cavanami Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 This is sitting at a dead stop on the toll road, where normally there is never a slow down. I would always cruise thru that area 100 KM, as there is nothing around there. Now there are thousands of Thais camping out along the side of the road, often shutting expressway down to one lane!! The water, lack of any type of traffic control, roads now with HUGS pot holes, under water, which you must drive thru and beat the crap out of your vehicle...that will be my last trip up country until the Thai gov can get the mess sorted out!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vintage_Kwai Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 Cav use the minibuses. I've had my chariot parked high and dry over in Lopburi for the past two weeks at a friend's place and get the minibus from Victory Monument. Let the minibus drivers sort out the jam. Got caught out as well, going up with a friend on Thursday, outer ring road closed. Froc advises taking the backroad behind Thammasat, guess what? It's closed too. Only thing open (till now) is the Donmuang tollway. Two weeks ago it took 4 hours just to get off the tollway. A two-hour trip became seven. Not so bad this week but coming back there's still a LOT of water Lopburi/Singhburi/Ayuthaya... Water around my house is now about waist level, down from chest height.. Sigh. Bloody ripoff boatmen want 300 Baht per trip/ person(!) where the soi motorcycles used to charge 10 baht for the same. Go figure. VK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 It is tough duty for me to get squeezed in to a minivan for hours at a time. I not so huge but I do need the occasional stretch or three. Seeing the suffering up close and personal makes it all the more shocking but the news media just shows the same old footage all the time. A friend bought her own boat at 5000 Baht, which is most likely double the price or better. Another friend building a house up in Isaan told me today that some building supplies are quickly becoming scarce and the price is up up. Happy to see that the BKK mayor estimates the water to be gone by the end of next month...he said this would be a New Year present to the citizens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 Hi, Water around my house is now about waist level, down from chest height.. Sigh. Bloody ripoff boatmen want 300 Baht per trip/ person(!) where the soi motorcycles used to charge 10 baht for the same. Go figure. [sarcasm] How can this be? The TV makes it very clear that the Thais are all helping each other and would never abandon one another. Surely you are mistaken. [/sarcasm] Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vintage_Kwai Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 ...Happy to see that the BKK mayor estimates the water to be gone by the end of next month...he said this would be a New Year present to the citizens He's only talking about the water that's already in Bangkok. They're hoping that we're just going to forget about the *large* body still hanging around beyond the 'big bags' and hoping that it'll all evaporate soon. Out of (media) sight, out of mind. Hi,[sarcasm].......[/sarcasm]Sanuk! Snaaark!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave32 Posted November 15, 2011 Report Share Posted November 15, 2011 Good news re your drinking. And better news is that supplies are almost back to normal so you won't have a problem getting a beer! Cheers, Mark Was nice to meet you Mark. Hope that flu bug or cold is being a little kinder to you. For those sitting on the fence or worried about travel, the city is vibrant and alive -- probably even moreso than normal. There's a kind of electricity in the air same same as during redshirt occupation. I don't mean to say that people suffering or flooding are good things, but that the reaction to it is maybe a subconscious deeper appreciation of life. Anyway, before I get too corny.... Yeah there is a dearth of tourists. All the girls were complaining that the only customers were tightwad expats. haha. Sukhumvit is bone dry. There's a shortage supplies in 7-11 (I went to four separate ones and couldn't find a single bottle of drinking water, but had no problem picking up water at foodland or Big C). In the airport waiting for flight to CM, but will be headed back to Bar 4 for a beer with a few friends, and maybe to get my ass whipped in pool. One interesting thing is --> they now have a ping pong table set up on the ground floor at Nana, I wasted a good hour there. Yeah, I grew up with one in the basement, don't let the nice falang exterior fool ya. Anyway, best wishes to all struggling because of the floods, don't mean to make light of it. But also -- if you're concerned about travel, if you're staying around the Sukh area there are no significant problems at all (that I've encountered). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bar4 Posted November 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2011 Was nice to meet you Mark. Hope that flu bug or cold is being a little kinder to you. Thanks mate. Yep, I am slowly getting over whatever it is. Some kind of flu I guess. Look forward to catching up soon. Cheers, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted November 17, 2011 Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 I have been told that there is a small amount of water coming up from the sewer drains on Suk Soi 23? Can anyone confirm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneSoup Posted November 17, 2011 Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 I walk from Sukhumvit to the Soi 23 back entrance to GMM Grammy Building almost every work day - and I have yet to see any evidence of water coming up from any drains. There is frequently (always?) a puddle in the gutter in front of the 7-Eleven store closest to Sukhumvit - I assume that there is a leaking underground water pipe or drainage pipe somewhere near there. But - this puddle never gets deeper than about 1 cm, and extends no more than 25 cm into the street - and it seems static. I chuckled when I saw a frantic request a few days ago on another discussion board, requesting information on a reported sighting of water bubbling up from the drains on Sukhumvit Soi 13, near the Ambassador Hotel. That basically describes the daily situation when the laundry plant of the Ambassador discharges a load of wash or rinse water into the street drains - I suppose via an underground pipe. This involves dumping a very large volume of water from a very large industrial washing "machine" - think the size of a huge cement mixer. This massive water dump sometimes overwhelms the drainage pipes, and causes some water to overflow out of the street drains for a couple of minutes. Quick - run away - the sky is falling .......... Cheers! SS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted November 18, 2011 Report Share Posted November 18, 2011 As I expected. false info. So far (knocking on my wooden head) no water within 1 Km of Sukhumvit. The closest I have seen was Suk Soi 50, but even that, never within 1 Km of Suk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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