Vik Around The World: Bangkok

Nov 27.... Back in Bangkok

So after being gone for two months how does Bangkok feel? How did the floods affect anything.

Well I have to say the area I live in, study in and then very obviously spent most of my time in was not flooded. There was no water here and everything is almost normal.

What are the changes I notice? Many little shops have closed. Possibly the owners house was flooded and they could not keep working. Street vendors disappeared. Our favorite Pad Thai man from around the corner is no more. Which is really sad, since there is no other food cart nearby that has Pad Thai. The supermarkets stock different items. While I heard from my friends that were in Bangkok during the floods that the supermarkets had run out of drinking water, dry foods and as time passed much other things now they are stocking up again. It is not the same items though. Seems there are still delivery or production problems. Drinking water is back on the shelves (Thank You!) but it is not of the Thai brands anymore that were here before. It is all Malaysian brands. So apparently now drinking water is being imported. Other soft drinks are different too. The one everyone likes ran out so now they just offer weird flavors of Fanta and other drinks. They also don't have any of the small coffees I occasionally need in the morning (I do get them later at 7/11 though), they are out of Diet Coke and Coke Zero as well as most other soft drinks. Different beer labels are stocked and my favorite Chang is gone from most shelves. They replaced it with Leo (bäh) or Export Chang and some other things. Food shelves changed to, at least the contents of them. But almost everything is stocked up again. But in the coming days while going through the city you occasionally encounter shops that are out of the most basic of all, drinking water. So while it appears to be back to normal Bangkok is not quite there yet, and I can only speak about the parts that were not directly affected by the floods.

Other parts of Bangkok are still under water. The main campus of my university in Rangsit was over two meters under water at the floods highest and is still over one meter under water now. The campus remains closed until at least January. The university tries to rent out other rooms so at least classes for final year students can resume but many other universities are flooded as well so there is a run for rented areas that cannot be accommodated. My city campus for about 5,000 students is by no means equipped to handle the 30,000 students from the main campus so there will be no classes for them for a while. I would be interested to go see the campus and how it looks like, I cannot imagine a place totally under water. But then again I would not think it appropriate, it's pure curiosity.

Other teachers and students have been badly affected as well. Many had to leave their flooded houses and go somewhere outside Bangkok or rent another apartment or hotel room. The residence I live in, that used to be quite quiet most of the time is now absolutely fully booked, with flood victims. Since all apartments are located on higher floors there was never any harm to be expected here.

Sandbags are remnants of the days people worried most. One subterranean shopping areas main street entrance has been concreted. The university, shops, malls, sandbags are everywhere to barricade the entrances. What I heard those haven't been used but it's still weird to see them lying around everywhere. Many other shops have closed. I guess some couldn't take the loss of business or for others the owners may have been affected. The Hong Kong Restaurant we used to go to and the Bakery next door are closed, never to reopen again (though a month later this space reopened as a hairdresser and the bakery as a Mango shop). Same cases with many other stores, big and small. Mostly individual ones, the chains can take it better for sure. It's hard to say what really happened as each is an individual story to be told.

The university also looks a bit grim. Sandbags wherever you look. There is a Welcome Back party held on the first day of school and the question most asked 'Where you affected by the flood'. Many were and many were not. Some much worse than others. But here at least people could recover quite well. It's a private university so you do not run into poor people here. Everyone that has been affected was able to go away or rent another apartment. People here seem to be dealing with it quite well.

I am happy to be back and seeing all the people again. It's been a long time and most haven't seen each other in two months. That makes a huge difference if you've only known each other for two months prior. Somehow everything changed....

I have to make good on some promises to meet a few people. Never thought it would take me over two months to make good on those but here we are. Hanging out with 'old' friends, hanging out with new friends. So much to tell. Some people kept traveling onwards, like I did, while most have come back to Bangkok in between to stay a little while and evaluate the situation only to 'flee' again to islands and beaches. Others have been here all along and everyone has interesting stories to share. The experience ranged from volunteering in Bangkok (Kudos!) to writing thesis (Kudos!) just hanging around and doing nothing but mostly people traveled. Destinations were as close as the nearest beaches of Pattaya, Koh Samet, Koh Chang or Hua Hin to all the islands down South, some more remote than others. And there were the more adventurous ones that discovered everything from Malaysia to Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Taiwan even to Africa and Australia, while some also took the opportunity to go back home. Intense when you think about it what all happened on such short notice.