Living In Thailand Blog
Monday 8th November 2010
I woke up several times in the night hoping to hear the sound of water going into my water tank, but still nothing. Thais usually keep large containers of water in their bathrooms with which they wash. I expect that these are being filled overnight and so the water pressure remains low 24 hours a day.
Before we go to bed each night I have to fill buckets so we can wash. In the morning I fill the buckets again to wash; fill them again to flush the toilets with, and again to continue cleaning the house. It's not the easiest way to live but it's better than having no clean water at all.
Ever since I started doing this web site my objective has always been to give an honest portrayal of Thailand. My view isn't like a glossy coffee table book where everything about Thailand is magical, mystical, exotic and perfect. Thailand - the same as everywhere else - has good and bad points.
Sometimes I feel guilty for focusing on the bad points too much, but the reason for this is that one bad thing can quickly counter ten good things. Obnoxious teenage kids on motorbikes, excessive noise, poor food hygiene, rubbish everywhere - it's easy to pick on the bad stuff.
I like to try to keep things balanced, though, and there is honestly nothing I like better than being able to say good things about Thailand and Thai people.
I went to get my broadband router replaced today and the staff were great. They replaced everything: the router, AC adapter, and both cables. I was expecting to have to pay but there was no charge. A big pat on the back to 3BB.
On the way back I walked past a temporary motorbike repair station that had been set up by the local technical college. Thousands of motorbikes were submerged in the flood and they need work to get them going again. The technical students were doing this work and it was all free.
I taught for a while at the technical college a few years ago and I know that not all teenage Thai boys are bad but when you see so many racing around the streets on their motorbikes with no consideration for other people it is easy to forget.
Nearer to home, the local water company had set up a drinking water station and were handing out drinking water to anyone who stood in line. Again, it was all free.
Despite getting my broadband router replaced, I still have a problem. The wireless access point escaped flood damage but its AC adapter didn't. If I really need to access the Internet I could take a laptop downstairs but at the moment there are still plenty of things to do that are more important than the Internet.
It is getting frustrating now. I need to get things replaced, and I need people to help me, but the whole town is a long way from being back to normal. I want to do things but I can't.
I heard today that school will resume tomorrow and that is something I don't need at the moment. I can't take a proper shower in the mornings and I can't even get simple things done, such as photocopies. There are photocopy shops everywhere in Thailand but most are small businesses operating on the ground floor. I suspect that many photocopy machines were destroyed and that many small businesses will be closed for some time yet.
I also walked past the large store where I had bought furniture a little while ago. It's a big place and their stock has been wiped out completely. The damage caused by this flood is immense.
The downstairs of our house is only really used for eating. The unit I bought to store food, pots and pans was destroyed, as was the dining table. We also have a sofa but I don't know why. Everything we use is upstairs and that is where we live. I have never used the sofa but when I was furnishing the house Bpom made a big point about getting a sofa. She liked the one we have and insisted on buying it. Fortunately, it was saved by hoisting it up the stairs..
I was really pleased with the unit I bought for downstairs. It was solid, it felt as if it had some quality about it, and above all else it was really practical. The microwave, toaster and kettle sat on the top, and inside the cupboards was all our food, pots, pans and containers. Unfortunately, it only had a very short life.
Click on the thumbnails to view a larger pop-up image.
| (21st August 2010) When I saw it in the shop it looked perfect for what we needed. |
| (23rd August 2010) It was heavy and took four installers to install it. |
| (29th August 2010) I was really pleased with the end result. I had power sockets installed above the counter and wall lights installed under the top part. It was perfect. We had the microwave, toaster and kettle sitting on the counter while the drawers and cupboards were full of food, pots, pans, plates, cups, knives and forks, etc. |
| (2nd November 2010) We moved in permanently on 1st October and the flood water arrived in the early hours of 2nd November. We managed to get one month's use from this unit, and it was the same with our new dining table. |
| (4th November 2010) While preparing for the flood we decided to put the counter on top of the table. The decision was to sacrifice the table to try to save the counter. What we didn't expect was a two metre flood and therefore we lost both. The table and counter floated around in the flood water and were then dumped unceremoniously on the floor again after the water had receded. |
| (6th November 2010) When dry it seemed very strong. However, after the flood the wood went like wet cardboard and the whole thing just fell apart. Everything was destroyed. |
| (8th November 2010) The only thing left for me to do was to throw it out in the street along with all the other flood-damaged furniture. |
Sunday 7th November 2010
Thai houses use either piped mains water (naam bpra-bpaa) or artesian well water (naam baa-daan) My house - like most around here - uses mains water. It's just about adequate most of the time but there's not much pressure.
I noticed this as soon as we took possession of the house. Even at its best, the showers were lousy, some taps upstairs hardly worked, and the washing machine (also upstairs) took ages to fill.
In the mornings and evenings when many people are using mains water the situation goes from adequate to very inadequate. I got in the shower upstairs one morning, turned the tap on and nothing happened. The water pressure at the time was sufficient to supply taps downstairs but not upstairs.
I called in a plumber and he told me it was a common problem. The solution was to install a large water tank and a pump. Mains water fills the tank, which requires little pressure. The tank then feeds the pump and this supplies water to the house at a higher (and consistent) pressure.
After having already spent a fair amount of money on the house I wasn't expecting to have to pay another Bt12,000 for this solution but as soon as I stepped under the shower I knew it had been worth it. The showers had great pressure, the washing machine filled a lot quicker, and everything else worked a lot better.
The plumber told me the tank and pump could be fitted downstairs outside the house or upstairs on the balcony outside the front bedroom. The downstairs option just wasn't right but the tank went in quite nicely upstairs without being too conspicuous.
Some other houses also have tanks but not too many. The money required is a lot for the average Thai and as long as something works they will manage. My view is that if I can afford it, there is no reason to compromise on something if a better solution is available.
The problem now - after the flood - is that with such a huge clean up operation taking place there is massive demand on the mains water supply and this is keeping the pressure extremely low. It is still way too low to fill my second floor tank and so our house still has no water.
I was hoping that overnight as people slept the pressure would increase enough just to fill the tank. That didn't happen, and it certainly won't happen during the daytime. The continued lack of clean water is now getting critical. We can fill buckets from our neighbour's house but it isn't the same.
We need to complete the final cleaning of the house with lots of clean water and a hosepipe; we need to be able to take proper showers instead of trying to keep clean with buckets of water; and we need to run the washing machine. We are getting low on clean clothes and the towels I ripped up to use as wash cloths need washing.
At the moment, I have no idea when our water will come back.
I'm continuing to write this offline. If I really needed to get on-line I'm sure I could probably find somewhere but there are other more pressing issues at the moment. I use the Internet a lot but right now the most important thing for me is mains water.
If I can get a replacement broadband router tomorrow - and if the power outlets downstairs are working - my Internet connection may be restored soon. I'm also trying to get an electrician in to fix some problems and check out everything downstairs but, as expected, there are so many problems at the moment that it is very difficult to find people to help.
With any personal disaster people always go through the same reactions, whether it is the death of a close person or natural disaster. The initial shock causes an adrenaline rush that gives you the energy to focus on the problem at hand and get through the worst.
After everything has settled down there can be a sense of sense of disbelief, anger, or self-pity. Why me? The house was perfect last week and now it is far from perfect. After all the money and effort that we've put in we are now living in conditions that are far from satisfactory. It was no one's fault and being angry and bitter won't help.
The worst feeling for me, however, is knowing that there is nothing to stop exactly the same thing happening again if the same weather conditions come about again.
Considering the huge amount of damage and disruption this flood has caused to the largest city in southern Thailand, I am hoping that there will be a major enquiry followed by a lot more investment in flood defences in an effort to prevent anything like this ever happening again.
It's now the end of another busy day. I have never cleaned a house as much as I've cleaned this one. The previous tenants were a bunch of teenagers and as you can imagine housework wasn't very high up on their list of priorities. There was evidence that they had never cleaned.
We spent days cleaning and then got the interior of the house painted. It looked like new. I never thought a house could be any dirtier than the one we took over but I was mistaken.
In addition to more cleaning today, I also took apart and cleaned every affected power outlet and light switch. I managed to work on the fuse box without electrocuting myself this time, and as part of all this I also fixed a long-standing problem with a light not working. Everything now works fine.
One of our neighbours has been great. It was the same guy who helped me get the sofa upstairs before the flood. We have been using his well water and today he got our fridge running. Fridges clean up quite well inside and, provided you know how, they're not too difficult to get going again.
He seems to be able to fix anything. He knew the right parts of the fridge to clean and it was working again in no time. I know he enjoys a beer so bought him 10 large bottles of Leo. I moved the gas cooker back downstairs and now we are using the kitchen to cook and store food again.
I've had time to think today and I have come to terms with what happened. I need to replace the stuff we lost downstairs but this time I will do it a lot cheaper. It won't look as good as it did but it should function the same. I will continue to do some stuff upstairs but downstairs will be compromised for damage limitation purposes in the event of another flood. My plans for a big flat-screen TV and fancy home
The ironic part of all this is that we moved to this house because we needed more space, yet now we find ourselves not utilising the space downstairs because of the possibility of another flood. This house will serve a purpose but I will now wait until we are elsewhere before I really start to put together the home I want.
My damage estimate keeps going down from what I originally thought. Bpom's motorbike is running again, even though she reports some problems. It will need some more work but it doesn't seem as if it will need to be replaced.
I've taken quite a few photos and I will post these when I get time.
Saturday 6th November 2010
7-Eleven stores in Thailand never close but after the flood I didn't see one branch that was open.
There is still no mains water this morning and that is our greatest need right now. The lack of electricity to my house is a local problem, as most people have had their electricity restored except the row of houses where I live.
We are running low on food. The Big C superstore seems to have escaped flood damage altogether. The car park got about a foot of water but the main store and shops inside were unaffected.
By the time we get back, the mains water is back on but so many people are using it that there is almost no pressure. The pressure isn't sufficient to fill my water tank on the second floor and so I have no water. The people next door don't have a tank and let us use their water.
This allows us to fill buckets with clean water so we can continue the cleaning operation but really I was hoping to hose everything down with clean water and I won't be able to do that until my water supply is restored. I am hoping that the water pressure will rise overnight and fill the tank. The electricity is back, as is the cable TV.
Bpom's motorbike is back but only time will tell if the flood has caused intermittent problems.
I ask some locals today to help me throw out my newly-bought furniture. The water damage ruined everything. It's sad but after walking around yesterday I know that I am more fortunate than many. Bpom mentioned today that the local municipality will be giving each household Bt5,000 towards damages.
That amount might be enough to buy a new dining table. The original set cost Bt10,000. The chairs were easy to get upstairs and were saved so we just need to replace the table.
This has been a really strange year for me. Ever since Bpom announced she was pregnant I have hardly had a moment of free time to myself, what with the wedding and then getting the house ready. I spent all of my break from teaching finishing off the house and then a week later the biggest flood to hit Hat Yai in living memory comes along and wipes everything out. What next?
As well as the physical damage to property, this type of thing causes psychological damage as well.
I had been visiting Khaolak before the tsunami and went back a few months afterwards to see people I knew there. One of my friends had been killed. No one I spoke to wanted to stay in Khaolak. I had heard somewhere that a disaster on that scale was a once-every-400 year event so it was irrational to fear a reoccurrence.
However, that isn't how we think. A flood like the one we have just suffered is unlikely to happen again for a long time but nature is unpredictable, it can't be controlled, and if nothing is done to improve the flood defences then it can happen again any time.
We will have finished cleaning up the mess soon and we can replace everything. Part of me wants to do this so we can put the flood behind us and get on with life, but another part of me asks, "What is the point if the same thing can happen again at any time?"
At the moment all I plan to do is replace what we need with the minimum, try to find somewhere else to live that doesn't flood, and hope we get through the rest of this rainy season without further problems.
I am already revising my damage estimate down from a few days ago. From what I saw yesterday on my walkabout, I think I got off very lightly.
Friday 5th November 2010
The toilet in my bathroom looked worse than the one in 'Trainspotting' after the flood. Fortunately, we have two more upstairs but after a few days they didn't look much better having no water to flush them with.
As forecast, yet more rain arrived in the early hours of this morning. Just like before, it rained continuously and sometimes quite heavily. The forecasters tell us this won't cause more flooding but after what we have just been through I now start to get quite anxious when the rain falls with no signs of slowing.
Our electricity went off again some time during the night. I don't know why. I was able to charge my phone and also the netbook I am using to write this. My Internet connection is severed, there was no cable TV when I switched on the TV last night, and we still have no water.
Of the other items that suffered damage, we have been told that the fridge should be OK but if not I will buy a new one. Lots of motorbikes were submerged and there will be lots of repairs. A Thai man who repairs vehicles for a living told me that Honda Waves can be repaired quite well but that Bpom's Yamaha Fino is difficult to repair.
We will leave the bike until someone can take a look and it doesn't look promising it will mean buying another one. Fortunately, she remembered to remove her ownership documents from the storage compartment underneath the saddle.
A house nearby is built about one metre higher than all the other houses. Good idea. The guy living there had moved his car to higher ground and invited people to park their motorbikes in his parking space. There were lots of them.
Had the flood not exceeded one metre, the bikes would have been OK. However, because it was so high they were all submerged.
Talking of motorbikes, one of the positives from the last few days has been the wonderful silence outside. Normally, we are continually subjected to the sound of young Thai males racing around on their motorbikes - sometimes on two wheels and sometimes on one.
They frig around with their exhausts and have the ability to make a 125cc Honda Wave sound like a Harley Davidson chopper. They entertain themselves by using the public roads as their own personal race track and the police do very little.
While cleaning up today I had to cross the road several times to get buckets of water. As soon as the flood water had receded, the boy racers were back on the streets again and I had to be careful not to be mown down by a teenage Thai maniac.
One little brat had what sounded like a police siren on his bike. He came tearing through a group of people trying to get their lives back to normal again with his siren blaring as if he was working for the emergency services.
I got really angry and just stared at a few. When you do this they simply stare back with a look of complete defiance and continue racing around. They seem to have this attitude that they will do exactly what they want to do and no one will tell them otherwise.
Having been through this flood experience, my opinion of Thais in general has gone up quite a lot. However, there remains one sector of Thai society that I still regard as pretty much a waste of space and a menace to everyone else. It's not all of them, but there are a lot of young Thai males who are completely out of control.
Before the flood, I was looking at renting this place for two or three years and then approaching the owner about buying it. The owner comes from Phuket, lives and works in Pattani, and she has no interest in living in Hat Yai. I think she bought the place purely as an investment.
However, all I want to do now is move. Everyone wants to live in a comfortable house that they have made just the way they want. That's what we had started to do and I spent all of my recent break from teaching working on the house.
But there's really no point in doing that when at any time the forces of nature can destroy all of your effort in an instant. All I want to do now is move to a place that can't be destroyed by flooding. We will start looking soon.
I am quite keen on moving to another part of Thailand but because all of Bpom's brothers and sisters are here, and because she has such strong family ties, it's going to be difficult. The compromise seems to be to find somewhere nearby that isn't susceptible to flooding.
I've put quite a lot of money into the house because it will work out cheaper than living elsewhere, provided we stay here two or three years. If we only stay a year it will work out quite expensive but I really don't care. Money is not the issue.
The flood water rose from nothing to two metres in about four hours and what was eerie was that it was completely silent. You don't hear anything until things start crashing around downstairs.
This wasn't how I imagined it would be. I thought it would be a lot slower. What seems to have happened is that the water was building up somewhere else unknown to us. When it reached breaking point, there was then a sudden deluge which caused the water to rise very quickly.
It's 10am now. The rain is still falling, there is still no electricity or water, and there is no sign of the local municipality collecting any of the rubbish on the streets.
The school where I work is located on a piece of low-lying land and apparently it is a mess. The municipality are helping with the clean up and I was also asked to help but my house is still a mess and I'm not in a position yet to help elsewhere.
It's easy when you suffer a personal disaster to be naive and simplistic so that is probably how this will sound.
I was pleased to read recently about the defence spending cuts in the UK. We are all supposed to civilised people these days and with so many problems in the world it just doesn't seem to make any sense spending ridiculous amounts of money on having huge aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and other weapons of mass destruction continually circling the globe.
Water management is probably the biggest issue we face globally. A billion people (one-sixth of the world's population) have no access to fresh water. Floods are occurring regularly around the globe causing immense damage.
Places like Perth have acute fresh water shortages, and these could actually make huge cities uninhabitable. I read recently that within just seven years parts of Bangkok could be make uninhabitable because of rising water levels.
I have just suffered from way too much dirty flood water, and I am currently suffering from a lack of clean water with which to wash and clean my house.
We will always be affected by exceptionally severe events of nature. That can't be avoided. However, I'm sure that with the brains, technology and money available the current situation could be improved for a lot of people.
This can only happen if - as a race - we start working together, stop killing each other, start prioritising the things that are most important for our continued existence, and start focusing our efforts collectively in dealing with these issues.
OK, that's far too naive and simplistic; let's just keep building aircraft carriers and fighter jets because it's far easier carrying on the way we always have.
I went for quite a long walk today with my camera and it wasn't until I had done so that the true extent of the damage started to unfold. It's bad.
As I suspected, many businesses have been wiped out. Shop owners were throwing stuff away, deciding whether stock was repairable, and selling off anything they could cheaply. There were lots of shoppers out looking for bargains. I have never seen Hat Yai as busy as it was today.
One print shop I walked past had a huge printer that they use to make large vinyl advertising banners. It had been completely submerged and the owner wasn't sure if it could be repaired. It cost Bt700,000.
There were quite a few cars that had been submerged. I doubt very much that a car will ever be quite the same after taking a bath. Thousands of motorbikes suffered the same fate but apparently they can be repaired easily. I was told that all they need is an oil change, a new spark plug, and the replacement of another part of the ignition system. The cost is about Bt300. Hondas are easy, but Bpom's Yamaha might be more problematic.
The big hotels and department stores here have underground car parks. They were flooded, of course, and the water was being pumped out. I know of at least one massage shop that is underground, and the best food supermarket in town (Tops) is underground.
I walked past some large furniture shops and saw that their stock had been ruined. However, there will be huge demand for furniture soon and Bpom suspects that prices will be high so I guess they will get some of their money back.
One shop owner told me that during the 'big' flood of 2000 the water level was 1.5m. This time it was over 2m. The two worst-affected provinces were Songkhla and Phattalung. Today, I met a man from Phattalung who was in his 80's and he told me he had never seen a flood this high.
This seems to have been the biggest Hat Yai flood in living memory. It's certainly the biggest natural disaster I have ever been personally involved with. The only other one I can think of is the 1987 UK hurricane that caused a lot of damage.
I heard again today that the flood water came originally from Malaysia and then hit Hat Yai via Sadao. Although it stopped raining a few hours before the flood, it wasn't rain falling in Hat Yai that caused the flood. The real problem was a massive amount of untamed water from elsewhere. Thais refer to this as naam bpaa (wild water).
As I have said elsewhere, just doing work on Hat Yai's flood defences isn't enough. To prevent problems in Hat Yai in future it will be necessary to do more work in other places.
What about figures? I haven't seen any official figures so don't quote me on any of this, but I've heard 107 deaths so far and Bt10 billion of damage.
Hat Yai is now looking like a war zone. Even at its best, it isn't the most attractive of Thai towns but now it looks truly terrible. Everyone has just thrown out their flood-damaged furniture on to the streets. So far, no one has come to collect the rubbish but this is understandable because it is such a huge task.
I imagine that the clean up will take several months. I'm not sure whether this amount of garbage will also cause hygiene problems.
On my walk, I passed a branch of my Internet provider. They weren't open for business but told me to return on Monday to get my router replaced. I was expecting to have to pay but it will be a bonus if they replace it for free.
7-Eleven stores in Thailand are normally never shut but every branch I saw today was shut. Several gas stations were also closed because flood water had contaminated the petrol. The traffic in Hat Yai continues to be gridlocked.
Thursday 4th November 2010
The flood water has now receded. The term 'flood water' isn't strictly accurate. 'Flood mud' or 'flood sludge' would be a little closer to the truth.
Earlier this morning Bpom woke up at 1am, got dressed, and - armed with a flashlight - told me she was going downstairs to start cleaning. It wasn't a bad dream.
She's five months pregnant and to get downstairs with the sofa blocking the way it is necessary to climb over the handrail. We have no clean water to clean with and this didn't sound like the best idea in the world so I ordered her to return to bed. She did so reluctantly.
The neighbours had told her yesterday that if you don't clean immediately, then the sludge hardens and can't be removed. If that was true my attitude was just to get the walls repainted again.
Today felt strange. For the last couple of days we have just been in survival mode; camped out upstairs and unable to do anything downstairs. Today we needed to face up to the damage caused by the flood. It wasn't pretty.
The brown sludge was everywhere and the smell was pretty bad. The new furniture I had bought less than two months ago was destroyed and now needs to be thrown out. It only seems five minutes ago that it was being delivered.
There are certain things you buy that, once bought, you won't need to buy again for a long time. That was what I thought about these things. I bought some good stuff and we got one month of use before it was destroyed.
Metal, plastic and glass is fine. Real wood is OK (I saw teak furniture that had been immersed in flood water and it only needed to be cleaned), but the wood used for most furniture these days isn't. I bought a storage rack for the front room downstairs that we use a garage. The metal is fine but all the wooden shelves just collapsed.
A few weeks ago I mounted my broadband router and wireless access point on the wall. I had to decide how high they should be but I was thinking more about signal strength and convenience, rather than avoiding flood damage. The router was submerged but luckily the access point was above the flood level.
I've bought a lot of new stuff since we took possession of this place and I had been putting all the warranties and instruction books in a drawer in the new kitchen unit I had bought. I forget about these and, of course, they were all destroyed.
The drinking water filter I bought was completely submerged but it should be OK once the filter materials inside are replaced.
When we looked at the mess it was obviously that we needed lots of clean water to remove it but we still have no mains water. We followed our neighbours and started to use storm drain water. Under normal circumstances you wouldn't use storm drain water to clean your house but these weren't normal circumstances. The drain water was a lot cleaner than the flood water.
Several members of Bpom's family showed up and helped us to clean. The best sight of the day for me was watching Bpom's three year-old niece with a mop cleaning our floor. So cute. Having people there to help when there was so much to do lifted my spirits enormously and spurred me on.
Amazingly, even using dirty drain water to clean, the house soon started to look relatively normal after a few hours. The new paint had resisted the flood mud quite well and Thai houses are designed to deal with water.
All the floors and quite a few walls are tiled, and there are drains in the kitchen and downstairs bathroom. It's therefore possible just to wash everything down. When I think of British houses with carpets, wallpaper, and wooden floorboards a flood like this would be disastrous.
Now that the streets are dry again I also take a quick look around the local neighbourhood. To say that it's a mess would be a major understatement.
On every street there are piles of flood damaged furniture and other items that people have simply discarded because now they are useless. I also saw quite a few cars and one minivan that had been submerged.
Many simple rice shops have been completely obliterated and single storey dwellings were completely submerged. The flood paid no respect to wealth and some newly built houses also suffered lots of damage.
Small businesses paid a heavy price, with lots of their stock destroyed. One shop I peered into had a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall and that had suffered flood damage. One of my plans for this house had been a large flat-screen TV and home theatre system downstairs but that would have gone the same way. I don't think I'll bother now. The little TV upstairs is quite adequate.
It's easy for people to ask why I didn't move more upstairs but it wasn't that straightforward. The stairs turn 90 degrees and getting stuff up them is difficult. We could only get the sofa halfway up and that then blocked access completely.
Admittedly, I could have saved more but I had no idea the flood would be as high as it was. Bpom's brother has now experienced three floods in Hat Yai and most people here have previous experience. I will be better next time (even though I hope there won't be a next time) but I was unprepared for my first experience.
How bad was it?
Since I have been living in Hat Yai everyone talks about the really bad flood in 2000 but already lots of people are saying this one was worse. A neighbour told me that there was a bad one in 1988, but that 2000 was worse.
It would therefore seem that this then was the worst flood that anyone here can remember.
Electricity returned around midday and shortly after that I received my first electric shock trying to clean the fuse box. I'm not sure who was more shocked - me, or those around me who heard my screams!
The house opposite uses well water and once electricity was restored the people there started getting clean water again. The neighbour told me I could use their water, which was great. I don't know why just one house uses well water when everyone else has mains water. Someone told me the mains water is scheduled to return on Saturday.
Even in the aftermath of a disaster, aspects of Thai culture are still very much in evidence. The neighbour told me I could use his water, and it wasn't hurting him, but after getting several bucketfuls Bpom told me it was enough because she was greng jai.
I'm not Thai so I continued to fill my buckets. I told Bpom that we could give him some money if it was an issue.
I've had to work today and without any rain the usual southern Thai heat returned. I was sweating in no time.
My last shower was Monday evening and my last shave Monday morning. Today, I was a pair of baggy fisherman pants and a bandana away from looking like a farang kee-nok backpacker.
In the evening we were invited to Bpom's sister's house for dinner and I took a shower. It was a typical Thai bathroom with just a big tub of cold water and a plastic bowl to douse yourself but it felt good.
Her sister lives in an area that is quite elevated and they have never suffered from flooding before but this time they got about a foot of water.
Wednesday 3rd November 2009
By this morning the water level was down to about one metre. There was a thick brown sludge inside the house everywhere the water had been. We are still trapped upstairs just waiting for the water to recede completely so that we can start the clean up operation.
Bpom's motorbike was completely submerged. She thinks she can get it repaired but it will never be the same. I suspect it will now suffer from intermittent electrical problems. Many other people had the same problem. On Monday night we tried to think what we could do with the bike but didn't have any ideas so just left it downstairs.
The sofa was saved but there were other newly-bought items that we couldn't physically get upstairs. Also, there were the items that I could have saved if I had listened to the advice I was given. These include my broadband router and wireless access point that will now need to be replaced.
We took possession of this house in August and I worked like crazy until the end of September. We moved in at the beginning of October and I continued adding the finishing touches. It was really comfortable and it looked great.
From August through October I spent a lot of money on the house but after it was all finished (with nothing else to do and a low monthly rent) I was looking forward to the start of lots of cheap living - starting in November. That won't happen now. Instead of this being our first cheap month, I will now need to start spending again to repair the flood damage.
With such a disaster in England it is normally the insurance companies that get hit. Insurance companies here wouldn't insure me against flooding so it is individuals that bear the cost of flood damage.
Good points? The most important thing is that Bpom (who is five months pregnant with our first child) is OK. I am also OK. All of my important paperwork and the material things I value most (camera gear, computers), etc are OK. If we had already bought a car that would have been another problem, so I'm glad we waited.
I can't move from the house at the moment and there is no TV news, so I don't know what happened elsewhere. However, I would suspect that many other people suffered immense damage. There are many single storey shops and businesses nearby, whose stock was quite possibly destroyed completely.
I saw people at the back of our house living in single storey buildings who were forced out on to their roofs. We have a lot to be grateful for.
This is one of those experiences in life that will change me forever. I had thoughts about trying to buy this house (which is rented) in the future but I don't ever want to go through this again. Flood susceptibility is now the number one concern with any property I buy in Thailand.
Bpom has been a gem throughout the entire episode. What a great wife she is turning out to be. At times I was too shocked to think straight but she made sure I ate, drank and washed my face. She did a great job cooking with the temporary facilities we had, and she rustled up some great food.
The poor girl only has experience of cooking healthy Thai food so I've been educating her about the health benefits of British cuisine and showing her how to cook sausage sandwiches and artery-choking, cholesterol-laden English breakfasts, etc.
I even continued to get my regular massages and at one point she was even feeding me grapes while I reclined on the bed like a Roman emperor! Going through this experience together has strengthened our relationship.
A few days before this happened we had words over a trivial matter and I made her cry. Looking back now, it was stupid. I'm pretty good at being trivial but having gone through this I think it will make me think again about 'sweating the small stuff'. I hope so.
Over the past few years it seems that a big flood occurs somewhere in the world almost every month. Normally, I just see stories on the news but this is the first time I have been a victim. Something different is happening to our weather and flood prevention needs to be made a priority.
It stops life completely and causes people lots of hardship and expense.
Why did this flood happen in Hat Yai? Everyone talks about how bad the flood was in 2000 but lots of people are saying that this is worse. With all the work that has been carried out in recent years, how did it happen again?
I don't know for sure, but the weather system that came in from China was quite exceptional. I keep hearing that the Hat Yai flood defences would have been adequate for the water in Hat Yai alone.
Unfortunately, the storm affected a vast area and other areas don't have much in the way of flood defences. The Sadao district of Songkhla (near the Malaysian border) is known to flood badly and quickly, and a theory I have heard is that the deluge that hit Hat Yai in the early hours of Tuesday morning was flood water from Sadao.
What this means is that one town improving its flood defences in isolation isn't enough. It needs to be done nationwide. I have already read that the government is planning to do more work and this needs to be given top priority. It's a massive job but it's important.
There is something else that puzzles me. When you look at traditional Thai houses they are built above the ground on stilts in order to avoid flooding. What a great idea. But why has this style of house apparently gone out of fashion? It seems to make a lot of sense.
Bpom and I have been having discussions about what to do in the future. One idea is to buy a plot of land and design and build a house in the traditional style, elevated from the ground to avoid flooding. It's either that or move to the top of a mountain or to a 25th floor condo apartment.
Interestingly, we looked at units in a high-rise condo building while we were looking for a place to rent. They were quite a bit more expensive than this house and only about one-third the size. Bpom was really keen on having a house and it seemed to make much more sense, but - as we have found out - there are pros and cons with both.
What about animals and floods?
As we saw when the tsunami hit, animals are usually smarter than humans when dealing with natural disasters. There were no animal casualties after the tsunami because they had all gone further inland instead of standing on the beach taking photos.
There are lots of dogs and chickens in the surrounding streets and I presume they found safety somewhere. We heard a kitten crying at the back of the house on Wednesday morning. It's owners live in a corrugated shack and they had gone. The cat was on the roof and hungry. Bpom fried a fish which I threw out of the window to a very grateful cat.
One bush outside the front of the house was covered with butterflies. That was a nice sight. The flood flushed out all the snakes from their hidey-holes and there were several snakes swimming along the 'river' at the front of the house. That wasn't such a nice sight.
As the flood water continued to recede on Wednesday afternoon the neighbour opposite went downstairs to assess the damage. He found a snake and used a long pole to deal with it.
We survived and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I will pay out to repair the flood damage but now I don't have a desire to put more money into the house. I didn't mind spending my money on a rented house previously because we had ideas about buying it, but now I have changed my mind.
The last big flood occurred 10 years ago and people are already saying it is something that happens every 10 years. However, nature has no contracts and it could happen again at any time.
I've been living in Thailand for seven years and I've never really been able to work out why Thais fear heavy rain so much. Now, I know.
From now on, whenever it starts to rain heavily non-stop for hours and hours, maybe for days and days, I will feel lots of anxiety.
It is now midday on Wednesday and if the water continues to recede at this rate then it should be gone by tomorrow or Thursday. There are still lots of questions that remain unanswered.
Of the things that were left downstairs I don't know if we will be able to recover anything. Some furniture may be OK but I guess that anything electrical is now useless.
We don't know when the electricity will come back on and I don't know what will happen when it does. I have never experienced this before and don't know if the power outlets will need to be replaced. I had several new power outlets installed recently.
I don't know when the mains water will be restored and I don't know how long it will take before clean water starts to come through the pipes again. Until it does, we can't start cleaning the mess up.
We will need the help of other people but so will everyone else and it is going to be difficult getting help. It's going to take a long time to recover.
Bpom was listening to the radio and another depression is coming in on the 5th November. It is forecast to last until the 7th. They tell us that heavy rain will fall but that there won't be more flooding. The weather forecasts have been spot on every time and I trust what they say.
The waiting is getting a little boring now. We want to get on with our normal lives as soon as possible but we can't do anything until the flood water goes. Once again, we are lucky because in Ayuthaya the flood waters have been present for a month already.
In the modern world we get used to the technology we have. I have one laptop (out of three) that has some battery power left and so I am able to do this but I can't use any of my other computers or connect to the Internet.
The Internet and TV are our normal sources of news but we have neither. We can get radio on our mobile phones but our batteries are getting low.
The mobile phone networks have been touch and go. At times they just don't work and at other times they work unreliably or with a signal so bad that it is difficult to hear the other person.
It's 2:30pm and I just ventured downstairs for the first time. Bpom shed a few tears yesterday about the situation and when I saw the downstairs of my house I felt the same way.
The new dining table and two-piece kitchen counter unit I bought are all warped. They were good quality and brand new after having just one month of use. I had wall lights fitted under the cupboards on the wall and they are all ruined.
The fridge was only about two years old and like new. That will need to be replaced. I had started to build a collection of tools again to do jobs around the house. These were high up on a storage rack and I thought they would be safe. Had I known the water would rise so high I could have saved them but I didn't.
The top of Bpom's motorbike is visible but I'm not optimistic about it. The main fuse box, downstairs electrical outlets, and my Internet connection boxes were all submerged. The Internet stuff will need replacing but I'm not sure about the other stuff.
The walls that we just had painted will need repainting. Doing some quick figures in my head, I would estimate the current damage assessment to be about Bt50,000 plus - possibly - a new motorbike for Bpom.
It's not the end of the world but I thought my big spending days on the house had finished. The thing that is making me feel really uneasy is that even if I get everything replaced there is absolutely no guarantee that the same thing won't happen again. It could happen at any time and it could happen again very soon.
What do you do?
Tuesday 2nd November 2010
After Bpom's brothers left at around 9pm last night they returned home to find their houses had already started to flood. I went to bed and at around 11pm the rain stopped for the first time since Friday. We had become so used to the sound of heavy rain falling that the silence sounded really strange.
At that point no water had entered the house and with the cessation of the rain I was hoping the water level would start to recede. I fell asleep completely unaware of what was to follow.
Bpom's brother called her at 1am on Tuesday morning asking if we had a problem. She looked downstairs and there was no problem. She switched on the TV for about half an hour and watched the local news. I was sleeping.
At around 3:30am she heard a crash downstairs. I slept through everything so she woke me. We went downstairs and all my worst fears were realised in an instant.
The downstairs of the house was submerged under about 1.5m of murky, brown water. I had imagined the fridge would be OK on the kitchen work top but the water had swept it off. That was the crash.
This level of water arrived in less than two hours and it was continuing to rise. We had put the sofa halfway up the stairs but soon it looked as if the water would reach it. It's heavy but I managed to get it a few stairs higher.
I was feeling shellshocked. It's a feeling I have experienced before when a problem seems so big that instead of trying to tackle it I just give up and don't even bother because I imagine that trying to tackle it will be futile.
All I wanted to do was go back to bed but with the water still rising Bpom forced me to open the floating fridge to get food the out, and also to get some other essentials that we had left downstairs. I'm glad she was still thinking straight because I wasn't coping very well.
When we had done all we could we went back to bed. Neither of us could sleep. We had no idea how high the water would rise and kept checking to make sure the sofa was OK.
A little later - around 5am - the water level was about two metres. The flood had gone above the door frames downstairs.
At this point I wish I had paid more attention to what the locals had told me. I had foolishly imagined that if a flood occurred it wouldn't be very high. I had ignored trying to save anything downstairs that was stored above about a metre from the ground because I thought anything at that level would be safe. That was a big mistake.
As a result, I could have avoided more damage had I not been so stubborn.
Outside the front of a house is a lamppost to which someone has stuck a sign. I used this sign as a gauge for the water level. The water level seemed to peak at around 11am and then started to recede very slowly.
We tried to get on with life as best we could upstairs. We had bought food and brought the gas hob upstairs. The electricity went off some time between 1:30am and 3am. We have no mains water and the toilets aren't looking too good because we can't flush them. We have two bathrooms upstairs and are using one for solids and one for liquids.
There was a (lack of) water pressure problem when we moved in and so I had a 500 litre tank and pump fitted on the balcony outside the front bedroom. Because of this we have a limited source of fairly clean water. Drinking it isn't advisable but it's fine for everything else.
Thankfully, the storm has passed and for the first time in several days there is no rain. All the neighbours are doing the same as us. Everyone is looking out from their second floor balconies to see what is happening.
There is a lot of banter and good community spirit. This is the first time we have spoken to one of our next-door neighbours. Foolishly, we didn't have much drinking water but the neighbour very kindly gave us some and told us she had plenty more if we needed it.
At around 7pm it starts to rain again. At first it is light but by 8pm it is heavy again. I start to imagine what will happen if the water reaches the second floor - our only haven of safety - and as a result I can't sleep.
We keep checking and, despite the rain, the flood water level is still going down. We go to bed, waiting and hoping.
Monday 1st November 2010
The rain was torrential all last night and since daybreak there has been no let up. The sky is black and it seems as if the rain will never stop.
It has been raining almost continuously since Friday night and we are told that there is worse to come. This current weather system in southern Thailand is due to a ridge of intense high pressure from China that is coming in across the Gulf of Thailand.
The affected provinces are Surat Thani, Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Phatthalung, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Krabi, Trang and Satun. Warnings have been issued to ships operating in the Gulf. The worst of the storm is expected to hit the affected Thai provinces from today until 3rd of November.
It's lousy. I am virtually housebound because it is too wet to do anything outside and I am dreading trying to make the journey into work tomorrow. That would be bad enough in itself, but whenever the rain starts to beat down heavier there is the additional worry of flooding.
In England I lived at the top of a big hill where flooding was unknown. Up until recently I lived in apartment buildings above the ground floor. Where I am now is the first place I have ever lived in where there is a very real threat of being flooded. It's not a great feeling.
I mentioned before that a lot of work has been done to the local flood defences in recent years. This is the first real test of the system and so far it is holding up well.
My sister-in-law's house overlooks the new canal that was built and she says that despite all the rain, the water level is low and there is still lots more capacity. However, there is a colossal amount of rain falling and it is forecast to continue until at least Wednesday.
The big question is whether it will hold up. If not, and the flood defences are breached, there will be flooding and I think it will occur rapidly.
Midday update: The situation isn't improving. The rain just hasn't stopped - it varies in intensity from heavy to very heavy, but it never stops. My school closed at lunchtime today and everyone was sent home. It will stay closed tomorrow (which is good news for me) and maybe longer.
A hospital in a nearby district has already been flooded (Patients evacuated as flash flood hits hospital in Songkhla) as has a residential area close to where I live. The water levels in the storm drains outside my house are getting very high. If the rain continues with the same intensity for much longer, flooding will be almost inevitable.
Evening update: The canal that was almost empty yesterday is now just about full. The storm drains are full to capacity and the water level is above my waste water pipe, meaning that waste water will not leave my house. In actual fact, water may actually start to enter the house soon via this pipe.
The local TV news station is full of flooding reports from nearby areas. The flood defences have reached their capacity and now for every inch of rain that falls, the water level will rise an inch. There has been no break in the rainfall whatsoever and worse weather is forecast. It is now only a matter of time.
A neighbour helped me lift the sofa halfway up the stairs and put the fridge on the kitchen counter. I've moved as much upstairs as I can. Our dining table is sitting on plastic buckets. I can't do anything with the kitchen counter unit I bought just a few month ago. The electrical outlets are all mounted quite high up the walls, so unless the flood is really high they should be OK.
The traffic is terrible with every road gridlocked. A trip to the supermarket, which normally takes 10 minutes, took almost two hours. When we got there, many of the shelves were empty - as expected. There was no bread, no instant noodles, and no 'D' size batteries. In anticipation of power cuts, people are stocking up on flashlight batteries as well as food.
When we agreed to take this house, flooding was my biggest concern. I asked some of the neighbours if there was a problem and they told me not since the new canal was built. In other circumstances, we might have lived here for many years without a problem but because of a fairly exceptional weather system we are experiencing our first flooding problem exactly a month after moving in. I had just about finished getting the house straight, and now this. Mai bpen rai.
As my wife said to me, "You can't choose." The Thais are a very pragmatic race. I've been looking miserable all day but the Thais know they can't do anything and just get on with life. Sometimes I wish I could be more like them and less like me. The worst part of the regular rainy season hasn't arrived yet. That is due to happen just as soon as this storm passes.
Is there anything positive to say about the current situation?
Actually, yes. To start with, the Thai weather forecasts are excellent! I've noticed before that they are very accurate regarding what will happen and when. British weather forecasters could learn a thing or two from the Thais.
Another thing I've noticed many times before is the strong sense of community in Thailand whenever there is a problem. After the flood five years ago, students and lecturers at the local university stopped their normal activities and instead prepared food and drinking water for the flood victims. Lots of people without cars struggle with their shopping on public transport but other passengers always smile and lend a helping hand.
Talking of Thai pragmatism, a lot of people have stopped their normal activities and are redirecting their energy dealing with the flood - which is actually more important. In the UK I remember a kind of perverse mentality that however ill you were, or whatever problems you faced, you always had to make it into work otherwise people would talk about you.
Finally, the Thais have a kind of British 'Blitz' mentality when faced with adversity. The Thai expression when faced with difficulty is, "soo, soo" (fight, fight). If they have problems, self-pity doesn't do any good. The only way is to face up to the problem and fight it. You often see people at their best when conditions are difficult and I've enjoyed seeing how the Thais tackle something like flooding. It lifts the spirit.
สู้ๆ
Final update today: The rain hasn't stopped. It is coming down as heavily as ever - now with thunder and lightning - and we are just waiting upstairs for the deluge downstairs. Two of Bpom's brothers turned up with one of their friends and put the kitchen counter on top of the table. Everything is upstairs now, including our gas hob and food. My ideas about what might happen were slightly different to the Thais.
I was expecting maybe six inches of water and wet feet, but they are talking about four feet of water and it being impossible to get downstairs. I hope they are wrong. The electricity and Internet is still working but the lights keep flashing. I don't expect I will sleep tonight. I didn't get much sleep last night but tonight will be far worse.
This is my first ever experience of preparing for a flood and I am finding it very stressful. The Thais just view it as a regular challenge in life and take it in their stride.
I need to mention the strength of family ties here. Bpom has seven older siblings and she keeps very close to all of them; as well as to her parents. They are her lifeline and her first line of support for absolutely everything. As the newest member of the family I get their support too. I'm really not sure how I would manage with a lot of things if it wasn't for their help.
There is almost no dependence on the state in Thailand. The old age state pension is Bt500 a month, which is virtually useless. The government are helping flood victims but Thais don't simply rely on the state for help. Friends and family are very important in Thailand because people need the help of friends and family. This applies elsewhere, of course, but it is very strong and very noticeable in Thailand.
Finally, a thought for the poorest members of society. It is a sad fact of life that whenever natural disasters hit, it is the poorest that get hit hardest. I live in a solid house with a good roof and two floors. There are lots of Thais living nearby in corrugated shacks. Their dwellings won't keep out severe weather like this and they have nowhere to store their belongings when floods occur.
I'm really not enjoying this but I have a lot to be thankful for.