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Coming Home after the Bangkok Floods

Our Flooded Kitchen

The floods have now receded enough for my family to return to our home here in Minburi. Last night we slept in our own beds and it was such a nice feeling. We lost a few belongings but nothing that can’t be replaced. There is still quite a bit of water outside out door, but the inside of our home is now almost completely dry. My wife took charge of the cleanup operation yesterday; she enlisted the help of one of our neighbors. I was given the easier task of babysitting our son from the comfort of a hotel (it felt a bit strange to be saying in a hotel so near to our home). The house is now fit for human occupation again. The only lingering problem is the unpleasant smell from the stagnant water outside. We also have no electricty downstairs until we get an electrician to check everything; at one stage our plugs were underwater.

Good to Be Back Home

I found our extended stay in hotels to be a bit stressful near the end. I love going away on holidays, but it just isn’t the same when you’ve no control over when the holiday ends. I found working on the computer all day to be extremely difficult in a hotel room. My back is sore from spending hours sitting in the wrong type of chair. It is such a relief to be back using a stand up desk in my own home office.

For the last few weeks I have been living out of bags. I never bothered unpacking because there never seemed to be much point. I kept on telling myself (and my wife) that things would be better tomorrow and we could return home. I never expected things to go on for as long as they did. Yesterday I finally got to unpack everything without even the slightest hint of post-holiday blues. I don’t mind if I never get to stay in another hotel – at least that is how I feel at the moment anyway.

Our Post-Flood Toilet

The Journey Back to Bangkok

The drive back from Phitsanulok to Bangkok turned out to be the most depressing journey of my life. I’ve made this trip many times before, and I can normally do it in just over five hours; this time it took twice as long. The floods have done a lot of damage to the roads. We started running into problems about 20km north of Nakhon Sawan; the highway is just full of potholes. For the rest of the trip there were signs of flood damage everywhere. Coming into Bangkok was like entering a disaster movie; people living on the sides of the road alongside flood destroyed vehicles. The traffic jams meant that it took us four hours to drive from one side of the city to the other. The inner city looks fine, but there it will probably take many months before the outskirts is back to normal.

Counting the Cost of the Thailand Floods

The expense of staying in a hotel has been a financial drain, but there are so many people in Thailand who have lost everything. My family has been lucky and as far as I can tell this disaster has ended for us. I never appreciated how important it is for me to have a home; it is a lesson I plan never to forget. For years I suffered from itchy feet, but it now appears that this malady has been cured. I just hope that all the other people who have been impacted by these floods get to go back to their homes and their lives soon.

Bored Staying in Thai Hotels

In the last few weeks I have spent twenty nights in hotels. On holiday this type of accommodation is fine for me, but waiting out the Bangkok floods is no fun at all. I just want to go home to Minburi and get back to my life. The worst thing is that nobody can say when this is going to happen. I’ve stopped trusting predictions made by the experts on Thai TV.

One of our neighbours has managed to return to her home. The water is only ankle deep in her house so it is probably the same in our place. I could live with this amount of inconvenience, and I could even put up with having to shit into a plastic bag. The trouble is that the roads are impassable in that part of the world. She had to go in by boat. It is probably going to be at least another week before we can return by car.

It is hard not knowing how much damage has been done to our home. We only rent the place, but most of our belongings are still there – I heard that at one stage the water was quite high. We managed to get a lot of stuff upstairs before we left, but items such as the washing machine and motorbike were left to face the floods.

We are now staying in Chat Trakan, and this is a beautiful part of Thailand. My wife gets a chance to catch up with family, and my son is enjoying the attention. I lived here before, and I do love the place. It is just different being somewhere when you no longer have a place to call home there.

Life Away from the Bangkok Floods

For the last few days my family has been living out of a suitcase. We spent the weekend in the beach resort of Jomtien, but as the floods show no signs of abating we moved back near my wife’s village in Phitsanulok. As far as we know all our neighbours have now abandoned our housing estate. By Sunday the water level was above waist level – in some parts of the estate it was chest level. We are so lucky to have made it out of Minburi in the car – if we had waited even one more hour the road out of our estate would have been impassable.

Terrifying Escape from Minburi

In my last post I mentioned how the floods caught us by surprise. We had been warned for weeks that the water were about to hit our area, but I’d stopped taking these reports too seriously. The week before we had abandoned our home when the authorities warned that our estate would be inundated with water within five hours – it never happened. So when the floods came last Thursday I decided to wait it out. The water level was rising alarmingly fast throughout the day, but we had been told that it was unlikely to go above half a metre. I battled with indecision, and it was already dark by the time my wife and I decided to once again abandon ship.

Driving out of our estate turned out to be the stuff of nightmares. I’ve driven through floods before but not when it is pitch dark outside – I will never do this again. The water began leaking into the car, and the engine began making struggling noises. I’m convinced that the motor would have packed up completely if we had not hit dry land when we did. Once again the plastic covering underneath the car had come off because of the pull of the water – it was dragging on the ground. I then had the unpleasant task of climbing into the mud so that I could get under the car to fix it back.

Flood Break in Jomtien

We were lucky to find a hotel in Jomtien that still had rooms. We spent the next couple of days looking for a cheaper place to stay, but the area is packed to the rafters with guests. Some entrepreneurs are making a nice profit from other people’s misery. I spoke to one foreigner who rents out apartments in Jomtien, and he wanted to charge us triple his normal rate for a two week stay. My wife managed to hunt down another studio apartment for rent at a reasonable price but they wanted to double this when they found out that she was married to a foreigner. One of the other nasty practices that is going on is that the local hotels and bars are buying up all the bottled water – as soon as a shop gets a delivery they seem to be there waiting. They can then sell this water for at least double the shop price. I think these floods have brought out the best and the worst in human nature.

Back to Rural Phitsanulok

The floods show no signs of disappearing from Bangkok anytime soon, and there was no way that we could afford to stay where we were. On Monday I decided to drive all the way to my wife’s village in Phitsanulok. It turned out to be a thirteen hour journey because I needed to avoid flooded roads. I actually had blisters on the sole of my right foot by the time we arrived here from pressing the car pedals repetitively for that long.

It is nice to be back here in Chat Trakan – there is now a reassuringly long distance between us and the floods of Bangkok. This is where my son was born, and where I lived here for five years – the longest I stayed anywhere as an adult. This area had its own flood nightmares this rainy season, but the water receded weeks ago. I worry about our remaining belongings back in Minburi, but it will probably be a couple of weeks before we can go back to see the damage. The main thing is that we are all safe and dry.

I Should Have Kept My Big Mouth Shut about the Bangkok Floods

The floods from my window- Kum Glao Minburi

In my last post I mentioned my good fortune to have been spared the worst of the Bangkok floods. I even told my family back in Ireland that there was no longer any cause for concern. I’ve been suffering from Thailand flood fatigue so it came as a relief to be able to be able to turn off from it all– I even stopped checking the Thai flood Twitter alerts. I should have kept my big mouth shut, because I’ve angered the Thai gods with my presumptuous claims.

The Floods Have Come to My Part of Minburi

I woke up this morning to a few puddles of water outside our house. The water level has been increasing all day; it is now higher than the worst day of flooding we had here this year. The water is continuing to rise, and it really could end up in our house this time. I’ve predicted this same outcome before so I probably sound like the middle-aged man who cried “wolf”. I guess it can’t keep rising indefinitely so I just hope that it levels off within the next few hours.

I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but the main reason our estate has remained dry is that there has been a pump working around the clock. It is a fantastic piece of machinery. I certainly do not begrudge the few hundred baht we were asked to contribute for diesel. Money well spent is all I can say; I’d be willing to contribute a lot more if I thought it would do any good. The problem is that this pump has nowhere left to redirect the water; we are basically living in the middle of a huge lake. Even the most powerful pump in the world wouldn’t be of much use to use now.

The Waiting is Over

The last few weeks have been so stressful. The worst thing was waiting and not knowing what was going to happen next. There were so many false alarms when we were told that the floods were bearing down on us. It is sort of a relief to have the water arrive now. I guess deep down I never truly expected that we would get through this untouched. The next few days are going to be kind of interesting. I must remember to recharge my camera in case the power gets cut off.

Back In Minburi and Thailand Flood Fatigue

I know that it sounds flippant, but I suspect that it is not just me who is developing ‘Thailand flood fatigue’. I do feel guilty for feeling this way because there are so many people who have it worse than I do. I just hate the waiting around; it is so stressful. It is now 2 weeks since we were told to prepare for the worst. Yesterday the Minburi helpline predicted that it will be another five days before the brunt of the water reaches us.

Back in Minburi

In my last post I described how we fled Bangkok to go stay in a hotel in Jomtien. It was such a relief to be away from the floods but it started to feel unnecessary. On the day we left we had been warned that the level of water in our area was going to reach one meter by that afternoon. We left and stayed away for five days but nothing happened. When we arrived home yesterday our street was dry as a bone.

So we are back to Minburi and waiting to see what happens next. The flood barrier that Oa built is gone, and we can’t get the material to build a new one. I’m not convinced it would have been much use anyway. On the plus side, we have already moved most of our belongings upstairs. I also managed to purchase a waterproof covering (they said guaranteed to be 90% waterproof whatever that means) for the car; thanks to those people who suggested I do this. We will probably try to escape again if the floods are coming our way. We have packed bags so that we are ready to go.

No Food and Water in the Shops

We had been warned that many shops in Bangkok are running low on food items. Yesterday we stopped off in Pattaya to stock up on groceries. Even though the floods are not due to hit Pattaya there has been a lot of panic buying there too; I suspect from people driving down from Bangkok to empty the shelves. We went to Big C on Sukhumvit Road, and they were missing many items including bottled water, milk, and dried goods.

Thai Flood Resources

I’ve been following the flood situation on Twitter by searching with the hash tag #thaifloodeng . There are some good people on there working hard to keep everyone informed. I’m sick of hearing about the floods, but I need to keep up to date. I also found this handy website that allows people to follow the situation in their area – this site has the wonderful title ‘Is my house flooded?’. There is also good information on Richard Barrow’s website Thai Travel News.

Escape from Bangkok – Running Away From the Thailand Floods

After 10 days of trying to ignore the approaching floods I finally decided to do something. I’ve taken my family out of Bangkok, and we are now staying in a hotel in Jomtien. Our housing estate had turned into a ghost town, and those few people who stayed behind were all a lot better prepared than we were. I think my wife did a great job building a cement wall to protect the house, but I just wasn’t convinced that it would be enough. We contacted an emergency number in Minburi yesterday morning, and they told us to prepare for at least 1.2 meters of water later that day. This would have submerged our car and left us stuck on the top floor of the house.

Ignoring the Floods is a Dangerous Gamble

I’m a more responsible person now than I was in my drinking days, but I’m far from perfect. I would say that the most damaging of my personality flaws is the tendency to ignore problems. When something goes wrong I just try to pretend it isn’t happening. My stress levels go through the roof, but I do not take the necessary action that would remedy the situation. I wait until the problem reaches a point where it is impossible to ignore (see my previous post here for another example of this tendency).

When my wife warned me of the approaching floods my initial reaction was to play down her fears. We had a lot of flooding a few weeks ago, but it didn’t cross the barrier of our home. I did begin watching the Thai news reports about the current situation, and this convinced me that things could get really bad for us. Still I felt completely unable to make any decision about how we should prepare. To be honest, I felt irritated every time my wife mentioned it – thankfully I managed to hide this irritation.

During my years as a nurse I became good at keeping a clear head in the midst of emergency situations, but when it came to my own family’s safety this clarity wasn’t there. This is why Oa ended up building the flood wall, and why I failed to move the car to higher ground earlier. It is also why I didn’t buy sandbags when we had the chance. My only reaction to the approaching devastation was to take a few photos and write about it on my blog.

Escape from Bangkok

The reality of getting my family trapped in the floods and losing the car finally hit me yesterday. I realised that sitting there passively was not only unwise but also irresponsible. Many people do not have the choice pack up and leave, but we did. Staying in a hotel for a few days is a bit of a financial hardship, but it is nothing compared to what other people are losing. It will be sad if the belongings we left behind are lost to the water but everything is replaceable. In some parts of Thailand people have lost everything – there have also been over 300 people who lost the precious gift of life.

We contacted one of the few remaining people who have stayed behind in our housing estate. The high floods have still not come to our area. It may turn out that abandoning Bangkok was unnecessary, but it was the responsible thing to do for my family.

The Floods of Minburi – Greetings from Fortress Garrigan

The water is continuing to rise outside our home here in Minburi. I can once again hear thunder clouds in the distance so we can look forward to another downpour this evening. Our main worry is Friday; this is when the water released from reservoirs in the north of the country is set to hit Bangkok. In order to save the financial areas of the capital this water is being diverted into the canals (you can read all about this here). Our house is situated in an area that is most likely to be affected. Already the local roads are impassible so we are stuck here until the emergency ends.

Bangkok Floods Have Caught Many With Their Trousers Down

I think most of us here have been caught by surprise. It is only really in the last couple of days that people have been taking the whole thing seriously. Some of my neighbors have abandoned their homes to go stay with relatives; others have barricaded themselves in for the duration. We left it too late to buy sandbags; apparently there still some available in the centre of Minburi but we’ve no way of getting to them. Some people have parked their cars in the airport or in department stores, and I sort of regret not doing the same.

A View of the Approaching Floods From Our Window

Building Fortress Garrigan
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My wife is the smart one in the family and if it wasn’t for her we would be facing the floods unprepared. She has built a wall at the front of our property to protect us from the water. Our main concern is to keep the car safe. If water invades the house it won’t be nice, but it won’t be the end of the world either. The only thing that we need to be careful of is that we turn off the electricity before that happens. The worrying thing is that the water is rising even when it isn’t raining. Last night there was no rain but the water level rose silently.

I must admit that Oa did a fantastic job on the wall, but she made one glaring error. She cemented in the rain drainage pipe on our side of the wall. Luckily we noticed this before the cement had dried. I can’t help worrying how we are going to remove this construction once the flood is gone.

Can You Spot the Flaw in My Wife's Flood Barrier?

The weather people are predicting that once we get past the weekend it will be the end of the rainy season. The next few days are going to be interesting, but I doubt we will suffer anywhere near the same amount of hardship as people in some other parts of the country. I’m amazed at how little coverage this event is getting in the western media.

Getting Ready for More Flooding in Bangkok

Driving in the Bangkok Floods is a Nightmare

When the water began receding form outside our home here in Minburi I took this to signal the end of the flooding season. If the news reports are correct (see here) the the worst is yet to come. We are expecting severe flooding within the next few days. The local authorities are handing out free sandbags, and we have been told to stock up on food. They are also warning people to take all their belongings upstairs.

A Perfect Storm for Flooding

The conditions in many parts of Thailand are already grim. My wife’s family in Phitsanulok has been living with the floods for two months now. Our old home in Lopburi has also been badly hit. We’ve been relatively lucky here in Minburi, but probably not for much longer. Experts are predicting major flooding between October 16th and 18th; if it rains again then we won’t have to wait that long.

At the moment the conditions for flooding could be described as the ‘perfect storm’. All the reservoirs in the North of Thailand have to start releasing water because they are already filled to capacity. This water will reach Bangkok around the 16th where it is going to clash with a high sea tide coming at the coast – this means that the water will not be able to escape into the sea. If that wasn’t bad enough they are also predicting more heavy rainfall over the coming days.

Floods Outside Our House in Bangkok

Good Reasons Not to Watch TV during a Storm

We had a bad thunder and lightning storm here two nights ago. My wife always insists that we turn the electrical appliances off, but I’ve always thought this to a bit of an overreaction. So I kept tapping away on my desktop computer despite the sky ripping apart outside my window. It was only when a lightning bolt hit a neighbor’s house that I got the message. The flash and bang so close scared the life out of me. I later found out that it wasn’t just me who was blasé about using electrical appliances during a thunder storm; the lighting blew up my neighbor’s TV set.

I grew up in Ireland where complaining about the miserable weather is a way of life. In Thailand people start a conversation by asking, “have you eaten yet?”; in Ireland the conversation starter is usually, “terrible weather, isn’t it?”. I never knew what ‘terrible weather’ actually meant until I moved to Thailand. The amazing thing is that people here cope with it so well. Life goes on.