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.
Good luck to you and your family Paul, hope the ordeal will be over soon!
Thanks Camille, maybe we should move to Samui before the next flood season 🙂
Paul, you must be feeling like a kind of refugee, uncertain when you can return to the comfort of your own home. Ie. after accessing the damage and cleaning up. I hope for you it all sorts out soon.
Personally I’ve been staying in hotels for well over two years now. I realise this is not a good idea when you have children, but for me the comfort of a permanent place is an illusion.
In the past, the more comfort and luxury I tried to build around me, the less uncomfortable I actually felt. It took me 25 years to figure this out.
Now when we are bored we just move on.
It’s always exciting to see new places or to meet old friends.
Each time I’m glad to notice all my belongings fit in a 15kg suitcase. However, I’m less happy to see my partner meanwhile using 3 suitcases of 45kg 😉
Hi I-nomad, it sounds like you have a great life. I suppose it all boils down to having a choice – at the moment I just feel trapped in a hotel.
Paul,
A great piece of work. I have been in a hotel for 25 nights so far. Our place at Sukhaphiban 5 has been flooded for that long! However my school is at Windsor Park Golf Course. Supposed to reopen on Monday, could you let me know the state of Suwinthawong at the minute?
My wife flew home to England on Monday with our one year old daughter. You are right hotels are great for holidays but crap to live in!
Good luck,
Carl
Hi Carl, I’ve been trying to find out the situation on Suwinthawong as well. My wife spoke to one of our neighbours and she says most of the local roads are still flooded. Small cars can still not go but the bigger vehicles are managing it.
I’m sorry I haven’t been keeping up lately but after reading this I think I am! Hope you and your family are able to return home soon. Maybe you can come up with a post: 101 Things To Do In A Hotel Room 😛
Thanks Lani, I hope to be able to return home this week. I don’t think I could stomach doing an article about hotels at the main – the pain is too fresh 🙂
It also sounds like everyone is missing a good portion of the school year. I wonder what the country will do about that later?
Hi Lynne, I think the older students will have to stay on longer at the end of this term.
Paul, like Lani, I’ve been a bit of a slacker keeping up with my favourite blogs, since returning to Australia. I had no idea that you were still unable to return to your house. That refuge feeling can be a little exciting in the early days, but it can wear very thin after a while…especially with children in tow.
On the upside, we might see some interesting posts about Chat Trakan soon?
Hi Snap, this homeless feeling is starting to wear a bit thin. I don’t care if I never stay in another hotel again 🙂
Hi Paul,
I hope that you and your family could return home soon. And I wish your properties would be safe. I stopped trusting the expert on TV. long ago. Seriously, I don’t know what they’re talking about. Cos it seems like they just point us the rivers and canals on the map and tell us “water will come here and we will have to diverse it to the other canal over there to go to the sea at the bottom of the map” …. uh..dah…I could say it too.
I don’t know if it is the political matters to criticize the government’s success or what, but I don’t trust them academicians anymore. I just quickly moved everything upstairs and do whatever I can to protect my house.
The worst thing is, my university will be indefinitely closed. And I don’t know what we can do about the rest of the term since we have to go for the internship in France on Feb. 2012. I hope that the flood wouldn’t ruin my schedule and hotel’s contract :'( otherwise, it would be a disaster running around finding new hotel.
But the good news in this bad time is…I got B+ for the cross-cultural project. And I have to thank you for that again 🙂 Water around my house is lower each day and I hope yours will be too.
Hi Supalux, well done on getting a B+. I hope that they will be able to sort out your university schedule so that you will not have to change your plans to go to France. Hopefully the water will be even lower now outside your home.