This is a little scary. As you know, I frequent Ram a fair bit - the Major cinema there between the Mall and the BigC is where I go a lot, especially when it is half-price Wednesdays.
Very local area - very few tourists (thanchart nor farang come her). Soi 43 is a little beyond the perimeter of where I jalan jalan but I've certainly walked there before, trying to either get to the stadium or suan nak suek sa, or eat Burmese food (the only place in BKK with good concentration of Burmese restaurants)
Like all of you, I follow bad luck when I come to Bangkok: the tsunami I was there, coup '91 and coup 2006 I was there, redshirt fighting in Ratchaprasong I was there, the time the bang fai rocket set my GF's father's cockfighting barn on fire I was there, the time the Burmese Wa army fighting in Mae Sai (mortar attack!) I was there.
The only time I not there but should have been was when the mae baan stole 5000Baht from my room at the Millennium Hilton
I might have dodged a bullet on my bad luck. Next Bangkok stay I was going to reserve this swank hotel when I somehow found out my ex-GF was staying there at the same time. Don't know how I found out (FB? email warning?) but luck was definitely on my side when I kancheong changed to a different hotel. Otherwise, there will be scenes of chickens fighting in the elevator.
