The Floods of Thailand

It has been raining hard here in Lopburi for the last few days, and flooding is starting to become a problem for many of the locals. Nowhere near as bad as other parts of Asia, but just the usual disruption that comes with having water everywhere. This has all come as a bit of a surprise to me because as far as I was concerned the rainy season was just about to finish. During previous years I have witnessed bad flooding in Thailand, but always a bit earlier in the year.

Unless you have experienced the rain in Thailand first hand, it is hard to believe. There is nothing like it in Europe as far as I'm aware. The rain comes down in sheets and within an hour it can cause floods of over a foot high. It is really astounding to watch, but also extremely inconvenient and worrying for those who are more at risk of flooding. Our home has escaped flooding since we moved here a couple of years ago, but other people at the end of our street have not been so lucky and have been forced to flee their homes and stay in the local school until the flooding subsided. The worst effects for my family is usually no more than no electricity and internet; although last year I nearly had far bigger problems during a rainy visit to Bangkok

I had gone to Bangkok in order to attend a Thai Culture course; this was a mandatory two day event which all of us foreign teachers were expected to attend. I decided to take the car because I didn't wanting to be dependent on the transport provided by our school. We were at the end of our second day when it began to rain. I was keen to get moving, but the rain was coming down so hard that it seemed wise to hold back and wait for it to stop. An hour past and there was no sigh of it getting any lighter. Some of he other teachers had come along with me and we decided to make a run for it. I was disturbed to see that the road was now flooded and the water was over half-way above the car tire. This worried me because this was my old car and it had never performed well in the rain. A couple of weeks earlier the rain had got into the engine and stopped the car completely and it needed to be hauled to garage to have it dried out. This rain and flooding was far worse than that time. I decided to take the chance with the hope that the flooding was only bad on this particular street.

We set off on our journey, but my worry turned to horror when I turned onto the next road. The water was far higher here and it came flooding in through my car door, and more frightening still a wave of water came towards my windscreen. I was now driving in a river and it came as no surprise when the car packed-up and went completely dead. Horns were blaring behind me as those in pick-up trucks were eager to get moving before their transport packed up too. I was blocking their way. I felt completely helpless to do anything. I knew that there was no way that the car would start again; I just felt stuck in the middle of a rapidly rising river of brown water. I considered just abandoning the care, but what then?

My friends in the back decided to break my mental-deadlock by offering to push the car. They were already soaking wet going outside wasn't too much of shock; the water was up to their waists. They pushed the car to the end of the road; all the time ignoring those honking their horns behind them. The rain showed no signs of abating. I was just looking for any bit of high ground where the car could be left; there was nowhere. The water was getting deeper, and at one stage a wave caused by a Landrover in the other direction was enough to lift the car out of the water, and for a couple of seconds I experienced what it was like to float in a car.

It took us over half an hour to reach the end of that road. To my great relief it was a main road and it was a lot higher than the ground we had just left. We were able to find somewhere to leave the car until I decided what to do with it; there was no way that I expected it to start and worried that the cost of repairing this heap of junk would be just too much for it to be worthwhile. This car had let me down so many times in the past that I was just completely fed up with it; although it couldn't really blamed for this current disaster.

I turned on the ignition with zero hope of any response. I was surprised when it made a struggling sound as if trying to start. I tried the ignition a few more times and felt delighted when the car actually began to move. It stopped a couple of times in the space of a few minutes, but by the time we hit the motorway the car was acting like nothing had happened. I had many problems with this second-hand car, but that day all was forgiven. The inside of the car had suffered a lot of water damage, but that seemed a small price to pay.