Stranded

Murder at the Paradise Hotel At midnight one night, we finished playing a set at the L'Amour Bar, and it was time for all the people in the city to go home. As I recall, the country, or at least Udon Thani, was under martial law. Yet every night when all the bars and other businesses closed, everyone would go over to this place called the Paradise Hotel and party all night long. I'm not certain why, but maybe it was because the Paradise Hotel was basically a G.I. hotel; it was permitted to stay open past midnight. It may have even been located on the edge of the military base and wasn't included in the curfew. Udon Thani had a huge B-52 bomber base just on the edge of the city. I never went to the base, but from my understanding, it was the largest American Air Force base in Thailand. It wasn't far from the border to Laos, so there was a large military population there. Normally, when Jake, Ian and I would get done playing our last set at the L'Amour, we'd jump in a taxi or samlor and head over to the Paradise Hotel. It was always packed with G.I.'s, Air America Pilots and an abundance of bar girls; everyone drinking like it was an Olympic event. The Paradise Hotel was huge, something like seven or eight stories tall. The swimming pool was located in between the hotel and the all-night restaurant. There were always two Thai policemen standing on each side of the main entrance to the restaurant. They absolutely needed to be there because there was always some sort of chaos: fights, drunken G.I.'s, and bar girls everywhere. For that reason, I never felt comfortable being there. I also hated the harassment Jake and I had to endure. The G.I.'s seemed to find our hair length offensive, and their harassment annoyed me. Jake and Ian went there nearly every night and usually came back home with bar girls, but I only went along a handful of times. Unfortunately this night I decided to go along with them. We arrived not long after midnight, and just as we were pulling up and getting ready to get out of the taxi, all hell broke loose. A Thai man burst out of the restaurant, knocking those two Thai cops out of the way. Just behind him rushed two more guys, chasing after him. They caught him just outside the entryway, only a few feet from the two cops who were still trying to compose themselves. The two pursuers grabbed hold of the first guy, obviously terrified, and held him until a third man came out of the door. The third man had a large meat cleaver in his hand. He walked right up and hacked the terrified hostage right across the face. His head actually split open, and one of his eyes fell out onto his cheek. Did I mention this was going to be graphic? No? Sorry. Anyway, the meat cleaver was so large it split his face open from his forehead to his mouth; it literally sank right into his face. Jake, Ian and I were only about 10 to 15 feet away from all of this and were frozen in extreme shock. Right after the third man had cleaved the guy's face, he pulled out a pistol and shot him in the chest twice and then once in the forehead. The two men holding him let him go, and he crumpled to the ground. The three men then jumped into a waiting taxi and took off. The two cops, both armed, never even pulled their guns out or tried to stop any of this. Quite a few people were there to witness the entire crime. We all stood, speechless, our mouths hanging wide open. It was the most vile and bloody thing I'd ever seen, and without a doubt the most graphically violent. I wanted to vomit; I wanted to leave, yet I stood there and just stared at the poor guy laying there on the ground in a massive pool of blood. Only a couple minutes passed before the two cops walked over to the guy and to my shock, the bloody man stood up on his feet, swaying side to side. His blood was already beginning to coagulate. He began to walk towards Jake, Ian, and me, and was looking with that one good eye, right at us. Not more than a few seconds later, he dropped to the ground, again with a loud thud. This time he didn't get back up.