New Year's Bombings in Bangkok

New Year's Bombings in Bangkok

On New Year's Eve there were a number of bombings in Bangkok. I didn't hear about them until after they were all over. I was in Gulliver's Tavern on Khao San Road until after midnight. I left there to go to another bar in another part of Bangkok. I walked down Khao San Road to the Burger King end where there were a number of police. There were a couple of bangs but I think they were noise bombs meant to help the police clear the street. I asked someone next to me what was going on. "Bombings; boom-boom. Police," said the Thai man next to me. Yeah, police, I thought. I was still confused.

The tuk-tuk driver tried to take me a pub. There were six police trucks and cars parked outside the pub. "Boom-boom. Police. I take you somewhere else." He turned down an empty street. He slowed down so a policeman standing at the intersection could shine a light on me and check me out. We were waved on. We passed barricaded street.

It wasn't until I was at the next bar that the bar manager explained to me what had happened: multiple bombs, people killed and injured, including tourists. Finally with a few sentences of English I understood what had happened. I sent a text message to my family back home to let them know I was fine, even though they probably hadn't heard the news yet.

On the internet the next day I found out there were six bombings around six o'clock in the evening. These were at various places around the city such as police boxes and had killed several tourists. Soon after that the police started shutting down all the major venues, including the public gathering in the square in the center of the city. Around midnight two bombs went off in the vicinity of that square and injured more people, including foreign tourists. Most were released from the hospital soon afterward, however one had an eye injury and was not released.

Of course I am remembering this all from what I read online a couple of days ago so see a news article to get an absolutely accurate account.

All in all I'm impressed with the Thai police. If they had not shut down the square many people would have been injured and killed. The police reportedly set up six thousand checkpoints around the city.

I don't pretend to have any expertise on who did it so I won't comment on the suggestions in the news about possible culprits. I don't know anything about Thai politics. I only hope it only adversely affects tourism in Thailand temporarily.

New Year's Bombings in Bangkok