IN Cambodia, we met our son and his girlfriend, fresh from their two-day voyage on a slow boat down the Mekong from north Thailand into Laos, and cheerful despite their 20-hour bus journey to meet us at Siem Reap.

A small bomb blast outside the residence of the Thai king’s chief adviser injured a British tourist in Bangkok today, police said, heightening tension amid weeks of protests aimed at ousting Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.