It's difficult to say when the flood started exactly. At first you only 'heard' about it. Places somewhere far away were under water. Then more places got under water and more places and slowly but surely it seemed like a kind of a crisis, but far away. Remember the old days in South Africa? Imagine crime happening to someone else and you think it's very far away - that kind of 'oh it doesn't happen to me' kind of far away. Suddenly you saw cars parked on the expressways - can you believe that one? People getting their cars out of harms way and parking it on the expressway. No security guards, no car guards. Just cars. Then one day I started worrying whether I would make it to the airport for my trip to Luang Prabang. And then it started ...
The first thing was that our school was evacuated and closed. Well, that was still a kind of 'ok, it makes sense as we are on the basement floor' understandable, but said with frown. A big frown, because you are talking here about your place of work. Your home from home. That thing that pays the rent and helps you stay in Thailand. That place you have come to adore, with people you have come to care about.
So, off I went to Luang Prabang. "Will the flood come to Fashion?" I asked the taxi driver. "Noooo, never", he said. Famous last words. In Luang Prabang I watched the news from Thailand every day on television with growing dread. Finally the time came to return to Thailand and water, everywhere. You could see the masses of water from the air and Ayutthaya almost not visible under the water. To think that when Jan and Esther visited we walked there and now everything was under water. It was heartbreaking. But, still no sight of water on the way to Ramintra and home, but ....
There were sandbags in front of shops and sandbags near the entrance ready to be placed when needed. "Can I go out the other side?" the taxi driver had asked. "Sure, sure", I had said, not knowing that the other entrance into Nawamin had already been closed. This I saw the next day when I went shopping at Tesco. I had to climb over the sandbags to get to the street to catch the taxi. The next day the news came in that Fashion Island had closed the entire basement floor and that the school will remain closed. Well, maybe, we thought, another week.
And then it came. Suddenly there was activity at the entrance to Nawamin and to my utter amazement ... water in the street! I stood transfixed. The street was under water and, there were people with bags in the street, obviously vacating their homes. Then we were called by WSI to Silom. One day of activity with poor Sara pulling her hair out, not knowing what really to do with us more than she did. So, off we went to Don Muang airport to help with the relief effort. Putting together bags of food etc., standing in long lines, bags passing from hand to hand, from the heap of bags in the terminal to the army trucks outside. A good day right. Met some nice people, you felt like you were doing something. You were fine, but ... I anyway went for a walk down Ramintra to stock up on cigarettes.
And slowly the water in Nawamin rose higher and higher and then one day I went outside and, the Ramintra entrance was blocked, sandbags piled up high. And then suddenly, there was water. There was water in Ramintra and water in the little side Soi's and lots of water in Nawamin and, the school stayed closed.
I became used to having to climb over entrances to every shop as almost all the shop-owners had made barriers in their shop doors. Suddenly there were masses of people in the complex. It was abuzz. People were staying with friends and family to get away from the water. I even once walked passed a condo where everybody was basically living on the floor. In the evenings we were all stranded on our little island. People were using the quad to exercise. I started looking after a stray cat. I met Tong. The barriers at the entrances became amazing works of creativity! Steps were built over the sandbags so that those who still had to or could go to water-less places, could!
Thank goodness for Tong who dragged me out to The Mall Bangkapi! Of course, we had to go through the water in Nawamin. Now as we all know ... I'm horizontally challenged so, don't hold it against me if I was slightly afraid of the water! Of course, all the horror stories about what you could pick up from the water did not help and then, the crocodiles and those escapees, the groen mambas! In the evening on television you could see people catching huge snakes, which next to me would look like giant anacondas! Silently I was grateful for my size, a huge snake was going to have to swallow a lot to get me down, but then again, I would get the overachiever!
By now they had not only done the interesting stair creation over the sandbags, but there was even a walkway to the ledge. What ledge you ask. Well, the ledge for the built plant container outside the entrance of course! The idea was this ... you step down another little staircase from the walkway onto the ledge. You then edged along the ledge until you came to the end of it. You stepped down into the water. At the (then created bus stop as the real bus stop was covered in water), there was a very slight bulge in the paving which made it a bit higher and obviously the water was somewhat less there.
The first time the bus came and we had to walk to the bus I panicked a bit because I did not expect the current to be so strong! It was amazing! And there went said bus. Through water, no water, through water, no water until eventually it reached Bangkapi. I of course completely misjudged the time that day and went back home in the dark. Now, for anyone who hasn't been in Bangkok yet, there is no "oh we have gone past this or that street and we are crossing that street". Nope. It doesn't happen that way and, in the evening everything looks pretty much the same, especially if there is no light to lead the way! So, imagine this. You get of the bus into water (quiet high for me), bus leaves, you wade through the water to middleman, you get up onto middleman, you then climb over metal barrier (would this be a good time to remind you of my horizontally challenged status?), you then climb up a little bulge (more difficult than you think when your plakkies gets stuck in the mud), you climb off middleman, walk back to the ledge and reverse the process from there. Easy isn't it. Well, errm not in the dark as I learned that day. The pavement came earlier than expected and yes, I went for a little swim. Not necessarily a bad thing as I think this finally cured me of any fear of the water I might still have had.
That day was not the last trip to Bangkapi and all the other went off with more success than the first one. Eventually someone also probably had had it with the metal barrier and it was pushed over which made it much easier. On my last trip a plakkie sat forlornly in the mud.
Then one day, the water started dropping. Ramintra was the first to clear, and then slowly I watched the Soi's from my balcony getting drier and drier. Nawamin stayed for a long time, but now one can almost not imagine the way it had been. Eventually Fashion Island opened the basement floor and we could go back to school. My heart goes out to those people who suffered so much during the flood and who lost so much. It was a year to remember. Fighting!
The first thing was that our school was evacuated and closed. Well, that was still a kind of 'ok, it makes sense as we are on the basement floor' understandable, but said with frown. A big frown, because you are talking here about your place of work. Your home from home. That thing that pays the rent and helps you stay in Thailand. That place you have come to adore, with people you have come to care about.
So, off I went to Luang Prabang. "Will the flood come to Fashion?" I asked the taxi driver. "Noooo, never", he said. Famous last words. In Luang Prabang I watched the news from Thailand every day on television with growing dread. Finally the time came to return to Thailand and water, everywhere. You could see the masses of water from the air and Ayutthaya almost not visible under the water. To think that when Jan and Esther visited we walked there and now everything was under water. It was heartbreaking. But, still no sight of water on the way to Ramintra and home, but ....
There were sandbags in front of shops and sandbags near the entrance ready to be placed when needed. "Can I go out the other side?" the taxi driver had asked. "Sure, sure", I had said, not knowing that the other entrance into Nawamin had already been closed. This I saw the next day when I went shopping at Tesco. I had to climb over the sandbags to get to the street to catch the taxi. The next day the news came in that Fashion Island had closed the entire basement floor and that the school will remain closed. Well, maybe, we thought, another week.
And then it came. Suddenly there was activity at the entrance to Nawamin and to my utter amazement ... water in the street! I stood transfixed. The street was under water and, there were people with bags in the street, obviously vacating their homes. Then we were called by WSI to Silom. One day of activity with poor Sara pulling her hair out, not knowing what really to do with us more than she did. So, off we went to Don Muang airport to help with the relief effort. Putting together bags of food etc., standing in long lines, bags passing from hand to hand, from the heap of bags in the terminal to the army trucks outside. A good day right. Met some nice people, you felt like you were doing something. You were fine, but ... I anyway went for a walk down Ramintra to stock up on cigarettes.
And slowly the water in Nawamin rose higher and higher and then one day I went outside and, the Ramintra entrance was blocked, sandbags piled up high. And then suddenly, there was water. There was water in Ramintra and water in the little side Soi's and lots of water in Nawamin and, the school stayed closed.
I became used to having to climb over entrances to every shop as almost all the shop-owners had made barriers in their shop doors. Suddenly there were masses of people in the complex. It was abuzz. People were staying with friends and family to get away from the water. I even once walked passed a condo where everybody was basically living on the floor. In the evenings we were all stranded on our little island. People were using the quad to exercise. I started looking after a stray cat. I met Tong. The barriers at the entrances became amazing works of creativity! Steps were built over the sandbags so that those who still had to or could go to water-less places, could!
Thank goodness for Tong who dragged me out to The Mall Bangkapi! Of course, we had to go through the water in Nawamin. Now as we all know ... I'm horizontally challenged so, don't hold it against me if I was slightly afraid of the water! Of course, all the horror stories about what you could pick up from the water did not help and then, the crocodiles and those escapees, the groen mambas! In the evening on television you could see people catching huge snakes, which next to me would look like giant anacondas! Silently I was grateful for my size, a huge snake was going to have to swallow a lot to get me down, but then again, I would get the overachiever!
By now they had not only done the interesting stair creation over the sandbags, but there was even a walkway to the ledge. What ledge you ask. Well, the ledge for the built plant container outside the entrance of course! The idea was this ... you step down another little staircase from the walkway onto the ledge. You then edged along the ledge until you came to the end of it. You stepped down into the water. At the (then created bus stop as the real bus stop was covered in water), there was a very slight bulge in the paving which made it a bit higher and obviously the water was somewhat less there.
The first time the bus came and we had to walk to the bus I panicked a bit because I did not expect the current to be so strong! It was amazing! And there went said bus. Through water, no water, through water, no water until eventually it reached Bangkapi. I of course completely misjudged the time that day and went back home in the dark. Now, for anyone who hasn't been in Bangkok yet, there is no "oh we have gone past this or that street and we are crossing that street". Nope. It doesn't happen that way and, in the evening everything looks pretty much the same, especially if there is no light to lead the way! So, imagine this. You get of the bus into water (quiet high for me), bus leaves, you wade through the water to middleman, you get up onto middleman, you then climb over metal barrier (would this be a good time to remind you of my horizontally challenged status?), you then climb up a little bulge (more difficult than you think when your plakkies gets stuck in the mud), you climb off middleman, walk back to the ledge and reverse the process from there. Easy isn't it. Well, errm not in the dark as I learned that day. The pavement came earlier than expected and yes, I went for a little swim. Not necessarily a bad thing as I think this finally cured me of any fear of the water I might still have had.
That day was not the last trip to Bangkapi and all the other went off with more success than the first one. Eventually someone also probably had had it with the metal barrier and it was pushed over which made it much easier. On my last trip a plakkie sat forlornly in the mud.
Then one day, the water started dropping. Ramintra was the first to clear, and then slowly I watched the Soi's from my balcony getting drier and drier. Nawamin stayed for a long time, but now one can almost not imagine the way it had been. Eventually Fashion Island opened the basement floor and we could go back to school. My heart goes out to those people who suffered so much during the flood and who lost so much. It was a year to remember. Fighting!
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