there were 9 bombs set off in bangkok three hours before the new year. one of the bombs was outside a really corny pocketface bar called "saxaphone". we were duped into going there about a month ago by an aging bar-girl who we're pretty sure got free drinks for making friends with foreigners and bringing them in. there was a really crappy blues band playing and lots of older foreign men with their younger thai "dates". the drinks were lousy and expensive. anyway that's not the point. nobody is sure yet who is responsible for the bombings but the authorities are pretty confident it has nothing to do with the unrest in the south. i guess the new year celebration was cancelled in bangkok--according to the new york times it was also cancelled in chiang mai, not true--i don't think anyone even knew about the bombings here til this morning. there were thousands of people in the streets here setting off fireworks and huge paper lanterns thet floated away until they looked like distant orange constellations.