Earthquakes frightened people in Bangkok, causing panic and fear.

Last Friday (March 28, 2025) around 1.30 pm local time, strong earthquake tremors rocked buildings and frightened people in Bangkok. I was inside an IT shop with my new laptop as I needed som help with network connections. As we were trying to download updates and get faster connection with another internet network, I started to feel dizzy and I couldn’t stand straight. At first I thought my old ear problem had flared up so I had to lean on the table. But I felt worse as if I was going to collapse to the floor. Then, the senior manager shouted “there’s an earthquake!”

It dawned on me that other people also felt dizzy and confused about the effects of earthquakes. Once we realised there’s an earthquake somewhere, we all held onto something for stability. Within ten seconds,the whole shopping mall was shaking from left to right for almost two minutes. Then, I could feel a second earthquake starting the whole process of shaking again. This time I felt the aftershocks more strongly. Luckily, nothing fell on our heads inside the shop. Nothing inside the shopping mall dropped on the ground. I was glad the earthquakes stopped within five minutes.

I was quite confident that this shopping mall was very well constructed without compromising shortcuts. The Chinese owners were quite well known for their shrewdness and business acumen, these people would never let any penny go to waste. So, I continued with the software updates. Some staff began to panic and wanted to leave the shop. So, I asked them to find out about the source of the earthquakes so that I could assess the severity of the situation in Bangkok.

I guessed the first earthquake was around 6.5-7 while the second earthquake felt stronger for me. I asked the staff to search for news about the earthquakes but the traffic was too heavy. I told them
I wanted to know the location or direction of the earthquakes so that I could assess whether a specific dam would be in danger of breaking or not. This would give me the direction for my emergency escape in the worst case scenario.

The shaking of the shopping mall had caused a lot of panic among most customers. We could hear people outside the shop shouting and some were screaming while rushing down the escalators. Most people were phoning their families reporting their whereabouts. Most customers were middle aged so they could spend time at the mall during daytime. Some were so frightened that they left their shopping carts and baskets at the mall.

I was very cool and continued with my work. The mall was getting very noisy as more people rushed to the escalators and the car park. Some shops had started to close and their staff tried to escape to safety outside the mall. I saw no point in being panic or rushed out to join the frightened crowds. People almost stepped on others on the escalators, they were all in a panic. I knew the mall was very well constructed and could stand strong earthquakes. So, I didn’t have to panic as it’s still very safe for me.

So
The car park would be full of panicking drivers, driving recklessly as they wanted to get outside as soon as possible. I continued to stay cool and chatted with some staff telling them why I wanted to know if that specific dam had broken because of the earthquakes. I told them it’s unlikely to have another strong earthquake soon, as most of the pent up pressures had been released. I would wait for twenty more hours and to see the latest seismic reports of the day. I had a premonition of big earthquakes here but I didn’t know they would happen so soon. This time was just a warning of bigger ones in the future.

The rest of the shopkeepers started to be affected by the rush of vendors in other shops to the escalators. They also wanted to get outside the building. The staff who was helping me to sort out my new laptop asked me to leave the shop with him. But I shook my head and continued with software downloads. My cool approach had persuaded two staff to stay inside the shop. I told them this building could stand very strong earthquakes. There’s no need to panic and to join the crowds.

I stayed inside this shop for almost thirty minutes. The shop manager came back from his walk and told me he had to close this shop. So, I had to continue downloading software in front of the shop. Some staff from a shop nearby joined me in this rest area. I asked them to find out the source of these earthquakes. I told them my reason, if that dam broke we would have less than twelve hours to leave Bangkok. They were quite frightened by my warning.

Finally I could access the internet and found the details of these earthquakes. It came as a relief to me as the fault line was the one further in the north of Burma. The first earthquake was about 7.5-7 near the Burmese capitol while the second occurred further north at 6.5 which was quite surprising to me. I felt the second earthquake much stronger than the first one. So, I felt very relaxed and watched people including vendors leaving the mall to be grilled by hot sunshine along the main road. I thought there needed to be more logical thinking and better planning in evacuation in time of emergencies.

The mainstream fear mongering created panic and fear without critical knowledge and real time feedback. Panicking people could easily fell on top of each other on crowded escalators. Those people sitting in their cars were stuck in the narrow carpark for almost three hours. If there happened to be a stronger third earthquake, the car park would become a scene of tragic accidents. There were many escape routes in the car park, but this mall was very well built to stand strong earthquakes so no debris fell off the ceilings and building.

I sat quietly at the east chair and watched mall became quiet and abandoned by people. I was very hungry as I didn’t have any lunch and all the shops were closed. I sat and meditated on the future scenarios and was saddened by the fact that most people were driven by fear and relinquished their critical thinking. So, they would be herded like sheep to the slaughterhouse just like when they were herded to be jabbed in big halls.

The earthquakes in Burma took place over 320 kms from Thai border and over 1,000 kms from Bangkok. The last time we experienced the worst earthquake in Indonesia which created tsunami in the south, most high buildings could stand the aftershocks. So, I knew we were quite safe in well built buildings. But a video of an unfinished building collapsing to the ground became viral in one hour. Unfortunately, that building was under 30% construction and was the first building project undertaken by a Chinese company.

This news has created a lot of speculation on local corruptions and unauthorised changes to the building. The sad thing was that about 90 workers were working on the building and four people were found dead on site. Rescue teams have been trying to dig through the piles of rubbles and to find remaining survivors. All other skyscrapers under construction in Bangkok remained stable and intact! So,there were lots of criticisms on the faulty design and construction of this Chinese building project. I thought it would be like opening a can of worms soon.

I told the staff at the mall to search for news about the Burmese situation as I knew it would be very bad. The centers of earthquakes were only 10 kms deep! Lots of old buildings would be crushed by the impact. Dead tolls would be quite high and they would need lots of international assistance in finding survivours. I walked to the car park twice to check on the traffic jam. All the cars could hardly move in two hours and the traffic on the main road was very slow. Everyone was trying to get home to safety at the same time.

The security guards were patrolling the shopping mall, telling people to get outside for safety. The internal public announcement kept telling people to evacuate and wait outside the building. These typical or ready made solutions could create unnecessary panic and accidents inside the building. I was discovered by the security staff sitting by myself quietly. He told me to get outside the building but I told him the car park was still jammed packed with cars. I wanted to wait till there was no traffic jam inside the car park and on the main road.

I took photos of the empty shopping mall. Some shops still left their doors opened with valuables on display. Several gold and diamond shops didn’t pack up their goods in strong safety boxes as usual. That’s probably why the security guards had to be on patrols to prevent thefts.

My car was almost hit by a car whose driver was in a panic. The screeching sound of the car’s brakes was very loud. Luckily I got away by several inches. Along the main road, lots of people were gathering along the footpaths and around bus stops. It seemed all the buildings had emptied their inhabitants onto the ground. The bystanders and cars were piled along the main roads making driving quite dangerous and tricky. These people would be left in doldrums for hours until someone in authority would make a new order.

This was no way to cope with emergency situations. People were too afraid to think straight and be objective or factual. The education system had turned people into robots without independent thinking capabilities. The next emergency would be quite drastic and testing of people’s stamina and survival instinct. I hoped to be able to get up to the right place at the right time in the near future.

The situation is really bad in Burma and helps have started to arrive but it’s going to take a long time to recover from these strong earthquakes. People here were still counting the costs of impact from these earthquakes in Burma. It’s going to be much harder to sell condos in high buildings. I as lucky to be in a very well constructed building with high safety standards. I prayed for speedy assistance to all those victims stuck under building rubbles.