Bangkok Floodings 2011
I thought I would write a few words about the current flooding situation in Bangkok, Thailand.
Since the last two months I’ve been living in Bangkok, in the Area Ratchada (Hua Kwang). Since three weeks back we have been living with the daily threat of having 1-2 meters of water on the streets. Don’t get me wrong, and read this sentence twice if it doesn’t register the first time : I do suffer with the ones in the north and middle of Thailand who had their life’s lost, their properties destroyed, and had to flee their homes to live in shelters.
Of course it is better to not have water on the streets then to actually have it, so to this day I am grateful that my feet are dry every morning when I hit the Bangkok streets to conduct my daily life.
With that said, the mental pressure is building up from day to day, we been living with a constant threat of the flood now since 3 weeks back. Every weekend is the weekend they say the flood is going to hit us badly. But to this day life has been normal here in central Bangkok.
The thing you notice from the flooding is a shortage on certain products such as bottled water, instant noodles, eggs, canned food, food with long longitivity is hard to come by. With that said, there is no food shortage, restaurants and markets are open and are conducting business as usual, the bars are open, the discotheques are open etc.
People have parked their cars at high points within the city, shopping mall parking lots and bridges, they just park their cars there and go with taxis instead. Allot of Thai people have financed their purchase of their car with loans and it would be a disaster if their car would be destroyed. Allot of people are taking refuge to Hua Hin, Chaam and Pattaya, even places down in the south such as Phuket, Ko Samui etc are seeing their Guesthouses and Hotels unexpectedly filling up during the low season.
Personally I’m staying put, the decision may be foolish, since I have the option to go to a friends place in Muak Lek, witch is unaffected by the floodings, but I feel that I don’t want to leave my friends in Bangkok during this time of crisis. Together I think we can endure, and to the best of the situation. The fact that life is still normal in central Bangkok helped me to make this decision as well. Everything to this day is "business as usual", if you would visit central Bangkok today you wouldn’t notice that there was an impending crisis all over the place, if you would disregard the sandbags being put up to make water barriers, and the constant news reports on the TV.
The fact that the old Airport Don Muang is flooded led to a lot of reports worldwide saying Bangkok is flooded, this to this day is not true, just because Don Muang is flooded it don’t mean that entire Bangkok is under water, percentage wise I would say a couple of percent of Bangkok are flooded. Not more. This of course can change quickly, but be aware of the today’s media, today’s media is sensation driven.
If you are planning a trip to Thailand and or Bangkok, I would advice you to go. Especially if you are just landing and doing a transit in Bangkok, that is no problem what so ever. The southern parts of Thailand are unaffected, so landing in Bangkok and changing flights down to Phuket or Koh Samui, or even going by bus is no problem.
I would advice against a longer stay in Bangkok tough, get out of here as soon as you can. Not that it’s any problems here today, but who knows what’s coming tomorrow.
Thanks for sharing your on-the-spot view of the life in Bangkok! It must mentally be very difficult to watch the news and hear the situation escalating every day, preparing for the worst. However, it's good to hear that the situation in Bangkok currently might not be as difficult as it looks on the news. We keep our fingers crossed for the safety for everyone in Bangkok and of course in the rest of Thailand!