Santika’s Inferno – More Insight

Dear Readers,

I found this 2 accounts of what happened at Santika that night: Lights were shut off and everyone was scrambling in pitch darkness with suffocating smoke. No emergency lights.

A post by a Singaporean: detailed account plus actual photos of sparklers given in the club (A Must Read)

Another user Vince gives his account

I appreciate them sharing what really happened,

In shock,
Stacy

Bangkok’s 2009 Early Tragedy – Santika’s Inferno

Dear Readers,

I am pissed.

I am pissed at the whole situation, and pissed because Jamie lost her friend Win in the Santika tragedy.

Imagine this, December 31st 2008, a Goodbye Santika party, with performance from Joey-Boy and a band called Burn.

Party goers were handed sparklers to celebrate the new year. Santika was a chic happening club, a club where tourist went,  and higher-than-normal folk – society people partied. Outside the club, you could see a line of expensive cars – ferraris, minis, bmws, and mercs. I went there once with Neha, and have to say, I liked it. Yes it was the typical Thai style dance club – with tables on the dancefloor, but there was a little dance floor room near the stage (from what I remember) so any club with a dance floor gets a two thumb approval from me.

But what we really overlook when we do go clubbing, are fire exits, the presence of sprinklers, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, emergency lights…I guess we either assume that nothing bad would happen to us – or – a club would obviously have all these safety measures because they have a club liscence. – right?

That law of logic basically goes to shit in Thailand. That whole list? fire exits…sprinklers..fire extinguishers…- not adequate.

Santika decorated their stage with normal curtains – not fire retardant ones. Fire extinguishers? – One.

Sprinklers? – none that I know of. Fire exits? – 3 but 2 back exits were only known to the staff – not even the fire fighters knew about it.

So what really happened that night? Its a piece by piece put together, but the rough idea was that about around 12:20-35ish the band BURN celebrated the new year by using FIREWORKS (not stage fireworks) on stage, and immediately the ceiling (that was made of soundproof material) caught on fire. Some revellers thought it was even part of the show, but when the ceiling started to fall on them (not a whole chunk at first, more like ashes) a panic broke out. Somehow, people on the 2nd floor realised the fire before people on the ground floor, and everyone was rushing to the main exit, so that some deaths were caused by the stampede.

I read here and there, and one man said he jump kicked the glass windows on the ground floor, and only made a small hole and felt so helpless didn’t know how to get out. Worse – on the 2nd floor the windows had grills.

The fire was further amplified because of the bottles of alcohol on the main dance floor (remember, Thai clubs have bar tables on the dance floor, thats how Thais party, head bobbing and minimal booty shaking around their bar table.) so there were mini explosions from the alcohol bottles.

1,000 people, stampeding out of the 3 storey building, mainly using the 2 metre wide exit.

It took the fire fighters 2 hours to bring the blaze under control. Total – 64 people dead, 240+ injured.

Of the 64, there were 17 bodies that were burnt beyond recognition – charred. When they couldn’t locate Jamie’s friend Win, by the 2nd day, I had a strong gut feeling that it was bad news. His mother had to fly in from Myanmar for DNA testing and they found him, his girlfriend Laika and his friend Mark all near the back exits.

After googling alot about the incident, my mother found a post on thaivisa.com, someone who similarly was missing 4 friends. Then on a facebook group, I saw the same post, but the photo that was shown to look for the missing people did not include Win, so I didn’t think it was him.

Turns out, after giving Jamie the link, she pointed out that the people in the photo included Mark and Laika, but Win wasn’t there (maybe he was taking the photo).

So this was his story:

“We believe the girl was hit by debris from the roof, and her bf tried to help, but either passed out, or he and my bro managed to get her to the rear exit before passing out. Unfortunately, when the rescue teams came, they only went in from the front… As for the last friend, apparently he had already managed to get to safety, but didn’t see any of us, so went back in… He was found in the vicinity of the entrance, only a few meters from the 3…”

He was 26, a MBA student at ABAC, and Jamie’s friend/mentor (in the Debate club) for the past 4 years. He was also Dianna’s close friend, so its devastating for the both of them. I didn’t know him, but I always remember Jamie raving about him, how he is such a nice guy.

And the way he died, trying to save his unconscious girlfriend, most probably being knocked out conscious from the falling ceiling, or succumbing to the clouds of smoke…and the most UPSETTING thing – seeking refuge/hope by circumventing the crowds – going to the back exit and having it overlooked by fire fighters.

I’m PISSED! Pissed at the lack of safety regulations in Thailand. Santika did not hold a club liscence – they only had a liscence to run a food stall. FOOD STALL. Bribery is how they got away with it, probably paying police/inspectors 100,000 baht a month (at least).  In total, Santika made an estimate of 60 million baht per year in revenue.

This is how Thailand works – its called systemic corruption – corruption that is more than just one bar owner and one tainted cop, its a whole SYSTEM of police, government regulators and business owners. I recently spoke to a friend who opened a pub/restaurant near her home. I asked her if she had proper liscencing, and she told me quite frankly that she doesn’t, she knows a high police official in that area, and so pays a bribe of 1,000 baht per month to the police.

1,000 baht, can you believe that?

Days like this I am very disgusted to live here, and there is a facebook group that now shares places to boycott and be aware of when clubbing. Here is a link showing the fire exits for a popular gay club called DJ STATION : Look at this crazy ladder exit.

You know, I was watching Oprah’s Best Life – the Spiritual episode, and one interviewer said he was stuck in an airplane crash -Dante’s Inferno and he saw aura lights leaving the passengers’ bodies. Some were bright some were dim, each aura had a different strength to it. I’d like to think that Jamie’s friend Win’s aura left very bright, just from the photos that I saw of him, all the posts his friends wrote about him, and stories from Jamie and Grego, I know that he was a fun loving individual, always caring and selfless – this was especially illustrated at his heroic attempt to save his girlfriend – it is a damn dirty shame that the back exit wasn’t adequate for them to be rescued.

To see his facebook dedication page, please click here

May all the victims of Santika’s inferno find peace in their afterlife, know that they have touched many lives and are deeply missed,
Stacy

News articles:

Police: Many Victims were Foreigners

Rescuers helpless as flames engulf revellers

Teenagers flock to Santika to take photos of “ghosts” (this link is a bit freaky.)

I almost killed Justin

Dear Readers,

My rental car is named Justin. I made a promise that my first car would be named Justin – therefore everyone meet Justin – my super old, ugly blue Daewoo top line Espero.

Justin is really ghetto. His insides are all worn out, and he runs on LPG gas, and when I turn it on, there is neon blue light glowing. He’s also falling apart, the headlight switch is the same switch stick (for lack of the technical term) so when I turn on the headlights, if Justin jiggles a bit, the highlight turns on. So alot of people think that I’m flashing them, when I’m not. The rear view mirror is also very wobbly, that when I drive through bumps, it moves and I have to readjust.

Justin also really loves me and anyone who sits in the car, he is a very needy thing, because he LOCKS us in. That’s right, the front passenger side door does not open if it’s locked internally. Meaning that when I drop off Jeab, or Grego, I have to get out of the car – take my key out of the ignition and walk to the passenger side to open the door.

I really wanted to take photos of Justin to show you all, but I’ve been lazy and also, he is quite the shit box.

On Tuesday, October 21st 2008, it was a really tiring day for me. I played tennis for 30 minutes, did weights for 1 hour, and felt totally exhausted. Left the capitol club at 5:30, and this time I asked dad if I could play my Retro Hits mp3 disc while driving and he let me. And so on route to the tollway, I didn’t notice that I was in the wrong lane – I was driving in the inner most lane, that was turning right, the middle lane also is allowed to turn right. So at the intersection, I drove forward, and this HUGE ASS white blue and yellow bus turned right.

Collision.

Mom and Dad said I was driving quite fast, but I didn’t think so. And I didn’t notice the bus until Mom said, “Stace, do you see the bus TURNING!!!!” and I was like, “What/???” and right then and there

I saw the bus crushing into Dad’s side, and I saw the window shatter in slow motion, while Dad was like, AHhh!! And maintaining eye contact with me, it was so traumatising! And the sound effects? It really sounded like those crash scenes in movies. So – well done Hollywood for such an accurate projection!

I then stopped the car, and just sat there in total shock, and super worried about Dad and that he’d yell at me. Because – Justin only has 3rd party insurance, and looking at the damage I thought, god dammnit I just bought Justin.

Though I locked Justin when we left Capitol club, when I was sitting in the car, just staring at the wheel, someone opened my door! It was the bus driver checking it everyone was okay. And when he opened the door, I saw the incoming traffic from the right side. Which meant that even though I was in the wrong lane, the bus definitely cut me!! If I was going to turn right, I would have had and accident too!

I was so surprised, my parents didn’t yell at me, they told me to remain calm, and the police came over the mark the scene, then I had to pull over to call the insurance. One of the worst moments was when the bus had to back up to un-collide with Justin. There were more scratch sounds, and I felt like fainting. They told me not to worry, and it’s not my fault. Really loving and caring, they wanted to come over close to me, to give me a hug, but I had to shy away because I was worried about getting all teary.

Really impressed that I remained my composure, I really wanted to call Mr. Celebrity at that time, to tell him what happened, but I thought if I did, i would get all teary so I didn’t. And because our accident happened 3 minutes away from Dianna’s house, I really wanted to call her and ask her to pick up my parents. But my parents told me not too. After 45 minutes, when the adjuster came, I called Dianna, she just left her house and she said, Oh you should had called me earlier! I would have picked you up! and I replied, I KNOW!!!

I love you Dianna!

We went to the police station, and somehow we spent 3 hours there. At the end of the day, both parties were found in the wrong, and in that case – in Thailand the insurance policy is for both damaged parties to fix their own mess.

And after 3 hours, we realised that this is a private operated bus – the driver bought the bus, and the route, and does not have any insurance! If he were to pay for the damage, that would be equivalent to his monthly salary. So we couldn’t do that to him. And – the injustice – just because I’m relatively rich, I have to pay the damage myself. Grrr..

And – on a random note – there was one really good looking police officer on duty! So is this the chosen occupation for good looking thai men? Hmmm…too bad I don’t speak thai. sigh.

Imagine, I had to drive Justin home, and thank goodness he had tempered glass. So even though he’s a shit box, he has some good points. The officer tapped the window and exclaimed – OMG! Where is the Side Mirror! That’s right! The window – shattered, side mirror – wiped out, door – bent inwards.

I had to drive him home!! And as I was easing out of the police station, his window fell off! ARgh!! So scary!

It’s the worst thing in the world, getting into a car accident, and having to drive the thing that risked your life and your family’s life home.

Greg took a lot of photos of Justin after the accident, but I haven’t seen them yet, I’m sure they look really bad so he is protecting me.

So after the accident, I’ve been feeling really down, and unmotivated with life because – 1. I have to pay to give Justin reconstructive surgery, which I feel he doesn’t deserve, and 2. Dad is still going to keep on renting Justin so that I can practice driving more.

ARGH!!!! I’m so upset about this. I’m upset that I put Dad in harm’s way (Mom too, but the collision hit dad directly) and I have to say that he is really blessed, because he has no bruises, no whip lash.

My right eye was twitching ALOT 2 nights ago (so much that I couldn’t sleep ) and yesterday morning. I’m just really scared that something is going to happen to me really soon.

A bit paranoid, worried and broken hearted,

Stacy

Asian Hiphop Festival

Dear Readers,

So I went to my brother’s performance at the Asian Hiphop Festival, October 11th at Muang Thong Thani. He is Ghost Style, from 24 Herbs.

Although I can dance to hiphop (Hiphop and MTV dance classes are amazing!!) I’m not a hip hop listener. My music playlist is named “destressing” – filled with alot of easy listening, jazzy, soft rock and golden oldies songs. So you can imagine my reaction going to a hiphop concert.

Doug got us VIP tickets! So we were able to see him up close and personal. But I have to say, that the crowd wasn’t very hyper, just standing there and watching, so that when 24Herbs came up, I ran to the center of the crowd and tried my very best to get people like you know “Raise your hands!” Needless to say I looked as if I just overdosed on Speed.

But, Doug did REALLY WELL! It was my first time seeing him perform live, and after they performed the party picked up alot! The first group (I think they were Japanese and Korean)  were  mostly showing off their dance moves. Booooooooooorrrrrrrrinnng 

24 Herbs sang their hit “Respect dou PK” Which means – respect until you PK (pok gai. drop dead on while walking on the street) – meaning Respect alot. or something of that sort. All 3 of us (Greg Jay and I ) introduced ourselves to Doug’s 5 other band mates, and I have to say that underneath their excessive cursing and rough voices, they are EXTREMELY NICE and  GENUINE people! And very guai (kwai?) (polite), haha I bet this ruins their bad boy image, but I have to tell the world, that they are so nice, smart, gentile and some are even shy too! No star-power disease and very down to earth. They also gave the crowd shirts, (threw it) and this guy behind me caught a shirt, was extremely happy and started to jump up and down shouting out “Ho!!!!!!!” When Bryan (forgot his stage name, KGB or something like that) said “When I say Hey you say Ho, HEEEEEEEEEEY ”

24 Herbs did get a bit silly with the “When I say…” because they said the longest or like uncommon english phrases, and the thai audience  looked like this : :!  *blank stare*

haha

24 Herbs at the Asian Hip Hop Festival

 

Afterwards we saw a bunch of other performances, Jeab and I went in and out of the concert to sit and chat. We came back in and there was a taiwanese Band playing called MC Dog, and the guy on stage had the worse hair cut ever – school boy taiwanese style, and he was wearing a button down denim shirt. a sight for sore eyes. I saw him immediately, and told Greg, “Look at that guy’s hair, looks like Tim’s brother” and was surprised when we were talking to other people about Mc Dog’s performance, everybody commented on that fashion criminal! hahah funny stuff.

The big show by Thai Titanium came on, and I’m only accustomed to their famous songs. Their performance was 1/2 of their album. One of their songs consisted lyrics “We don’t give a F&@K” – sung on repeat by a white fat guy. It was one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. And people in the audience were like “YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” So the song went like this, white fat guy shouting: “We don’t give a F&@K , We don’t give a F&@K *bam bam*  We don’t give a F&@K , We don’t give a F&@K We don’t give a F&@K , We don’t give a F&@K *bao bam*” For THREE MINUTES.

Then a poor thing came on stage – a person in an ape suit, to do the Ape walk – which was just a half -ass crunk version of the monkey. As my dearest friend Alvin would put it, “Bravo. Well done.”

Then, the final show was a performance from NAS. Nas who? Exactly my point.

No wait, the name Nas is really familiar, Greg told me that he was Jay-z’s revival, then lost out. He made us wait for 30+ minutes, he came out at 1230, and sang his classics, but he was getting all political too, like “We need a black president!!!” and trying to get the crowd to be all like, “YEAH!!”

We need a black president!

 

But ppl were just like, “…..” Then on stage, a beautiful singer came out, and she was so TALL! and sang “If I ruled the world, I’d free all my sons” *on repeat* and I was like, wow who is that Giant woman, and Greg told me that was Kelis!!! She’s his wife!

I have to admit, I didn’t appreciate the concert at all, I’m biased and only went to see Doug perform and also to give support. I wanted to leave earlier and asked Greg and Jay to join me (cuz was worried about driving home late), and I got back the coldest stare from both of them, “STace, its NAS”

Wah, NAS whatever – he has no respect for his audience, make us wait like freaking beggars sitting around, and doesn’t even try to connect with the audience, the US doesn’t need a black president, the US needs a capable president regardless of race. Obama supporters should say, that he should be elected because he is the better of the two candidates, that he can lead them out of all their current mess. That’s like me chanting, “America needs a white wrinkly old president!” (Im a McCain supporter)  And unrelated to this post – Obama looks like he is going to win.

Anyways, I’m sure hiphop enthusiasts had an extremely good time.

Doug’s visiting until Thursday 🙂

Stacy

Happy Bloody Anniversary

Today, August 28th 2008, marks my 1 year anniversary of moving back to Bangkok.

Exactly last year, I had lunch with Chris, had a teary goodbye with Kathy, and I distinctly remember at the customs:

Officer: Are you returning to Singapore? *glances and sees me with my guitar case, 2 carry ons and 2 layers of clothing*

Me: Yes.

I am such an optimist.

I don’t feel I like Bangkok any more, or any less. Life is the same. My room is the same, I haven’t moved into it nor have I made it more homey.  This morning I woke up extremely groggy, watched Joe Bidden on CNN and left the house for work extremely teary (what a touching speech! I’d vote for him as President next term!)

When I got to the office, it was the type of day where everything was haywire, and I fell into an extremely bitter mood. Bitter that I’m in Bangkok, I sincerely hate Bangkok, I hate how my life has changed so much 540 degrees. I would never on my own accord choose to live in Bangkok, this place is chaotic, dirty and foney (sp?).

Granted that I am not fluent in Thai, and I don’t have many Thai friends, I shouldn’t talk. But also, my personality doesn’t match Thai people, I find it a chore to go out there and develop meaningful relationships. And hence I just retreat and drown myself in my small world. As my wise soon-to-be-married friend told me, It’s a prison that you’ve imprisoned yourself in.   

It’s one of those things where, I know the solution to my problem in detail, the solution is within my reach, but I don’t have the heart to grab it.

I’ve dropped 2 dress sizes. Hurrah! My face is clear of any trace of acne thanks to my dermatologist, and I have to say that my health is so far good, I haven’t fallen ill once.

I was extremely bitter this morning, but when I left the office for the acupuncturist (Mom and Dad were worried about me, so took me to see a Chinese Doctor, they both sat with me in his office and told him about my dizzy spells) and during the drive home…I had a pensive moment.

My life is better in Bangkok. I did make the right choice to move back. And whenever I doubt my choice, I need only to look at my parents, and see how happy they are that I am home, and I feel much better. 

Let’s say if I stayed in Singapore, I don’t see how my life would be extra ordinary different as it was then. I was a party princess, a social butterfly, an womens-right activist, and on the road to becoming a successful banker. Looking at my future alternative life path – August 28th 2008, I am working too much OT at a private bank, having a blast with my friends, and I am still single.

No regrets. I made solid friendship bonds in Singapore that distance doesn’t matter.

So, despite the 5 emotional breakdowns, the lack of social life, the lack of human interaction…I know I made the right choice in coming home. My happiness comes from realising that my life is more meaningful when its spent with my family.

Happy Bloody Anniversary.

Look Mom, I’m a TV Star!

This is me, after the tv shoot.

Dear Readers,

I’m also known to exaggerate. I like to tell interesting stories.

Anyhoo, I’m far from a TV star. More that, I appeared on TV today.

One of the privilege (this is debatable) of being the owner’s daughter is that you get to go on TV to act as a figure head of the company.  We had a 15-minute segment on H+ Health Show, which is a channel on the TCC Thai Cable Network. I don’t subscribe to TCC, I subscribe to TrueVisions, but TCC is quite popular. The subscriber base is 1,000,000 viewers.

But to begin this story, I have to tell you that the night before I slept at 11pm. That’s early. SUPER early for me, and I forced myself to sleep early because I found that if I sleep more than 8 hours, my dark circles fade.

You wouldn’t believe it, but at first the TV Channel told me that they wouldn’t be putting on makeup for Joy and I. WHAT!?!?!? Because that was the case, Mom helped me put on makeup. Thanks Mom!

Turns out that TCC did put on makeup on their guest before they went on the show. YAY! but when the makeup artist did not do much for me, he just put on anti-shine powder and a bit more eyeshadow. So Mom was very on the ball. 🙂

This is me and the makeup artists. And this is Joy and I, I look like a huge fat cow next to her, but I’m uploading it anyways because she looks fabulous.

This is after the tv shoot.

They gave us a rough script, in THAI, and the talk show host were going to alternate between asking Joy and me. My thai is HORRENDOUS. So for 45 minutes before our shoot, Joy and Sandy kept on repeating the thai phrase so that I can remember what to answer them. The idea was for me to answer back in English, and for Joy to translate.

The beauty of this plan was if I fumbled, Joy would translate the proper answer. *thumbs up*

It was very nerve-wrecking actually. Joy was nervous, and I had to be ‘un-nervous’ so that she wouldn’t be nervous. And the Talkshow hosts were such pros that they were so non-chalant about the whole thing.

They introduced us very well, spoke first about hair loss, how many of us experience it and may not know what to do about it. And that TODAY their special host is the owner of HAIR2Centre, here to talk about HAIR2.

If the interview was in English I would had totally creamed it. But it was in thai, so I didn’t do much, I smiled and nodded when appropriate, and tried to participate as much as possible. Joy was a SUPERSTAR! She was calm and spoke very eloquently, and thank goodness for that. The cameras were focused on her alot, and I didn’t have many closeups (yay!) but I did look like a huge hippo next to Joy, and also next to the small Male host.

The camera really does put on 10lbs! I’ve been working so hard to lose weight, and I thought that I got it nabbed in the bag (only 5 more KGS to go!) but seeing myself on air, it felt like I was back to square one!

We had live callers, and it was quite exciting to hear the phone ringing and to literally SEE calls on hold while we were answering questions. We could only take 3 calls, boo. But all the other calls were directed to our call centre 1577.

Overall it was a very good experience. If the feedback is good then I will be going more often.

The next show is scheduled for Friday morning, 12:30-14:00 Bangkok Time

http://mvtv.co.th/th/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=35 (select H+)

Oooh, the rerun will be on in 10 minutes! I have to run!

Your mini-celebrity (a term coined by Mark.)

Stacy