What I've Been Doing While Thailand is Flooded

Here's a brief summary of what's been happening and how the floods in Thailand affected me (including some photos of floods at Thammasat uni):
  1. Flood waters surrounded Thammasat Rangsit campus, where I live, from about 16 October. The southern entrance and road, Chiang Rak, was flooded making it inaccessible to only trucks and large 4WDs. The eastern entrance on Pahonyothin Road had some flooding, but vehicles could still pass (photos).
  2. On Wednesday 19 November Wan and I left our room on campus to stay with her family in Ratchaburi. Although on the 2nd floor of the building our room would not be flooded, if the water entered the campus electricity would eventually be turned off and most likely we would be evacuated (to the sport centre with 4000 other evacuees - as it turned out, they were later evacuated again off campus).
  3. After the nearby AIT was flooded, on 21 October flood waters entered the Thammasat campus via Science Park. Although the outer flood barriers of Thammasat were working, water entered Science Park via drains from AIT. As Science Park was higher than most of Thammasat campus, there were no flood barriers between them. Within a day or so, the entire campus was under 1 to 2m of water.
  4. Bangkadi Industrial Park, where I work, was flooded a couple of days later. Work has been shut from 12 October and is expected to open on Monday 19 December.
  5. I had a pre-planned trip to Fukuoka, Japan to visit Waseda University from 8-12 November. Although it was dry in Ratchaburi (west of Bangkok) and Suvarnabhumi Airport (east of Bangkok), I was concerned that the last remaining dry road from Ratchaburi to Bangkok would be flooded, and so spent two nights in Bangkok before leaving to Japan on Tuesday 8th.
  6. I had an enjoyable visit to Kityukushu and Hataka, visiting Waseda University and a small bit of sightseeing.
  7. After flying into Bangkok from Japan I went straight onto Melbourne, Australia and eventually home to Kongorong. Spent 2 weeks with my family working (on the farm and computer), playing cricket and tennis and celebrating dad's 70th birthday.
  8. Returned to Thailand on 25 November and then spent 2 weeks in Khon Kaen with Wan's family. This included a couple of nights in Phu Reau, Loei, (photos) a mountain area famous for its plants and 'agrotourism'.
  9. On 7 December we returned to our room at Thammasat Rangsit. The campus was dry, but the ground floor of all building had been damaged by the floods. Most of the furniture and office equipment has been destroyed (most furniture is made from particle board). Perhaps the main noticeable impact is the dead plants and trees. There is electricity and water available for the dorm buildings. Our 2nd floor room was ok, although had a bit of cleaning to do with the fridge.
Thammasat Rangsit opened for work on the 14th, but electricity is still not available in many buildings. SIIT Bangkadi opens on 19 December, so I'm actually looking forward to getting back to my office and back into teaching.

Created on Sat, 17 Dec 2011, 8:00pm

Last changed on Wed, 16 May 2012, 8:39pm