In the morning we traveled on the skytrain to eastern Thailand with Sietse, a lad from Holland who had seen all the flooding the day before. walking towards a boat taxi we saw ankle high water flowing down the street, many shopkeepers had put up makeshift concrete walls around their shops that you had to clamber over if you wanted anything. There is also a water shortage in thailand with all the 7-elevens putting a premium on it, but you can always find some if you look hard enough. As we ventured further we made saw more powerfully flowing water; held back by sandbags it looked like a wateride.The water here was quite powerful as it had managed to rip up the tarmac from the road.
We hopped on a water taxi to cross the bloated river and walked off on a very rickety makeshift bridge. Unfortunately we couldn't get much further than this because everywhere had been held to a standstill. One of the locals explained to me that on this side there is a crocodile farm and when the river burst its banks they all escaped and that some were still around the flooded shops, we got the boat taxi back.. Whilst exploring we walked down the middle of a motorway bridge, it was eerily quiet with no cars. Up ahead was a aquatic metropolis, water was flowing up the streets as far as you could see. This wasn't the worse hit part of Thailand but it is difficult to comprehend the amount of people who have lost their homes and livelihoods here. Despite this the locals seemed to have adapted to the circumstances very quickly with many offering rides across the submerged streets on blow up boats, jacked up trucks, polystyrene boards and even a jetski. There were a few 'disaster tourists' and journalists around too, I saw a buddist monk happily recording events on his JVC camcorder, very surreal. There was a strange sense normality to a serious situation with people just trying to get on with their lives, I wondered how we would cope if this happened in London.
We moved away from the flooded areas to Khao San Road in search of food. This place is a real tourist trap; KFC, Merchant dealers, Suit Fitters, Lady Boys, Ping Pong Shows, Thai Masseurs and Tattooists. Jeroen; one of the guys back in Goa had warned us about the notorious tattooists of Khao San Road. They will tattoo you regardless of how intoxicated you maybe, when Jeroen was there he managed to politely refuse a lego man being inked out onto his forehead but he got a thai symbol on his ankle but as he left he saw a guy crying outside parlor because he had a half completed Zorro mask etched into his face. This place is widely known as the backpackers ghetto but It isnt really for me, after an hour you just want to get out and apparently it was very quiet at the moment. We did find good food and good company though, some dutch girls who were staying 'in the ghetto' After a few beers we got the skytrain back to the hostel.
No comments:
Post a Comment