What you have probably seen is the worst of it and most of that is from north of Bangkok. Bangkok is protected by dykes, flood walls and canals to divert water east and west of the city. There is a flood in Thailand headed for Bangkok, not like a wall of water but some slower moving version of that headed towards BKK. Most of it was to be diverted by the aforementioned techniques. The flood problem will be the Chao Praya River which flows thru BKK. It is at the brim. And is carrying most of the flood water to the sea. As the wall of flood water advances it all must now flow down the Chao Praya.
The problem is exasperated by high tide. The sea pushes back water as the tides come in slowing down the flow of the river. How does BKK handle this on a normal day? With canals, just like Venice does (thus the Venice of the East moniker). As the tides roll in they push water up the canals and this stops the water from spilling into the streets.
During a flood they used to open up the canals from the north and just let the flood waters flush through. If BKK gets wet a little so what. Faster than trying to sand bag your way to dryness. Most years in the past this worked. However, canals are disappearing to developers and others who complain about them so most of the smaller canals have been discontinued, filled up and disconnected from the system. It is now all up to the River of Kings to handle the load.
On Saturday at around 6 pm the highest of the high tides (all u maritimers know what this means) will coincide with the wall of flood water traveling down the river. Result will be the river over flowing its banks. The effect to us will be minimal for reasons explained later. But here is a map that shows the potential flooding areas in BKK.
The red line is the River. We are in the area called Wattana, middle of the map approximately. Below us is Klong Toey. The line separating the two is Sukhumvit Road and our apartment is on the left top of that line up towards Pathumwan. So a good distance away from the river itself. But you can see that the learned Dr Seri is predicting 21 to 50 cm of water in our area. (That is about 10 to 20 inches of water) Not a lot, especially if you have been here. You know that the street curbs are 12 inches high. They get that kinda water here folks. No surprise to them, they are at least partly prepared. As a footnote, our apartment lobby is about 6 or 7 feet above street level so if we don't wanna go anywhere we won't get wet. Worst case is that the water should take about 1 week to clear since there still is a lot of water behind this initial surge. So we need enough drinking water and noodles to last a week. Got that so no problemo. Also have enough beer and wine to easily last a week so check there too.
Toughest part about the flood is no golf now for 11 days and counting. Last time I played we drove through water up to the rocker panels on the car to get into the course. Not anymore, road is not passable by car. So you will continue to see some of these kinds of pics coming out of BKK over the next few days or so.
And this is some of the bad. Peoples houses inundated with water. Shops and businesses closed, with no income for families.
Some of the good from a flood?
Well take a look at this dude, dinner swimming right up to your door step, what's wrong with that??
In explanation that the flood may not be such a bother to us is first Lena and Deeds are headed to Singapore this weekend. Lena could not get on Deeds work visa train like I did so she has a normal tourist visa. Only good for 30 days and then you have to leave the country to get it renewed. Last time Lena and I went to Hong Kong for a few days and got a 60 day visa from the Thai Consulate there. This time she will only get a new visa at the airport when she re-enters Thailand coming back from Singapore. This process is what is called a Visa Run. They even have companies here that run bus tours to the Burmese or Cambodian borders to get you a 15 day top up on your visa. Only 2,000 baht ($60), includes lunch and an all day coach ride. Leave at 6 a.m. back for dinner. Catch the bus in front of the 7-11 on Sukhumvit Soi 12, cash only!
And me, well on Saturday morning before the tide hits I am off to Pattaya to spend some time in the sun and splash in the pool. No floods there. And my high school buddy is back from his tours and I hope to be able to talk him into a game at some Pattaya course I haven't played yet. Doesn't sound that bad does it!!
I don't get any junior games over here cause I haven't figured out a way to crack into Rogers local cable broadcasts. (I have with nearly everything else btw) And because I can't I haven't had a chance to catch this little sniper play a game yet. But you know I will as soon as I am back in the Big Smoke, or maybe up in Barrie with the rest of the fam. Dieing to see Steve play. Go Petes Go.
In other news Lena is finishing her Teaching English as a Second Language training course today. She has worked real hard at this and I really do admire her. Result is that she has met a friend to hang with, which was one of the real goals. A number of job opportunities have been talked about but nothing concrete yet. Gotta hope that she can nail something to save a little cash to do a few trips on her own or with her pals coming in Feb.
All and all things are still very good in BKK. Floods aside.
We empathize with the people here. We have a couple of Thanachart work colleagues coming to stay with us for a week to help them out as their places have been flooded and are uninhabitable. Least we can do with this big place we have. Thanks for listening. Take care.
Sawasdee Krup
Thanks for the update Jerry.....Your getting really good at your posts. Maybe a new career when you get back. :)
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