Louder Than Bombs
So my 34th birthday - and the first I've spent overseas since my UK university days - turned out to be a lot more exciting than I bargained for. Six bombs went off in Bangkok at about 6pm, and then another three at around midnight. I was out when the first batch of bombs went off. We had just finished shopping at the new Central World Plaza and were on our way to Hero Athletic Men's Club. Traffic was unusually heavy but we thought that was just because of the road closures around the Pathumwan area where the major malls were (they were going to have a countdown street party).
We stole a cab from some locals outside some department store and merrily went off to Hero, which is in Sukhumvit. I think one of those bombs might have gone off one skytrain station away further up the road about the time we were at Hero. At the club, where one looks through giant glass windows at a roomful of muscle guys before deciding which one you would choose to give you a "massage", we all noticed all the Thai guys were glued to the TV. But the sound was off and the images of blood on the floor at a night market implied some sort of street fight, not a bomb.
Later, when we left at about 8pm, one of my friends got an SMS from his Thai friends telling him to be careful - that there would be "some bombing tonight". It was only when we got back to the hotel and I switched on the TV that I had realised what happened. We cancelled our plans to go to DJ Station that night - I couldn't imagine everyone trying to rush out of such a crowded place should anything happen there. The rest of the night was spent watching TV and fielding SMSes from concerned friends in Singapore. At midnight, there was a lot of scattered fireworks, but amid the explosions three more bombs went off (even as I was remarking to E. that you can't tell the sound of one from the other).
Apparently, many people still went out and DJ Station was packed (all of E.'s friends went after midnight). Which sums up, really, what I learnt this trip about the devil-may-care party spirit that's Bangkok.
We stole a cab from some locals outside some department store and merrily went off to Hero, which is in Sukhumvit. I think one of those bombs might have gone off one skytrain station away further up the road about the time we were at Hero. At the club, where one looks through giant glass windows at a roomful of muscle guys before deciding which one you would choose to give you a "massage", we all noticed all the Thai guys were glued to the TV. But the sound was off and the images of blood on the floor at a night market implied some sort of street fight, not a bomb.
Later, when we left at about 8pm, one of my friends got an SMS from his Thai friends telling him to be careful - that there would be "some bombing tonight". It was only when we got back to the hotel and I switched on the TV that I had realised what happened. We cancelled our plans to go to DJ Station that night - I couldn't imagine everyone trying to rush out of such a crowded place should anything happen there. The rest of the night was spent watching TV and fielding SMSes from concerned friends in Singapore. At midnight, there was a lot of scattered fireworks, but amid the explosions three more bombs went off (even as I was remarking to E. that you can't tell the sound of one from the other).
Apparently, many people still went out and DJ Station was packed (all of E.'s friends went after midnight). Which sums up, really, what I learnt this trip about the devil-may-care party spirit that's Bangkok.
posted by rookcub at
11:48 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home