Yesterday was a very sad day in Bangkok. An unexpected bomb explosion rocked the heart of Bangkok and left many Thais and tourists dead.

It was reported that the blast came from an improvised device attached to a pole inside the famous and always crowded Erawan Shrine – a popular landmark and a place of worship for many who pray to Brahma (otherwise known as the Four-Faced Buddha) for their wishes to be granted.

Surrounded by malls, office buildings and hotels, the area is always very busy. Right outside the shrine, there stood at least 10 stalls selling flowers and garlands to be offered for prayers.  Yesterday, it was chaos. The entire stretch of stalls were wiped out, and I’m not even sure all the sellers were accounted for. The blast also happened close to our home and offices.

If not for an impromptu meeting discussion which I had not planned for last evening, I would probably have been around the area as I intended to leave the office slightly earlier to get a foot massage and a pedicure. It’s a place I often go to for such stuff. Very likely that I would have been done at about the time the explosion happened and I would have walked right on the bridge to the other side of the road to get a taxi home.

I shuddered thinking about it when we found out what happened right after I walked out of the meeting room. My staff were getting all sorts of graphic and horrific images from a colleague who happened to be close to the site. There were many dead bodies, human torsos and human flesh strewn all over the place. It was a jolt we needed to hurry home. The atmosphere was tense. 

Nothing of this scale had ever happened in Bangkok before. This afternoon, there was another bomb explosion on the Chao Praya River at Sathorn Pier. Thankfully, there were no injuries.

There must be some very sick people out there! It’s nothing but cold-blooded murder and whatever the motive was, this was just cruel. Innocent lives were lost . It was not even necessary. How could anyone be so, so cruel and heartless?!

All of these happenings make me very uneasy. I feel mad at the perpetrators who caused this. Suddenly, Bangkok no longer feels safe. I don’t really want to be out and about, especially not with the kids. Would it be safe to travel to Bangkok now? I’d like to say yes, but at this time, we really just don’t know.

If you do intend to travel here, I suppose the only advice I can offer is to stay away from crowded, open areas. Let’s just hope we have seen the end of this. The carnage was heart-wrenching.My heart goes out to families who survive their loved ones. 

To friends who checked in on us almost right after it happened, thank you for checking in. We are safe where we are  and so far, we have not heard of anyone we knew who fell victim. It does, however, feel surreal…like it was a dream.

The heart of Bangkok has never been so quiet and it’s not difficult to speculate why.