Just trying to get some information from Phuket about the Earthquake on Sunday night ! If anyone has anything to say please post it. News, gossip, related stories, funny anecdotes etc all welcome.

Ned

Nothing interesting, really, just a personal snapshot of the evening: Me and a fellow farang sat at a bar opposite C&N on Rat-U-Thit, Patong. Enjoying a few cold ones on what had the feel of a fairly quiet and uneventful evening. We were the only customers in the bar. At about 11 PM, a Thai friend called and said there had been a 7.2 earthquake 600 kilometers off the coast. Nothing new, we thought. Some 10 minutes later, things started happing. People turned to the TVs, mobile phones were calling for attention and the surrounding restaurants and some of the bars began shutting down. Then there was a news bulletin on Thai TV, saying that (as far as we understood it) they expected a wave to hit Karon at 12:06 and Patong at 12:13. That certainly sped things up a bit. People started running. Bags in hand. On Rat-U-Thit, traffic was jamming. Up to five people on a motorbike. We were even offered lifts “up to the mountains”. We kindly declined, concluding that it would be much safer to stay put than risking a ride through Patong traffic. Which is bad enough, without having an expected Tsunami on it’s heels. Besides, the cold beer was getting colder and – certainly - science was on our team. No way a wave, following a 7.2 earthquake, could crawl all the way up to Rat-U-Thit! At about 12:20 - some 10 minutes AFTER the wave had been expected - the much talked-about alarm went off, causing the crowd to move a bit faster. But none of the mass panic we saw in the days following the wave last year. By 1 PM, however, things started calming down, and by then “our” bar was packed to rim with evacuated tourists, and a few daring Thais. The owner gave us two thumbs up, grinning from ear to ear, saying “Tsunami good for business!”. We went home at about 3:30.