup is perforce bad for democracy. I mean, I certainly understand why the West thinks this way, and in the long run, it does seem like a bad precedent for countries to solve their problems by routinely overturning the government.

(This from a woman who's adopted a slash-and-burn strategy for her entire life.)

What I think Nopporn was getting at, though, and what seems to be the common sentiment here, is that Thailand under Prime Minister Thaksin was a democracy in name only, and at least now there is a chance for an authentic democratic government.

This is also another opportunity to demonstrate allegience to the king, who people would just assume be in charge anyway. Nopporn laughed when she saw the Anglicized version of the military government's name was CDR, Committee for Democratic Reform. In Thai, the name is something like "We Swear Our Allegience to the King."

The king, the king. We don't see or hear much of him (cf., Flaubert, who says the writer should be in the book as God is in the world: nowhere seen but everywhere felt), although we do see a lot of baby-faced soldiers with machine guns at busy intersections and Sky Train stops. The first few days they looked stern. The second day they looked bored. Yesterday I saw one hand his weapon to a friend and start break dancing.

In other news, the military government has disallowed the Thais to have their pictures taken with the soldiers, and [belatedly] banned the go-go dancers in camoflauge bikinis who have taken it upon themselves to entertain the troops. Citizens are still welcome to bring the soldiers food.

We in the ex-pat world enjoy business as usual -- yoga, writing, swimming, a quiet Guiness with four friends or fewer in the evening.

Long live the junta!

It's true, there's a coup in Thailand.

About ten-thirty last night, just as I was getting in bed, a friend called and told me to turn on CNN. Sure enough, there were pictures of tanks outside the parliamentary buildings, a part of town not close to where I am but not exactly far, either. The distance between City Hall and Columbia University in Manhattan.

Because it was already nighttime in Bangkok, nothing seemed particularly different or strange. It was only when CNN and the BBC suddenly cut out that things began to feel a little weird. At some point in the middle of the night, the electricity went off.

This morning I got up as usual and went to yoga. The streets were quiet, which is not so strange since it was 6:45am, but the studio was locked. A few of the other students and I loitered in the lobby. Schools, banks, and most offices are closed today. One of the other students had seen tanks on her way to class.

Eventually the teacher showed up and, even though none of the other staff was there, smuggled us in the back way, which I guess means we launched our own coup of the yoga studio.

By the time we finished practicing this morning, the streets were still empty -- the intersection at Chitlom, which I usually have to take my life in my hands to cross, was so deserted I stood in the middle of the road for a few seconds just to savor the experience. At 9am the rush hour Sky Train was virtually empty, and people were quiet and looked glum.

Mostly it feels like a snow day: I'm home again in my pajamas, drinking tea and keeping an eye on the news online. Even the weather is unusual -- cool and raining. I live in a very ex-patty neighborhood, flanked by shopping malls, so I can't imagine that I would feel threatened unless the army tried to take over the Emporium Department Store. As far as I know, the shoe sale is still on, and good news -- the dollar is strong against the baht!

As for the political situation, it's still hard to know what's going on. Thaksin has been politically under siege for months, but there hasn't been a sense of violence or abject power grabbing. Well, maybe a little -- there was a staged attempt on Thaksin's life a few weeks ago, but even that seemed more like political theater than an actual threat.

I know that "coup d'etat" sounds dramatic and makes Thailand appear a banana republic (or, as my political scientist friend calls Thailand, a banana monarchy), but in fact Bangkok is a very firt-world city, and this coup seemingly a very white-collar maneuver. Sure, it's no surprise that a lot of the politicians are corrupt, and that there's dissent in the ranks, but the issues have been playing out more on the stock exchange and Op-Ed page than the streets -- that the military has taken control seems a bizarre response to the situation. It would be as if Enron middle-management had staged a coup.

The wild card, of course, is the king. The general who's taken over doesn't really want to retain power for himself and has declared his allegience to the king; even the tanks circling Government House are wearing yellow ribbons, the symbol of the monarchy.

But, the king isn't a substitute for a prime minister, and he isn't a replacement for Thaksin. A few months ago, when the dubiously-called elections were found to be dubiously-monitored and Thaksin the dubious winner, some of the opposition asked the king to intervene and appoint a prime minister. The king went on national television and scolded them: this is a democracy, he said, and a democracy holds elections. (To that point, Thaksin has been legitimately elected twice by an overwhelming majority.)

It seems to me with this coup that the general is now forcing the king's hand, making him intervene and perhaps appoint someone else. Or, declare his support for Thaksin, which may be in the best interest of democracy but does not seem to be in keeping with the king's personal taste.

It's a curious kind of coup that a) declares allegience to someone else; b) puts that someone else in an impossible position; c) justifies itself by saying the country is too divided under the current leader, and a coup is therefore required to restore harmony; d) apologizes to the citizens for the inconvenience.

Even in their coups the Thai are Thai.

Sunday morning in Bangkok, Thailand, and the sky is overcast and the Sky Train isn't running yet. I can see the tracks from the window in front of my desk. They're surprisingly elegant, tall and curvy. When I'm lost -- which is often -- I navigate by the Sky Train tracks, visible above the traffic, and when I sit at my computer -- which is also often -- I watch the trains go by.

Trains are short, with only about half a dozen cars, and covered in advertisements. (Ironic, because one of the reasons I left NYC was because I needed a break from all the commercialism; could there be a more commercial city than Bangkok?) Somehow the marketing on the Sky Trains appeals to me, though, maybe because the graphics make an aesthetically pleasant contrast to the palm trees; also, just seeing the trains go by, in bursts of red-yellow-and-black, satisfies my need for movement, even when I'm sitting still.

I think it must have been the urgency to keep moving that brought me to Bangkok. Well, in addition to the weather and the inexpensive cost and living. When people ask my why I chose Bangkok, my answer is usually "hot and cheap," which ends up being a pretty accurate summary of other appealing elements of Bangkok, too.

Also, I wanted to get back into the whole world, instead of just the piece of it that is the U.S.
Bangkok is fantastically cosmopolitan. There's a lot of Brits (apparently, the British Embassy in Bangkok is one of the busiest in the world) and Australians, as well as Japanese, Malaysian, Indian, Arab... A lot of big companies have at least offices here, and I seem to encounter engineers and people working in the oil industry. As I'm finding is true about Bangkok in other ways, the city doesn't have a particular speciality -- they're not particuarly about technology, for instance, or finance -- but they make it an hospitible environment for businesses in general.

Well, just how hospitible, from a financial and legal perspective is a topic for another time -- but, what I mean here is Bangkok has capitalized on its service-industry culture, and many expats find it easy to get real estate, set up shop, live alongside the easygoing Thais, and go to the beach on the weekends.

There's also fabulous grocery stores in Bangkok -- Villa Market has the single best selection of flour I've ever seen, although it's so hot I can't imagine baking -- and about every commercial good, from computers to chocolate, you could ever want. So far about the only things I haven't been able to buy in Bangkok are socks and underwear. Thai women are tiny people, and I'm always a little embarrassed when I present to them my feet or hips.

The last and probably biggest reason I came to Bangkok was to start a creative life in earnest. I've been reading Twyla Tharpe's The Creative Habit -- which I really recommend by the way. The premise is that creativity is supported partly by inspiration but mainly by building a routine. So far my routine is 7am yoga (if all I accomplish in a year in Bangkok is relaxing my hip flexers, I'll consider it a resounding success), three hours of writing, lunch, three hours of paid work for my nonprofit job in the U.S., and then swimming, running, or biking in the evening. The Phuket triathlon is a dim-and-getting-dimmer goal.

All this makes for a very calm life, if a bit hermetically sealed. It's easy to meet people in Bangkok -- the wonder of expatriate living, plus Bangkok is like a cruise ship and there's salsa lessons, or bike rides, or karaoke almost every evening -- so I don't lack for company or entertainment or even English, since almost everybody speaks some version of it. The only real lacks are books (expensive here) and culture, so the trick is figuring out how to keep one's world and ideas large, even in the middle of a comfortable life.