In Bangkok, at the site where a mass of rubble sits, rescue workers have the machinery they need and the manpower to try and pull people out of the high-rise building that collapsed.
In neighbouring Myanmar, they certainly don’t have that kind of capacity and they’re confronting a much larger death toll – one that is rising.
And yet, progress at the site where an unfinished building was instantly destroyed has been painfully slow.
All day, we watched as cranes tried to shift the concrete and steel around to make way for rescuers to enter.
Tide Banluerit, a volunteer rescuer, emerged looking bewildered after 11 hours inside.
“I looked at the structure and the foundation looked strong,'” he said. “But it’s not meant to collapse like dominoes and stack like pancakes in that way.”
But there is still hope.
Myanmar earthquake: Follow live updates
The Thai police told us overnight that they had seen signs of life on thermal imaging systems.
Perhaps as many as 15 people, they believed.
Families of the missing were holding on to those nuggets of information – holding vigil at a dusty area now full of makeshift water and footstalls, laid on to support the round-the-clock rescue efforts.
Hovering outside a white tent, Munyapa Thongkorn was waiting for news.
Wiping away tears as she clutched onto her husband, she told me her 17-year-old daughter Naiyana was trapped.
She was working as an electrician inside the multi-storey building when the quake hit.
Read more:
Myanmar quake victims suffer brunt of Trump cuts
Eyewitnesses describe quake hitting Myanmar and Bangkok
Munyapa Thongkorn’s daughter is missing after the building collapse
Naiyana, 17, was working as an electrician inside the building when the quake hit
“They told me she’s still inside, still stuck,” she says. “I was only just talking to my friends about her before the earthquake. But I haven’t been able to reach her since.”
A rescuer told me he thought it could be 72 hours before they could properly get inside the mangled structure.
That’s a long time when every second counts.
In Myanmar, people are using their own hands to pull their neighbours from the rubble.
There have been some miraculous escapes.
Tide Banluerit spent 11 hours inside the building looking for survivors
Pic: Reuters
One video from Mandalay shows a young woman emerging from the smallest of gaps – a flash of a hand and then a smile – confirmation after a long rescue that she had survived against all the odds.
China, Russia, and India have sent teams into the country now after the ruling military junta asked for international support – a rare move.
They have their work cut out.
Information in the isolated country has been slow to emerge – the junta restricting access to the internet.
But videos are starting to show the scale of destruction and the death toll, at over 1,600 as of Saturday evening, is expected to rise.
A woman cries as she waits for news as rescue work is under way. Pic: AP
Rescue workers at the site of the collapsed building. Pic: Reuters
The US Geological Survey says it could rise as high as 10,000.
The infrastructure has long been under pressure from a bloody civil war in Myanmar.
It could easily be totally overwhelmed by this disaster.
Hospitals are among the buildings hit.
Over the next 48 hours, we will find out a bit more about just how grave the situation is on the ground.
Traversing the roads, let alone the whim of the ruling junta, is deeply challenging.
But even the military concedes, this time, it needs help and fast.
