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| Kook Kik |
Shortly before the fire broke out, Kook Kik was standing outside the pub with her boyfriend when she felt the need to relieve herself. She went back into the pub to use the toilet on the ground floor _ but then found she could not get out.
The fire had started, smoke filled the place and patrons were in a panic. Kook Kik made her way back to the toilets, with about 20 others. She took off her bra and doused it in water, to help her breathe.
''I saw someone do that in a farang movie once,'' she said.
Others broke the glass in the window, and stuffed wet clothes in the crack under the door to stop the smoke. Kook Kik called her boyfriend to ask what was happening. ''Jam told me to douse my whole body in water, and stay close to the floor, where the air was better.
''I talked to him constantly, telling him where we were. He alerted firefighters that a bunch of women were trapped in the toilets.
''Some women were screaming and howling. One fainted. I tried to keep my composure as I followed Jam's advice, even though I understood little of what he was saying.
''Half an hour later, a fireman arrived and told us to follow him. It was like walking through hell ... we passed a pile of bodies as big as a car. It was haunting ... I cried for the next two hours and couldn't sleep, so Jam took me to Pattaya to help me forget.''
Kook Kik says she did not call home after her escape from the fire, as she didn't want to disturb her mother's sleep. That night, she stayed with a friend, but when morning came, called her mum to tell her she was safe.
''Now, I know the importance of keeping calm. That night, I was so lucky to have my boyfriend - and that our mobile phone batteries lasted. If not, I'd probably be dead.'' -
2.
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| Tao |
Police have called Tao in for questioning after a man filed a complaint saying Tao beat him up at a roadside eatery.
Wirachart Densirikhun, 56, a Lampang shopkeeper, says Tao punched him, knocked him to the ground, kneed his chest and trod on him because he declined to return his wai, which Tao offered to diners as he entered the eatery.
''He was so drunk, he was weaving. He offered a wai to every table. Other customers returned his wai, but I didn't, because I didn't know who he was _ and I was busy eating my dumpling noodle soup,'' says Mr Wirachart.
Faded celebrity Tao is better known for his former marriage to singer Nat Myria.
Did he wai like a big-noter in the hope that a fan or two would recognise him or did he assume that his fame would precede him?
The attack carried on until customers called police. Tao's student girlfriend helped him into a car, and they fled the scene.
On the same day as he made his complaint, Wirachart says he was contacted by a local pub owner on behalf of Tao, who asked if he would like to settle.
''Even if he begged for forgiveness at my feet, I won't do it _ I didn't start it, and have never been involved in a fight in my life,'' says Mr Wirachart, who says the attack left him with bruises, sore ears, foot marks on his chest and dizzy spells.
Tao has yet to report to police, but called his foster mother promptly to tell her what happened. ''He says it was a misunderstanding,'' Somtawil Inthorachusi told the media.
'Wirachart is a member of his fanclub. He hugged his neck, but the two fell over and landed near the plastic tubs they use for washing the dishes.''
Tao will find it hard to wash away traces of his latest scrape with the law. In Chiang Mai in late 2007, Tao and a group of chopper-riding friends assaulted a motorist and his elder sister close to the city's airport.
While Tao and his victims eventually settled, prosecutors sent the case to court, which convicted Tao of bodily harm, and sentenced him to six months in jail, reduced to three months and suspended for a year.
Tao was drinking at a nearby pub before Monday's noodle shop attack, according to one newspaper. He tried to wrest the microphone from a singer on stage. Friends hauled him away before any punches were thrown.
Was Tao trying to give that hapless singer a wai, too? -
3.
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| Mor Krit |
Last month, Lydia's mother stormed the stage at a city function where Mor Krit (real name, Sukrit Patumsriwiroj) was speaking, demanding that he bow at her feet and apologise.
Lydia's family is suing him for 50 million baht for damaging her reputation.
After that televised drama, Krit scuttled to the provinces with his tail between his legs, amid predictions that his days forecasting celebrity fortunes had ended.
While Mor Krit has been licking his wounds, rival fortune tellers have hogged the media spotlight with their predictions for 2009. This week, Mor Krit signalled he was not ready to fade away just yet, making a cautious prediction about celebrity couple Suvanant ''Kob'' Kongying and Danupong ''Brook'' Punnakant, who married in a live televised ceremony on Friday.
After dating on and off for 10 years, the couple announced in November that they would get married, setting off speculation that actress Kob was pregnant. Kob denied it, and has found support from Mor Krit.
''She is not lying, Kob is not pregnant before marriage,'' he said.
However, Mor Krit's boastful streak of old has not deserted him. ''I am the only fortune teller who said they would marry in 2009, and that Brook would become an MP, and I said it two years ago.
''Many mor doo [fortune tellers] said if they didn't marry this year, they'd break up ... but now that the couple have announced their marriage date, they have proclaimed them as the perfect couple,'' he said, without an ounce of bitterness.
Mor Krit, 23, who has read his own stars, told the media before the Lydia fiasco that he would be famous before 25, then retire before 30.
On the internet, some Thais are unhappy that Mor Krit is still with us.
''Who dug him up?'' asked one webboard writer sourly.
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