Patong Beach, Phuket – 2002
by Mike Myers
Thursday, Flying out of LAX
I met Doug at Miami Airport around five am. We got seats next to each other on the flight from Miami to LAX. But they told us that we would have to go to the ticket counter in LA to get adjacent seats. I can’t say much about the flight from Miami to Los Angeles, as I slept most of the way, only waking up when they brought breakfast and later on, sandwiches.We arrived in LA, and met up with Garen Hagobian. We went to the upstairs dining area and got some drinks. The plan was to get our seats changed when the Thai Airways ticket counter opened, and then to go someplace with Garen, getting back to LAX in time for our flight.
Around 11:30, Thai Airways opened their ticket counter. We went there, and joined the very short line for “passengers who do not need to check baggage”. We were in this line for about five minutes, when we were just about to be asked to come up to the airline attendant to get our seats fixed we were rudely interrupted by some loud noises: Blam, Blam, Blam, Blam, Blam, Blam. Then nothing, then Blam, Blam-Blam, Blam, Blam. It sounded like very loud 4th of July fireworks. The airline people had been standing around looking shocked, but after the second group of noises, they left the scene.
After considering all the alternatives, despite how unlikely it seemed, we assumed the noise was gunfire. Everyone stayed quite calm, and almost on cue, we all dropped to the ground, which seemed to the most appropriate thing to do.
The gunshots (if that is what they were) were coming from the next aisle to our left. At that point, a crowd of people came running towards the exit doors from the aisle to our right. We all decided the best place to be was behind the ticket counter. Doug was really cool about this – there was a mother and baby, and Doug made sure they could climb through the baggage check-in bay before anyone else did.
Me? I did the typical (stupid?) Mike Myers thing, and was taking pictures of everything going on, and only then went through the opening to the other side of the ticket counter. I really wanted to go to where the shots were fired, but I was aware of how dumb an idea that was, and also that if I did so, I might get separated from Doug and Garen, neither of whom shared my dumb ideas.
The crowd meanwhile was completely calm and reasonable – they might well have been scared to death, but there was no panic whatever. There also were no police, no authority figures, nothing. We were on our own.
Eventually, the police did come and told people to leave the terminal. Within a short time, all ten thousand or so of us were outside the building. It was wild! There were maybe 30 police cars, emergency vehicles, and fire engines, with the more arriving every minute. The TV news crews started showing up, and up above us were eight helicopters. We were standing around, watching and that is when bodies on stretchers started to come out of the International Terminal.
One official gave me a brief explanation of what had happened. Garen suggested we head over to the airport restaurant, and get a snack, and figure out what to do. Fortunately, they had televisions, and as the news crew found out what had happened, so did we.
Around 3pm we went back to the terminal, and were allowed in around 4:15. Fortunately, Doug and I beat most of the crowed, but by 5pm it was gridlock, with thousands of people hanging around. By 6:00 we had gone through security and had gotten to the gate. We boarded the plane shortly afterwards. Eventually all the passengers got on. The plane left the gate at 8:00pm but the destination had changed – instead of flying to Marita, Japan, we were now going to Osaka.
A few thoughts:
1 – Thankfully, El-Al, the Israeli airline, had armed people at their ticket counter. Otherwise, instead of seven people shot, it could have been seventy, us included.2 – Bad marks for airport security – we saw no cops or other security people for quite a while. After the second round of shots, the ticket counter workers left in a hurry, leaving us alone. Until a police officer ordered everyone out of the building, we had no official instruction at all on what to do. The crowd was saying “get down” and on our own, we had decided the safest place to be was behind the ticket counter. Not in front of it.
In the future, I will certainly be sure to have a small radio with me. That way, we would have had a better idea as to what was going on.
I’m repeating myself, but thank god for the Israeli airline being prepared for this! They put an end to the threat before it could get worse. Seven people shot and two victims killed is bad enough, but had the despicable jerk not been killed, there is no telling how much worse things would have been.
My Trip
While every year until now, I've spent a lot of time writing about my visit, this year I did most of my writing with my camera. I took along a Canon Powershot S330, which is small enough to fit in my pocket, but which is really an excellent camera.
Phuket has grown somewhat. The people are still the same, as are most of the establishments I used to spend time at, but some things have moved closer to what life is like in the rest of the world.
It used to be that digital cameras were a rarity, and everyone used film. I expected to have lots of problems in getting prints made from my digital images. Not so - the newer photo labs take your memory card, copy all the contents to their computer, and then allow you to select which images you want printed. The cost is no more than ordinary film prints, the quality is excellent, and if you have a limited number of memory cards, they will happily copy all the images to a CD, so you can re-use your memory card again for yet more photos.
Closing time at the bars has changed from 4am to 2am, so things end earlier than they used to. It used to be that all the bars closed at 4, people hung out talking or whatever until near sunrise, and then scattered to wherever they were staying. Now, with the bars closing earlier, there are a lot more private parties. Or, people leave the bars and go to a Kareoke place, where they can continue to party.
While it seems that even more people speak English now, it's still pretty easy to communicate with just about everyone. I think Patong Beach is turning into even more of a 'tourist city'. Still, walking for fifteen minutes in any direction gets you away from the "tourist areas", and out to where it's just ordinary people going about their business. Everyone still seems very friendly, and people always want their photo taken, preferably with foreign visitors.
It's even easier than before to exchange money - just about all the money exchanges now have cash machines, but you need to know your 'pin number' from your credit card to use them. The exchange rate is still about 40 Baht per dollar, so American currency still goes a long way.
At the time of my visit, Pia's bar, the Black Rose, was still in the same location it's been in for years, but by the time anyone reads this, it will have moved to an even better location still on 'Soi Eric'. A nearby bar has a live web came set up. When things are working, go to http://www.phuketwatch.com/maithai.htm for live action at the bar - but remember, 1am (when things are likely to be pretty active) is 1pm EST.
Rather than tell people a whole lot more about my trip, here are the links to the web pages on the Starting Grid Image Server where the photos can be found. Visit each page, and find a thumbnail image for something you want to see. Click on that, and you'll be shown a medium-size image. Click on that, and you'll get the full size image, as nice as I was able to make it. If you want to print any of the images, they should be pretty good quality.
The LAX photos were taken during the incident - when I probably should have been hiding. Oh well... it was a terrible start, for what turned out to be a wonderful trip!
My Airport Photos from LAX
My photos of Patong Beach
People Pictures
Black Rose Bar Photos
Photos of Pia
Sawadee!!