Living Through Our First Thai Earthquake

On March 28, 2025 at 12:50 pm local time, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck near Mandalay, Myanmar. The impact was also felt in Thailand, Vietnam, and China. Over 5000 people died, 11000 people were injured, and hundreds of thousands of buildings were damaged. This post will detail the experience we had (myself, Amber, my parents, and my brother) in this earthquake and it’s aftermath. The intention is not to make light of this still-ongoing disaster, but merely to detail how it impacted our life—especially on the day it happened. If you’re interested, you can donate to relief efforts here.

Spending the Day in Ayutthaya

March 28, the day after my 41st birthday, was the last day of my parent’s visit to Thailand. The only major item left on the tourism checklist was to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ayutthaya. The city is about 40 miles north of Bangkok; it took us about 90 minutes to get there in a taxi. It was founded in the 1300s (evidence shows it was occupied even earlier), grew to almost 1 million residents by the 1700s, then destroyed by the Burmese army in 1767. Despite this destruction there are remains and ruins of many statues, towers, wats, and more. It’s a glimpse into a number of time periods from the distant past.

Wat Mahatat is famous for it’s numerous Buddha statues and particularly the Buddha head inside tree roots.

Wat Ratchaburana contains arguably the most magnificent prang (tower) in the city, and you can walk inside it and peer down into the crypt.

Wat Chaiwatthanaram is a riverside temple built in 1630 as a memorial to the king’s mother’s residence. It has a 115 foot high prang surrounded by 4 smaller towers, and then 8 chapels surrounding those.

We arrived in Ayutthaya via taxi around 1045 am and started checking out temples. Around noon, we decided to get out of the 95 degree heat (so glad we brought UV umbrellas) and grab a bite to eat. We stopped for lunch at a cafe called Earthling Craft-Coffee and Bar, which I highly recommend. Big shoutout to the giant lizard terrarium and multiple tarantula terrariums, very unique vibes.

Around 12:50-1 pm we felt the cement block building sway slightly. Each of us looked at one another confused—did we just feel that? Looking at the plants hanging from the ceiling confirmed it, the ground was moving. The employees checked with folks across the street and…yeah, that was an earthquake.

My parents had a flight at 11:30 pm, so we decided to stop at one more wat before heading back to Bangkok. We figured we would have plenty of time, boy were we wrong.

Getting Home

Unfortunately with 5 people, we had too many humans to take a single taxi. There are 6 person taxis from Bangkok to Ayutthaya, but not from Ayutthaya to Bangkok. Amber ordered a car, I ordered a car. We split the group, my brother with me and my parents with her. Figuring everything was square, Adam and I hopped into our car and expected to see the rest of the group at home in a few hours. Grab was telling us it would take 3 hours (it took 1.5 hours to get from Bangkok to Ayutthaya.) Immediately after we got out of town, Amber’s driver canceled. Then another driver canceled, then another, and another. It seemed Adam and I got the last car out of town.

Amber made the decision to pivot to the train. They hustled to the train platform and managed to get the first one heading back to Bangkok. The estimated arrival time at the main BKK depot was about the same as mine in the car. Little did they know, this train would be standing room only with no AC. But, while Adam and I sat in traffic with a visibly frustrated driver just outside Ayutthaya, Amber and my parents were boarding their train car and gliding along.

Except they weren’t. Their train was delayed leaving, and then sat at a station outside Bangkok for about 2.5 hours. Come to find out, the main train terminal in Bangkok was directly adjacent to an under-construction skyscraper that collapsed. Thankfully they were at least given water and ice cream and handled the situation with smiles. They also ate my cookies that were in their backpack. The audacity.

Meanwhile, after a few hours, my bro and I made it to Bangkok and had been sitting on a highway off ramp for 45 minutes without moving. I saw the driver grab his phone and start typing on Google Translate a few times, but he never showed us the seemingly inevitable “I’m not driving you any further, you have to get out.” We have no water, no food, no bathroom. The driver stopped for gas once, but I was too paranoid he’d drive off without us so I didn’t go into the station. His wife called a few times, on speakerphone, and WOW was she unhappy.

Flipping back to Amber and parents, they got close-ish to the city, disembarking at a train station at the edge of town. From there, they had to pivot to a taxi/Grab. The government announced that all metro train service would be suspended and a few major roads had been closed because of damage.

As both squads got closer to home, the amount of people waiting for buses was mind-blowing. Imagine everyone who rode the subway or skytrain to work/school/whatever now having to find alternative transportation to get back. The city put more buses in circulation, but that didn’t seem to make a difference. I had heard from friends who reported walking for hours in order to get home, knowing that there wasn’t any easy relief coming. Multiply this for every neighborhood across a city of 7 million people and you can only imagine the complete chaos the train shutdowns brought. Needless to say, the traffic was even more atrocious than usual.

Aftermath

My brother and I left Ayutthaya at 230 pm. We arrived at the apartment at 915 pm.

Amber and my parents left Ayutthaya at around 330 pm. They arrived at the apartment at 930 pm.

We immediately attacked the 2 most important elements in the moment: half of us walked to the store to get beer and half of us walked to Sunrise Tacos to get food. After being in confined quarters for such a long time, the leg stretching was extremely necessary. They might have been the most satisfying tacos and burritos we’ve ever eaten.

Unfortunately my parents missed their flight. Their pleas to Korean Air fell on deaf ears…something about the plane still departing as scheduled and maybe something about Delta being the booking agent or something. They had to pay $1000 to reschedule their flights for a few days later. Not ideal, though it was nice to get to spend a few more days together. My brother rolled with it since he had nowhere better to be.

So a typical 2 hour drive turned into a 7 hour trek (for some of us it included multiple modes of transportation.) Thailand typically does not experience earthquakes, so there was no way to anticipate or adjust in advance. As much as I am a contingency planner, I did not plan for an earthquake.

Thankfully, our building suffered no damage and we were able to get into it without any issues. Over the next few days, the management brought around a city guy to do a more thorough inspection and everything was fine. We are so fortunate to have only dealt with minor travel inconveniences (and in my case, having to buy myself more cookies). The struggles in Myanmar, China, Thailand, and Vietnam continue. If you’re able and interested, you can donate to relief efforts here.