This is not meant to be a replacement for the news, and while the situation in Myanmar is far worse than here, all I can really talk about is what the situation is like in Bangkok right now. This is going to be more of an anecdotal piece, and one in which I will sort of "trauma dump" my experiences.
Without compare, this was the most terrifying experience of my life.
I was sitting on my bed and doing some work on my computer when I suddenly felt very dizzy. At first, I was afraid that I was having a medical issue and that I was going to faint. This, it turns out, was a very widespread phenomenon of people in Bangkok. It's not a super common experience during earthquakes, but because of Bangkok's unique sandy soil, we experienced a rapid series of micro-tremors called "foreshocks" before the event itself which make you feel faint and disoriented even before your body can actually feel or comprehend any tremors.
I heard what I thought was heavy wind hitting the window of my 19th floor condo, and tried to stand, but immediately fell down. I realized that I couldn't stand easily, and I stared in shock out of the window for a few seconds. I could see the ground coming towards me, then the sky, and I realized that the building was swaying alarmingly from side to side. Objectively, I cannot say how much we were rocking back and forth. It felt like ten feet in either direction. Of course, being up on the 19th floor, I felt it much more strongly than someone on the ground might have. I began hearing loud cracking sounds, and I was sure that this was it.
As Bangkok is not known as an area with much, if any, seismic activity, my first thought (one shared, I've come to learn, by nearly every other expat I've spoken with or seen share their accounts online), was that the building was collapsing due to poor construction, and that a catastrophic architectural failure was imminent.
I froze for around five seconds, staring out of the window at the nauseating rocking. It felt like standing on the deck of a ship in a very bad storm. I thought with 100% certainty that this was it. The building was going to fall, and I was going to die as it went down. For a brief second, I considered calling my wife just to tell her that I loved her, but as the building continued rocking, things fell off of my walls, and furniture collapsed around the room, I sprang into action.
I realized that I had two choices: take my chances in the collapsing tower or try my best to escape.
The emergency alarm went off, and red lights began flashing as I scrambled around the rocking room, barely able to stand. I was able to grab my phone and my wallet, and threw my poor, traumatized cat, Cricket, into a random backpack and bolted out of the room. Somehow, I was aware enough despite my panic to pick up the keys to my wife's grandmother's house as I sprinted out of the door.
I hurried to the stairwell where dozens of screaming and panicking residents were making their ways downstairs. None of us knew what was going on.
As we jogged downstairs, the rocking continued, and I could see cracks forming in the plaster of the walls and ceiling. Any second, I thought, the building was going to come down around us, but I wasn't going to give up without trying my best to save myself and our beloved cat.
I made it to the ground floor where staff, staring up in horror at the rocking tower, were yelling and ushering us away from the building. On the ground, I was finally able to answer the phone, which my wife had been blowing up in panic for the past five minutes and told her that we were both ok. That's when she informed me that there had been an earthquake, and it was the first moment in which I began to realize what was really going on.
My legs were shaking from the chaotic sprint down 19 flights of stairs, and my heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I thought I really was about to faint. I jogged to the street while everyone else around me milled about in stunned shock. Some people wore only towels, clearly just out of the shower.
I hailed a cab and told him to drive me to my wife's family house. As soon as I sat down in the taxi, all of the adrenaline and stress hit me like a truck, and I began coughing and gasping for breath. I realized that I was having a panic attack. It's the first time that I've ever experienced anything like that. I was gasping for air and felt like I couldn't breathe at all. It was very scary, but I realized what was happening and began taking shallow breaths to calm myself down. The poor taxi driver probably thought that I was about to expire right there in the backseat of his cab.
Traffic was terrible. Even though the house is just a 20-minute walk from my condo, it still took well over 40 minutes to drive there. However, I didn't want to walk due to my panicked state and my concern for Cricket. Once we were safely inside the cab, I unzipped my backpack to give some air to my cat, who looked up at me totally unbothered by the whole episode.
We finally got to the house. I got my cat food and water, and everything was quiet and calm for the first time.
I tried to sit down and relax, but I was still shaking. I kept scanning the news to see how bad the earthquake had really been. One building, still under construction, collapsed not too far away from where I live, and several tall buildings have sustained extensive damage. The public transport has shut down, and all high-rise condos and hotels have been evacuated, but it could have been so much worse.
The only thing I could think to do was to go wander around, just to be around other people. I took a very hot shower, washing off the dust. I walked across the street and ordered the spiciest basil crispy pork stir fry that I could. It was surreal. Traffic was completely stopped, and hundreds of people who could not return to their buildings were just sort of wandering on the sidewalks in a daze.
I don't have my computer with me, so I can't work. I don't have my passport with me. All I have is my phone, wallet, cat, and the clothes that I'm wearing. We are very lucky that we have somewhere to stay for a few nights. A lot of people don't. Any high-rise hotel has been closed, and all of the other hotels have been completely booked up. The governor of Bangkok has ordered that the city's parks be opened up overnight for a sort of makeshift camp. They are going to be providing mobile toilets and water trucks, and lots of people who live in high-rises are going to have to camp out overnight.
The next steps are less clear. It seems that there are going to be two rounds of safety checks on every building. First, the construction companies will have a private engineer come out for a preliminary check of the external and internal walls to assess if it's stable. After we get the all-clear, we will be allowed to reenter the building to collect important things. After that, we will have to wait for an architectural engineer from the government to do a full inspection. This is what the refer to as a "destructive inspection", meaning that they will have to tear down some of the walls and ensure that the internal structure is still safe. That could take days or a week or more. We still don't know.
But no matter what, Bangkok just keeps moving. This is such a resilient city, and I think that this was the test that proved that the infrastructure here really is up to the task. Power and water are running as normal, and pretty much all shops and restaurants have kept their doors open. Business as usual! Thank you, 7-Eleven! I was able to get a phone charger, cat food, and a microwaved dinner for the night.
The night after the earthquake, I still felt terrible. I had a horrible stress headache, and my legs still felt shaky (but more so, probably, from the unexpected exercise than from anxiety). I didn't sleep well that night. On the second night, I had my first earthquake nightmare. I'm doing ok, but I think I'm still a little freaked out from the whole experience.
But do you know the funniest thing? My wife's grandma is in her 90s. She's a very devout Buddhist and was meditating at the time of the earthquake. She said that she didn't notice anything happening. She just thought that some of the angels or spirits were teasing her or were responding to her prayers by rocking her back and forth. She's very "with-it" and I just think it's very funny (and actually very good that she wasn't standing or trying to walk downstairs) that she didn't notice anything until my wife called her to make sure she was ok!
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