Today I tried something completely different. I went out to the townhouse I bought in 2001 and got my wonderful Jamis road bike and rode along the perimeter of the dry area for a bit, checking out the latest wet, then came all the way in to my condo, in a much more mainstream area of Bangkok, about 25km/15mi.
I just recently had the bike overhauled and fine-tuned, and am planning to, if the fates allow, do a loop around some ancient cities in the North in a few weeks. A couple I met on the John Muir Trail in 2010 are coming here with their bikes, should be very cool (double entendre, we're entering what passes for a cool season, esp. up North). And dry (we hope). Should make some good blog entries when it happens.
The bike rides like a dream. Compared to the clunky mountain bike I've been using for errands, wow! A good bike makes a huge difference. 25km felt like not much more than just around the block.
A week ago I thought we were practically done with all this, the water had done its worst. I even stopped blogging for a few days. But if you've been following of late you'll know that this is unlike any of the disasters you usually hear about. Like The Blob, it just keeps increasing the space it takes up, meters at a time, and no one knows how long it's gonna keep spreading, or how long till it starts going away . . .
It's been nearly a month since I got my first concerned e-mail from a friend, wondering whether I was OK or not. At that time I wondered why anyone was worried . . . Ayutthaya was underwater, yah, but Bkk was untouched at that point! And even today, the house is dry, the condo is dry. But then . . . THE BLOB!
So a couple pictures. The first ones are of places within a km of my house that were dry until yesterday.
The little "village" that the townhouse is in is now in a peninsula of dry land, threatening to become an island. Tee was living there, and I in the condo, but she's moved in over here for the time being, the other place is getting iffy. My feet got wet pedaling through the above section, on my way back downtown.
It struck me that everybody seemed to be in a good mood. Grinning. Waving. I asked one person about this, and she said hey, it's nature, what can you do? Why take it any more seriously than you have to?
There were all sorts of makeshift thingies set up to make the water go in one direction or another. In one of these pictures you can see sandbags directing the water off the street and into a khlong (canal). The next picture shows folks boating in that same canal, which looks about to brim over into the rest of Bangkok.
All this is, of course, very distracting. I'm moving along steadily with my novel translation, and it will be done as soon as it needs to be, but I'm not moving faster. I've also got an article to write about the NGO I worked with down South last month. But, hey, how many times are you in a world-class crisis?
After I left the Nuanjan area, where the townhouse is and where I took all these water pics, the ride was pleasant, dry, and uneventful. But one feature of Bangkok which should be mentioned here is the great bike path which stretches nearly 15 km from the freeway frontage road there at Nuanjan. This is something I wish San Francisco had! Designed specifically for bicycles. Shaded most of the way. The world should think this way.
And so we go on, enduring this strange form of water torture as we wait, wait, wait for the circumferentially-challenged dame to descant.
It's been nearly a month since I got my first concerned e-mail from a friend, wondering whether I was OK or not. At that time I wondered why anyone was worried . . . Ayutthaya was underwater, yah, but Bkk was untouched at that point! And even today, the house is dry, the condo is dry. But then . . . THE BLOB!
The little "village" that the townhouse is in is now in a peninsula of dry land, threatening to become an island. Tee was living there, and I in the condo, but she's moved in over here for the time being, the other place is getting iffy. My feet got wet pedaling through the above section, on my way back downtown.
It struck me that everybody seemed to be in a good mood. Grinning. Waving. I asked one person about this, and she said hey, it's nature, what can you do? Why take it any more seriously than you have to?There were all sorts of makeshift thingies set up to make the water go in one direction or another. In one of these pictures you can see sandbags directing the water off the street and into a khlong (canal). The next picture shows folks boating in that same canal, which looks about to brim over into the rest of Bangkok.
All this is, of course, very distracting. I'm moving along steadily with my novel translation, and it will be done as soon as it needs to be, but I'm not moving faster. I've also got an article to write about the NGO I worked with down South last month. But, hey, how many times are you in a world-class crisis?
After I left the Nuanjan area, where the townhouse is and where I took all these water pics, the ride was pleasant, dry, and uneventful. But one feature of Bangkok which should be mentioned here is the great bike path which stretches nearly 15 km from the freeway frontage road there at Nuanjan. This is something I wish San Francisco had! Designed specifically for bicycles. Shaded most of the way. The world should think this way.
And so we go on, enduring this strange form of water torture as we wait, wait, wait for the circumferentially-challenged dame to descant.
If you haven't had enough pictures of Bangkok in its new watery state, I suggest you check out the folowing: "Venice of the East". In any case, till next time (soon), Ta ta!
Next: waiting for assimilation
. . . resistance is futile.
Next: waiting for assimilation
. . . resistance is futile.
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