Creativity Soothes

Flood wall along Rama IV

Flood themed painting on a wall near Khao San Road

As I walk along the sandbagged and barricaded streets of Bangkok, I love seeing images like those above. Instead of seeing concrete flood walls as a barrier or a hindrance, some people see them as an opportunity to be creative.


For me personally, when times are tense and everything seems to be going wrong, I always seem to find solace in being creative and expressing myself. My form of expression usually turns to something fiber related, and this time was no exception. 


During the height of the flood, I would sit in my apartment, constantly checking Twitter and other news sources about flood information. Knowing that I needed a break from that, I spun the yarn below. The methodical focus needed to spin the yarn helped me relax and take my mind off everything that was happening.  It's brown, blue and green colors remind me of the river that so drastically changed my life.

I call it "Screw You, Chao Phraya"

Only One Wish

This year, as I released my krathong into the pond at Benjasiri Park I made only one wish, that Thailand would recover quickly from these devastating floods and that one day Eric and I would be able to return to Bangkok. (Ok, I know that is technically two wishes, but math was never my strong suit)

Happy Loy Krathong!! And as the song says:

Each one with this krathong,

As we push away we pray,

We can see a better day

To better days ahead!

Breakdown

Well it's finally happened- I've had my first breakdown/freak-out as an expat in Bangkok. The kind that leaves me crying uncontrollably, unable to move from the couch, cursing everyone and everything, etc. The cause of this breakdown- the fact that we have to leave Bangkok.


Ever since the floods hit Ayutthaya and the Rojana Industrial Park, our future seems to be changing so quickly and nothing seems to be under our control. Eric's company kept changing their mind about what they were going to do with the expats here in Thailand, but finally they've decided to move everyone back to the United States. 


This is not how I imagined our transition back to the US would go. I though we would have plenty of advance warning to prepare, both mentally and logistically. 


I focused so hard on making Bangkok our home, that having it ripped away so quickly makes my heart hurt.

Floodpocalypse!

Well, it is starting to sound like the flooding of Bangkok is inevitable and that the only question is how bad will the flooding get. Everyone in Bangkok seems to be in full crisis mode:

Buying stores out of food and water. It is pretty much impossible to find any bottled water in the city. Eric and I stopped at Tesco Lotus in Pattaya before we came back to Bangkok earlier this week, and even they were running low on water. The stores today were packed full of people stocking up on supplies.

It's a bad sign when the overpriced imported foods are almost gone.

Scrambling to find parking for their cars. Our condo parking structure which is usually mostly empty, is packed full of cars. People are even using the elevated expressway as a giant parking structure, which is really hampering the evacuation of some areas in outer Bankgok.

Yes, those are cars PARKED on the expressway.

Building extensive sandbag walls. Last week, very few businesses in Bangkok had sandbags in front of their buildings. Now it seems like they are ALL working to protect their property from the impending flood.

Same wall in front of Silom complex from my last post

I am not too proud to admit that I've also gone crazy this week preparing for the floods. I think it's the inner Girl Scout in me that worries about not being prepared. So during the last few days I've done my best to cover all of my bases:

Stockpile of non-perishable food including dried fruit to prevent scurvy:

Check

ALL the essentials...

Bathtub full of water to use for washing and flushing toilets:

Check

Every possible container filled with boiled tap water:

Check

Purchase a butane stove and plenty of fuel canisters:

Check

I think that my paranoia about not being prepared also stems from the fact that I am now in Bangkok alone. Since the manufacturing plant where Eric works is currently under three meters of water, he is now on a plane back to Wisconsin to help the manufacturing plant there ramp up production. So, I have to deal with the floods on my own, but I think I have enough supplies and support from friends to make it though this. 

This is going to be an interesting weekend I think...

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.