A woman hands a flower to a soldier at a road block near Government House in Bangkok. Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters
Thais are not unfamiliar with coups - there have been 18 since their country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, an average of one every four-and-a-bit years, writes Peter Walker.
And while yesterday's military takeover was the first since 1991, it had also been long rumoured. There has thus been minimal surprise among locals and Thai-based foreigners at the bloodless putsch that deposed the prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, as he prepared to address the UN in New York.
Perhaps more eye-opening is the scale of support for the plotters on Thai blogs and discussion boards.
A forum on the website of the English-language Thai newspaper The Nation, asking: "Do you support the coup?" found few people who did not. Among the fans was S Wanatung:
To go back to military coup d'etats is never a good step for a truly democratic nation. It would have obviously been better through the ballet box, however, under Thaksin (this) was just not possible. He abused his power and bought his elections.
It is a somewhat distorted picture, however.
The ousted prime minister, a hugely rich telecoms magnate before his election in 2001, has long faced persistent accusations of corruption, tax avoidance and vote rigging.
Nonetheless, Mr Thaksin and his self-formed Thai Rak Thai ("Thais Love Thais") party remains popular among the urban and rural poor. He is a hate figure mainly for the country's educated middle classes - the types who generally have access to English lessons and the internet.
Bangkok-based Aekthada Chivakanit sent an email to the BBC News website saying that the coup was "actually very well received by Thais", adding:
We see parents bringing their children to the key sites in Bangkok, which are now under military control, to take photographs of armoured vehicles and the soldiers. We see people greeting the soldiers and offering them food and ice cream on a regularly hot day in Bangkok.
On an equivalent page at the CNN website, Supakorn B had a similar view:
Many Thais have awaited a military intervention a long while. It's wholeheartedly welcome. Thaksin has been an arch-tyrant. Over the past five years corruption has phenomenally widespread.
Meanwhile, others merely sought to reassure outsiders that coups were - relatively speaking - a normal part of Thai life.
"We have lived through about 10 different coups. Apart from the ones in 1973 and 1975 life for the most part goes on the same," long-term resident Robin Griffiths told the BBC.
One Thai blogger at Vorolakandmai described the coup as "inevitable" given the recent tensions:
Radio stations broadcast military songs, remnants of the 70s (my dad forgot how to turn on the radio -- there hasn't been a coup in a long time). It feels surreal to see tanks on the street again.
Another foreigner at Update Thailand was equally unsurprised:
I guess the writing was on the wall when Thaksin fled the country, suddenly deciding to take a trip to Europe and America...for an indefinite period of time and for no particular reason, other than to visit his daughter in London ... Still, don't feel too bad for him. He's still got his billions in the bank in the Caymans and luxury real estate in several spots around the globe. I don't think he'll be suffering too much.
