Batten Down the Hatches- Preparing for Floods in Bangkok

Bangkok is currently in preparation mode as flood waters from the north move closer and rain continues to fall. In our neighborhood, life seems to be going on as normal, with a few exceptions:

Shop owners building a concrete wall in front of a shop along Rama IV

Lumpini MRT station with new steel gates on the windows

Pile of sandbags outside the Silom Complex 

Nearly empty shelves at the local grocery store

While things may be deceptively calm here in our neighborhood, we are still contemplating going south to get away from the floods.

In a related note, the manufacturing plant where Eric works is currently under six feet of water. The flood waters broke through levee after levee and inundated the entire industrial park. We are still not sure what that exactly means for us and our stay here in Thailand. Hopefully, we will have some answers soon.

Image from The MacLeod Thaimes

If you are the praying type, please pray for all of the families that have been affected by these floods. Entire cities are currently underwater and the devastation is so immense, it is kind of hard to comprehend. 

If you are looking for up to date news about the flooding in Thailand and you are on Twitter- @RichardBarrow and #ThaiFloodEng are great sources of information.

Bangkok Street Art

While walking home from the grocery store today, I noticed that the wall next to our condo is covered in great graffiti artwork. I've walked past this wall every day for the past 5 months and I just noticed it today - just call me Captain Observant! Although in my defense, this wall is normally plastered with ads for the upcoming events and concerts.

So colorful!

This one is my favorite. The eyes are great!

Let's Get Some Christmas Up In Here

Getting into the Christmas spirit in a tropical Buddhist country is difficult. It's hard to think about decking the halls with boughs of holly when it is 90 degrees outside and you are drenched in sweat from a trip to the market. Luckily, we have air conditioning that we can turn down really low and we were able to bring most of our Christmas decorations from the U.S., so at least our apartment is a "Winter Wonderland". It's not perfect, but it helps us deal with being away from our family during the holidays.

Our tree in all it's glory

It goes well with the lights of the city outside

Nothing says "Christmas" like sugar cookie fish, gnomes and horses

Almost too pretty to eat... almost.

Improvise

What do you do when your husband's co-worker gives you what feels like 500 beautiful yellow roses and you don't own a single vase, let alone one large enough to hold all of them? Why you improvise of course!

Yes- that is a stock pot. Fancy schmancy eh?

Home Sweet Home

After waiting for two months, our sea shipment of household goods finally arrived last Monday. This is what our living room looked like 15 minutes after the movers unpacked everything and hightailed it out of our apartment.

There is a couch and a table under here somewhere

I forgot how much stuff we brought

So, needless to say, I've been spending the last week trying to clean and organize everything, and after a brief battle with a stuffed octopus, I have completed the two most important areas: my fiber wall and our bookshelf. Our apartment is finally starting to feel like home.

Action shot of the epic octopus battle.

Nom Nom Nom... Fibery goodness...

Looking at this wall makes me happy!

Mission Accomplished- Again!

This weekend we finally picked out the condo where we will be living in Bangkok. Jan from Thai Property Guide picked us up at our temporary apartment and showed us five condos in our new building. Eric and I decided to live in a condo on the 36th floor. The picture above is the view of the city from our new living room.

Here are some more photos of the condo.

Guest bedroom: If you decide to come and visit us- this is were you will be sleeping. We will replace the two twin beds with our queen bed once we get our sea shipment.

Master bedroom: I am in love with the chair along the window. Eric and I can already see ourselves reading in this chair and looking out over the city.

Kitchen: The condo owner will purchase a microwave and a refrigerator for the kitchen.

Dining room/Living room.

Right now we have a move in date of October 1st. We wish it could be sooner, but we have to wait until Eric gets his work permit and for our air shipment to arrive.

Our First Week

Our first week in Bangkok has been quite uneventful. We've already settled into somewhat of a routine for each day.

5:30 am- Wake up and get ready for the day.

6:00 am- Eat our complimentary breakfast at the restaurant in our apartment building. It is very similar to a typical continental breakfast in the US with cereal, toast, juice and fruit but it also has salad and you can order off a set menu that includes sandwiches, Japanese, and Thai dishes. They also have eggs, bacon, and french toast that you can order.

6:30 am- Eric leaves the apartment for work. He has a driver that takes him back and forth to work every day.

6:30 am- 11:00 am - I use this time to talk to family back home, either through Skype or with our Vonage phone.

11:00 am- 1:00 pm- I go for a walk around our neighborhood. We live in the financial/business district so there a lot of people walking around during the day, and there are a ton of street vendors selling everything from grilled chicken to snow-cones. It is great opportunity to people watch and get to know the area. I also go shopping at the local mall and grocery store.

1:00 pm -3:00 pm - I eat lunch and play on the internet some more.

3:00 pm -5:00 pm - I go down to the small gym located in our building and use the elliptical machine and free weights. I then go for a swim and read by the pool for a while.

5:30 pm- Usually around this time, Eric will call me to let me know when he is half an hour away from home. I will then go down to the street vendors and pick up some food for dinner. This week we've had grilled chicken and pork, chicken livers ( I bought these with out know what they were- never again :-) ) and a crepe type of desert.

6:00 pm -6:30 pm - Eric arrives home from work. We then eat dinner and just relax in the apartment.

9:00 pm- Get ready for bed and to start it all over again the next day.

So there is our schedule for the day. Not very exciting, but I thought I would share anyway. This weekend we are going to pick out the exact condo we want for our permanent housing. We will keep you updated on the search!

Here are some photos from our temporary apartment.

Soi Saladaeng 1- Where our temporary apartment is located

Bangkok sunrise from our balcony