I thought I had eaten badly in the heat and was about to faint. But then I heard screams and people running in the stairs.
The journalist and author Thorfinn has previously lived in Bangladesh and Myanmar and learned to be on her guard against earthquakes. She knows that you should have shoes nearby and be ready to run out at short notice.
But now I was barefoot in the kitchen. And I was so shocked that I stood in a doorpost instead.
Anxious waiting
When TT talks to her, she has joined her neighbors out on the street. There, people are holding on to each other in an anxious wait for aftershocks. The Thorfinn family lives on the second floor in an area with relatively low houses, but on the street, rumors are spreading about houses being razed in other parts of the city.
At first, I couldn't get hold of my husband who works for the UN here in Bangkok. It was anxious, she says.
But now we've made contact. They evacuated the UN building, he ran down the stairs from the 42nd floor.
Helena Thorfinn describes the atmosphere on the street as upset but emphasizes that people are still taking care of each other.
Everyone is quite scared and no one is inside the houses now.
Another concern for her is that she currently can't reach her friends in Myanmar, whom she visited as recently as last weekend. That's where the earthquake's epicenter was.
Stranded
Swede Dennis Thern, also in Bangkok, thought he was about to faint when he felt the powerful earthquake's tremors.
I didn't understand how big it was, but it felt seriously, he says.
Everyone ran out onto the streets and looked at the high buildings, in case they would collapse.
Now he's standing "in the middle of it", on the street together with what he describes as thousands of tourists and shop employees.
The earthquake was felt throughout Southeast Asia. It occurred just after lunchtime local time and had a magnitude of 7.7.
So far, no major damage has been reported where Dennis Thern is. But in a suburb of Bangkok, a high-rise building is reported to have collapsed, and over 40 workers are trapped under the rubble.
For Dennis Thern, it's now mostly about waiting for some kind of order. Public transportation has stopped, and it's almost impossible to get a taxi.
I don't know if the airport is open, I'm supposed to fly home tomorrow, so it would be nice if it worked.
TT has been in contact with travel companies Tui and Ving, which have a total of over 20 travelers on site in the Bangkok area. None of them have been affected, according to the agencies' press services.
