[Coolhand]

I was in Soi Ericlast night, and although it was a little bit confusing to start with, it all worked out fine in the end.
To start with, one of the security guys heard something on his radio, and the whispers started, some bars started to close, others didn't, music carried on playing, most of the bars switched their tv channels to the news channel.
One of the bars was having a birthday party, and eventually the DJ shut the music down and said to evacuate. All the balloons were quickly burst, bills paid (I grabbed a carry out, priorities first) and in a very orderly manner the soi emptied.
Out in Bangla people were making their way to the top, and I think this is where Bangla being a pedestrian street, really worked, people could move easily and there were no motorclycles/tuktuks racing along.
At the top of Bangla the scene was a little different, a Farang was having some sort of seizure, but his friends bundled him into a tuktuk and to the hospital ( I hope). We managed to locate a tuktuk run by friend of teelak, and he took us to a bar opposite Safari disco, where a thai band was playing, had a great time, continued to get kee mau, they also tuned into thai tv news.
At about two thirty it seemed apparent that there was no tsunami, and we returned to Patong.
A couple of observations:- I didn't hear the sirens go off, so I assume some one made the decision to evacuate Bangla, but that person wasn't the4 person who controls the alarms!
The decision to evacuate was made in ample time, I was happily sat at bar on top of hill, when the tv said that tsunami was due in five minutes.
The evacuation along Bangla was very orderly, probably due to the lack of traffic. The top of Bangla was different, police seemend to be busy moving people away from beach, but little control of traffic.
Those nice new evacuation signs are getting a littkle faded now.

I was always a little bit cynical about all the measures being put into place after the tsunami, but after last night I am very reassured, and I didn't lose any drinking time.