I am in Thailand now and this weekend some elections are being held. I took a quick look at the online edition of the Bangkok Post and couldn’t find anything about it. And why would this bother a foreigner holidaying in Thailand? Perhaps to give Thai people a chance to spend some time thinking about their votes, the government has banned the sale of alcohol.

Most of the bars are closed and it is unusually quiet. 7-11 which generally sells alcohol 24 hours have stopped selling, but smaller stores get around it by wrapping your drinks in newspaper.

Some bars stay open, but are keeping the music down. The ones that continue to sell alcohol serve it in coffee mugs.

A guy next to me earlier today downed his Heineken and said, “That was the nicest cup of tea I ever had”.