joekicker

Absolutely, kudos to the Frost man. Heck of a service to us, and probably a good learning experience for him, too. One day to do all that is pretty good work for the server company too. Surprising, even. .

I've lived in Thailand a while, but that is the real deal. Frankly, Bangkok would be unliveable if it was filled with anything BUT Thais. Huge, packed, dirty by most standards, polluted ditto, traffic that cuts your appointments to two a day if you're lucky. Can you imagine Americans sitting placidly at a red light for 10 minutes, not a horn honked? Can you see British kids flocking to clean up the streets after a riot? Or anyone? AND keep smiling about it? You watch these people in something like this flood -- as victims or caregivers -- or you see them just FLOCK to the tsunami or the Chumphon typhoon or similar. It's really... I don't know, humbling in some ways. First day of their holidays, wife and daughter are off to who-knows-where to find a soup kitchen where they can cook for flooded-out people. They are on holidays from their US restaurant ferpetsake, they are absolutely knackered from their jobs. But rolling up their sleeves, it's simply what they all do, no heroics and no whining about it either way. "Resilient" is the word but it almost falls short quite a lot. Sorry if this comes off as Chamber of Commerce treacle to some, it's simply the truth as I've learned it in Thailand. .

Indeed. Bear in mind that Rangsit (for example) is not in Bangkok. Most of these places we're heard of recently in The Fishwrap are not in Bangkok. They are in Nonthaburi province or Pathum Thani province, in general. A couple of districts in far northern Bangkok flooded, but they aren't really important - even Don Muang, site of the airport. Now, the recent floods in "western Bangkok" are actually in Bangkok, but they are in Thon Buri (west side of the Chao Phraya) and again are not all that important commercially - hardly any important malls there. heh And additionally a lot of people don't get or don't care about the relationship between Bangkok government and the national government. The guy who runs Bangkok, he is fine with "suburban Bangkok" getting flooded, specifically because it is NOT Bangkok at all - it's Rangsit or Pathum Thani or... Well, if you were just driving around in more normal times, you'd think Bang Bua Thong and Pak Kret districts were part of Bangkok. But these poor, two-metre-deep districts are in Nonthaburi province - not Bangkok's worry. And after that, it gets even dirtier, murkier and more complicated. But bottom line: An awful lot of things are going to be back-to-normal on The Day After the Great Flood of 2554. Not everything. Not close to everything. But quite a lot. .

I was trying to keep my tongue in my cheek. I should have included the eggs, speaking of PR. The big difference (and I hasten to add "so far") with today's Bangkok and your Hat Yai floods is that a huge part of Bangkok -- and almost every commercially important part of Bangkok -- is dry. Bone dry. Not a water in sight. Paragon is HUMMING. Ikea had the grand opening of all grand openings a few days ago. My wife and daughter flew in last night and all the way from the airport they were horrified at what they were seeing -- WHERE'S these floods we keep hearing about, were you lying? The only water they've see is in the shower. This is not to trivialise the horrible damage to physical buildings and to some commercial areas. It is terribly, agonisingly real, as real as Hat Yai was in your last TWO floods down there. Also, people in dry and wet areas alike in Bangkok are still on tenterhooks, because there is a huge amount of water still "above" the city and rolling slowly "down" on the city. Some errors in planning, some hooligans with dynamite.... it could get much worse. But it's most likely Bangkok really will "return to normal" in so many ways the day after the waters go below knee level everywhere -- because so many of the commercial areas, malls, supermarkets and so on haven't been touched, literally have not been TOUCHED by floodwaters. Never say "never" but so far, one hell of a lot of Bangkok people still don't know what a flood is. .

True, true. I'd put the advice a little differently, more like what LD had in mind, I believe. Boils down to DO NOT go a booking agent or discounter UNLESS you are getting a very good deal on the ticket. These days, the airlines sell at or even below the price that the Expedias and the Kayaks and the Verycheapticketssir.com sites sell. Before you click "buy" at one of these sites, before you hand over cash to the guy in the shophouse at Joe's Mall - check the actual airline. It's hugely likely you'll get the direct ticket for about the same price. .

Supplies are starting to shake loose as floods go down in he warehouses, plus they imported 2.8 gillion bottles from Malaysia. .

The only change for Bangkok is that it is slowly getting worse. The west city of the city is simply abandoned for all intents and purposes. The north side, the water is slowly seeping in. There's another week of it for sure. ,

Oh, right. Make sure you have a visa or something like that showing you live in Thailand, legally. If you have nothing, you won't get on the plane in the US with a one-way ticket to Bangkok, which is what you will have. I have no anecdote about anyone actually being kicked off a flight, but every airline absolutely, positively checks this. .

Excellent news, and good for Monsoon to fight this thing out to a positive outcome. .

Of course, but losing the actual intended thread again, this and a couple of other recent posts. It's supposed to be stuff that people think is true, but (probably) isn't - urban legends. e.g. the GIs built Pattaya - and Patpong Road. .

Nothing personal, but I was surprised boobs were so low on your list. Growing out of that fetish? .

It's a little misleading in this context. The Saudi travel ban dates back to the mid-1980s, and concerns a huge jewel theft and several dead bodies in Bangkok. To put it another way, it has nothing to do with Thailand's reputation for non-Islamic festivities, let alone floods or anything timely. .

The thing is that it's out of date in a forum by the time you post it. AS I POST on Thursday afternoon, Sukhumvit is dry, and by the by we quite expect it to stay that way. BUT there are several places in Bangkok that we expected to stay dry and they are chest high or worse as I write. One place that has little tidbits of flood news as they flow in is the "Breaking News" column on the front of the Bangkok Post website, Bangkokpost.com Generally speaking: The main airport is dry. Ratchada, Sukhumvit, Silom, Cowboy, Patpong.... all dry. The main tourist area around Khao San Road and the Grand Palace area and Chinatown - dry. The latter two MAY get shin high again in the season's last high tides next week but nothing serious. And EVERYTHING above is always on tenterhooks, and depends on sandbags holding, watergates doing their jobs, and most unpredictably whether those "angry residents" of the local front pages tear down weirs and protective banks. .

I was right on the verge of offering that as advice, actually. It'd be more reliably faster. But first, you have to get to the airport, that's the rub. But if you have a good shot at the airport, this would almost always be superior to Ekamai, which is a total crap shoot. .

Wow, hard to imagine worse service than that. Bummer. I don't know what they would define as "imporant enough to notify". Seems to me the owner of a pretty serious set of web pages and forum would qualify. I wonder if they specifically thought about it and decided "let's not tell anyone, otherwise they'll move to another hosting company". .

Soi 48 and 50 were flooded by a local breakdown, but they are pretty remote in the grand scheme of things, and the water didn't hit the main road at all, so far as I know. Ekamai buses are running -- pretty much unaffected by what people tell me. Bear in mind that that whole Bang Na-Bang Pakong sector is VERY busy at the moment because it's dry. People from Bangkok come down there, loop around southeast, and then head back north to Isan and the North, so it can get all jammed up very quickly and your bus ride from Ekamai can be very slow. But on that general subject the southern bus terminal is flooded and closed, service over there in Thon Buri is very hit and miss, and the waters are currently going up, creeping in. The southern trains don't even come to Bangkok - the terminus is currently at Nakhon Pathom, which is a heck of a hike from the city.

You misunderstood the thread. This thread is for stuff that is NOT true. .

My experience, about the same as anywhere. The big difference between Thailand and the west is the obviousness of petty corruption - the 100-baht traffic stop. When you SEE that, you think corruption, whereas the westerners hide it more, to protect their face. But at the middle and top ranks, the nexus between police and crime is the same as anywhere. Two things about Thai police. The jails here and overseas are full of people who thought the Thai force is stupid or incompetent. It's not. If they want you, best you go turn yourself in before they have to come and arrest you and you have an accident and fall down the stairs. The other thing is that just like any huge force or group, there are HUGELY dedicated people and jerkoffs. Thais don't like the police for several reasons, the most obvious of which is the petty corruption and shakedown. But also because Thais are natural anarchists and don't like dealing with ANY authority until it's absolutely necessary. That said, the police force's reputation is as a place where young men can go if they aren't smart enough to be in the army. That's pretty unfair in many cases, but it's the meme. .

Pretty sure not, not on THAI. Lots of airlines to the East and West have it - for two reasons. First is to soak the rich tourists. Second is that the currency is total xrap and they couldn't get ANY local passengers if they charged the equivalent in dollars. (And rich tourists have to pay in dollars of course.) Vietnam for sure. I think China has that in lots of places. THAI does advertise in-country specials in Thai, in publications aimed at Thais. For those who are sharp enough to watch for them, they sell them to foreigners as fast as to Thais, I've never heard of THAI discriminating that way. .

The actual flooded areas, they generally turn off the power. Places the water goes up and down -- not what I'd call a real flood - including Pattaya, electrocution is a real danger. EDIT IN: Just noticed a story in The Fishwrap that of the 384 people confirmed killed by the floods up to today, "at least 50" were electrocuted. That brown stuff is very corrosive. Terrible! Cleaning up a home or shop house or office -- sometimes it seems you're better to start all over! .

AND the west, poor buggers. The North has been going longer, the west (Thon Buri) seems more spectacular. These are from some of the fishwraps over the past couple of days, from west of the river. And that phone works! .

Yes, Yaowaraj is dry. It flooded (barely) at highest tide Friday-Saturday because it's right beside the river. So did other areas like Wat Phra Kaew (Grand Palace) and parts of Sathorn. Those aren't floods though, they're barely large puddles in the scheme of things -- compared to some other areas. They could happen again this week, too, with the tides high again -- although the highEST is now over. Central Bangkok where tourists and visitors go is dry. The airport is dry. From airport to tourist areas is dry. Has been all along. It's possible but unlikely that "angry residents" will manage to tear down enough flood walls to affect that in the couple of weeks of water left. Never say "never" about that. But it would be quite a task and I believe authorities could control it before it got out of hand. Note: "believe". .

Oh, puh-leeze! I'll see your "gross excesses" and raise you one Thatcher, one Gandhi, a Bhutto and two Bandaranaikes. For starters only, mind, as these were "pioneers" of the front pages in peaceful female motherly nurturing pacific leadership. Jeeze. This is a Pattaya forum with people bleating about how women are way more peaceful then men? Get a grip! .

"We serve what you have expected for". Heck, that sign alone was worth waiting a year. Really nice report, thanks a lot for the BIG trouble it takes to post this kind of thing plus the pics. .

GIYF. .