Hi Christian,
I totally agree, fear is not a good "travel agent"...
While I was in Thailand, there was that problem with the "funny"Mohammed paintings in Denmark and I read in the internet, that there have been some protests in Thailand too but we did not notice anything personally.
You can find some informations at www.bangkok.com and www.huahin.com about these regions.
Bangkok is a real big city, much traffic, lots of people, not the best air, very hot,but as you live in NY...
Hua Hin has no crystal clear water like one knows from the pictures of Phuket or Koh Samui and there are a lot of multi-storied hotel buildings, but our hotel was different (www.verandaresortandspa.com) and very nice. If you want "nightlife", better go somewhere else!We have been lazy at the pool everyday and did take the shuttle bus from time to time to go outlet shopping or to the Hua Hin night market where you can buy watches, silk, t-shirts and so on. We made excursions to Kanchanaburi (where the tiger temple is), the floating markets (also very nice) and Bangkok (better take socks with you because you have to take off your shoes to walk into the temples and hundreds of naked, sweating feet on the floor...), which would all be far away, if you stay in Phuket or other southern places. Around the hotel there are some little "restaurants" where you can get good food for cheap prices (shrimp green curry 120 Baht, Coke light 20 Baht), a minimarket, but not much shops or anything else, so you have to go to Hua Hin for a little more action.
Uli,Germany