Yup so it's martial law and there are no gatherings of more than five people at a time allowed but don't tell that to the thousands of Thais hanging out with the tanks and soldiers today, festooning both with flowers and showering the soldiers with yummy snacks. Was it surreal? Yeah, but anything with tanks parked in the background is surreal, no matter what, and better funny poses with little kids and dogs in front of personnel carriers than the alternative.

So I spent the day out reporting and below I pasted a story about tourism that I wasn't able to place in time -- in the breaking news world old news is stinky, useless news. But the quotes are PRICELESS and I couldn't have done better if I had made them up. And it was fun trolling the streets, except when the thing at the end happened ... ensuring now that you have to read to the end of my story which doesn't have a headline because I hate writing headlines ...

By: You Know Who
Soldiers and tanks may have been parked around Thailand's Government House and Parliament yesterday after a military coup last night declared martial law and ousted Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra,but, less than a mile away, life went on as usual on Khao San Road, the heart of Bangkok's thriving backpacker scene. There were fewer people and many shops were closed, but travelers expressed a business-as-usual attitude mixed with some confusion.

Two Australian women on the start of a three-monthAsian and European holiday were picking over a tiny stall offering Thai silk wallets and brightly covered headbands when they learned from a journalist that the army had staged a coup the night before.

"Are we in danger or anything?" asked Ellie Eade, 18,who, with her friend Katie Taylor, 19, had just flown into Bangkok from Tasmania Monday morning. They had noted a startling amount of police in the area the night before but had no notion that tanks were rolling through the Bangkok streets and a Constitution overturned as they enjoyed their second day night on Khao San Road, which is famous for its bars, clubs and cut-rate youth hostels.

Finally, the two women shrugged off the news and said they would stick to their plan of a 10 day trip in Thailand's mountainous north."Tourists are always pretty safe," said Eade, adding that news of a possible coup in Fiji didn't keep her from vacationing there in January.

By late last night foreign news channels had been blocked on Thai television and local channels broadcast only patriotic songs and footage of the Royal family. This, says some travelers, has added to the confusion.

"They cut off BBC," said Claire McKee, 21, a University of Newcastle, U.K., student who is traveling through Asia with her boyfriend, Oli Burdick, 23. "You don't know where to get your information from."

The couple said they first realized something was amiss while hanging out at a Khao San road bar last night. Suddenly, street vendors began to hurriedly pack up their wares and rush off. "We thought there was a storm," McKee said.

Later, McKee, who is Canadian, called her Embassy where the woman who answered assured her there was nothing to worry about. Indeed, most of the tourists interviewed said they were reassured by the taxi drivers, bar owners and travel agents they had spoken with who seemed to be taking the overthrow of their elected government in stride.

"Thai people were very calm," Burdick marveled.

Thais weren't the only people to shrug off martial law.

"We just finished a war in Israel so it doesn't reallybother any of us," said Jenny Shnedman, 22, who sat on Khao San getting her long, dark hair carefully arranged into dozens of tiny braids wound through with neon green string by two Thai women. Shnedman said she first learned of the coup the night before when she received a cell phone call from her mother in Israel. "She said 'Something's going on in Thailand,'" but her mother wasn't overly concerned, Shnedman said. "It's not supposed to affect the tourists."

One of Shnedman's braiders, Poin, agreed with Shnedman. No worries, she said, no worries.

Most business owners in the areas refused to speak about the coup and its possible affects on business. However, there were noticeably fewer street stalls today and all government offices, banks and money exchange places were closed following an announcement of an offical bank holiday. Shnedman and others said they had definitely noticed fewer tourists on the streets as well and one travel agent said she booked tickets for half a dozen travelers who to cut their trips short and leave.

Masa Mitsuhashi, 22, got a phone call about the coup at midnight last night while hanging out in Pat Pong, Bangkok's well-known red light district. Mitsuhashi and two other acquaintances visiting Bangkok from Japan waited for their orders of fried rice to be dished out at a street stall in the Khao San area. Kei Onuma, 22, and Norimasa Noguchi said they left Pat Pong after hearing the news in order to snap photos of tanks and soldiers as they passed by Bangkok's central train station.

Indeed, walking through the main streets separating this backpacker ghetto and Thailand's Parliament and Government House, one is struck by the number of foreign tourists excitedly taking photos of soldiers and tanks. A visitor from Korea moved to the front of a crowd when soldiers jumped a Thaksin supporter protesting at Bangkok's Democracy Monument in order to get a close up.

"What does 'antarai' mean?' she asked when one of the soldiers began shouting the Thai word for "dangerous" at a journalist.