Floods in Bangkok! First hand experience!

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Due to the flood in Bangkok and its escalating dangers to the people of Bangkok, the king announced a five day holiday so that people can prepare their homes or leave the city. Even my city, Samut Sakhon, received 5 days off school and there are rumors that the water will come through to reach the ocean. As we walked through the streets of Samut Sakhon today, businesses and homes were building sandbag barriers for protection. There is hardly any water left in our city because everyone is stocking up or coming from Bangkok to get some. It's crazy to think that I'm so close to such a natural disaster yet feel really disconnected from it too. After such a stressful week, we were overjoyed to hear about our holiday. I feel bad thinking of it as a fun holiday when the locals are worried for their property. I just couldn't wait to get out of the city to catch a breath. A few people from my ATI program are in Kanchanaburi. They are either placed in Bangkok and can't start work yet because of the flood or have yet to be placed yet so while they wait they are enjoying taking time to travel. Erika and I packed our bags and hopped on motorbike taxis to get us to the bus station. We had directions on how to get to Kanchanaburi that avoided going to Bangkok. We heard the floods had gotten much worse and may have even reached to southern bus terminal in Bangkok, which is the one that we needed to get a bus to Kanchanaburi. The bus station at Samut Sakhon is not your typical bus station with "platforms" but rather just this main road and buses pull up by the side walk pick up passengers and go. There was no window you could ask where to stand for the correct bus and everyone we asked pointed us in the opposite directions. We walked up and down this main road about 5 times trying to figure out where to catch our bus. Eventually, I walked into a 7-11 to ask the cashier and she gathered everyone in the store to help me. Finally, this guy came up who spoke very good English and offered to personally help us! He was amazing! Turns out he's a police officer in Samut Sakhon but he's from Kanchanaburi. He told us that it was too late for us to go the way we were trying to go and there would be no other way but to go to the Bangkok Southern Station and then catch a bus from there to Kanchanaburi. We asked if it was going to be ok going there with the floods and he didn't seem to be phased. He escorted us to the mini bus area and asked the drivers if they were still going to the Southern Station. They told him that they couldn't anymore because of the flood and the mini buses being too low. So our other options were to wait till the next day or take a taxi to Kanchanaburi. We opted for taking a taxi because between the two of us it really wouldn't be much. K, the officer, then negotiated with a taxi for us. K made sure to tell our taxi driver not to cheat us (he's a police officer!) and to take us to the Southern Station. We were a bit confused but then figured by taxi we could still make it to the station in time to catch a bus to Kanchanaburi. The taxi driver didn't seem to be phased about flood water along the way so Erika and I got into the cab. I'm so happy to have met K, we made sure to get his number and hopefully will be able to have a local friend in Samut Sakhon.
It takes only about 25 minutes to get to the station in Bangkok. Erika and I were enjoying our ride and were very hopeful that everything was going to work out wonderfully. Then we reached water. We must have been only about 5 minutes away from the station or so when the roads began to be flooded. Our taxi driver didn't seem to mind and kept trucking through. The farther we went the deeper the water got and Erika and I were getting nervous in the backseat. The engine to his standard taxi started to work very hard driving through the water and I could tell that it was very close to stalling. Trucks began to whiz by as we tried to make our way through knee deep water. They pushed so much water our way that I could feel the water ripple beneath my feet. It was an awful feeling sitting in that taxi as a "farong" wanting to go on a weekend holiday. I felt so bad for making our taxi driver drive through this. He seemed to get nervous too because the water just didn't seem to ever end. I opened my window for a better look and the water was level with our side mirrors! Then all of a sudden I felt it, water began to seep into the taxi through the door and my feet were sitting in a puddle of water. I couldn't believe the situation we put ourselves in! I didn't know if we were going to make it to the station. Erika and I were sure that we were going to have to get out and help push the taxi at any moment. As the street reached a bit of higher ground our taxi driver pulled over. I was so relieved to be out of the water but unsure if we could continue farther. K told us that if we ran into any issues to not hesitate and call him. I thought this situation was worthy bothering him seeing that we had no way to communicate with the taxi driver. K and our taxi driver talked for a bit before the taxi driver passed me the phone again. K told me what I figured, the taxi driver couldn't possibly continue on and we would have to either hitch a ride or walk through the knee deep water for about a km. We had a guardian angel though because as soon as we stepped out of our taxi a SUV pulled over and a woman asked us where we were trying to go. Apparently she lives very near the Southern Station and offered us a ride. After giving our taxi driver a massive tip, we hopped right in the SUV without a second thought. I couldn't believe how much hospitability we were shown. Driving through the knee deep water in an SUV was such a different feeling from our taxi. I felt like we were going to have no issues at all. The lady is a Thai English teacher in the same province as us. She was so excited to meet us and hear that we were English teachers. They were so nice! As we were driving through the water the engine started to falter. As that happened water started to seep through the door as well! I felt so bad! My sandals were soaked. Their SUV was filled with sandbags that they were bringing back home to protect their property. The reality and seriousness of the situation became so clear but the Thai people seem so calm about the situation. It was a real humbling experience. When we finally reached the bus station they pulled over on the side of the road and let us out. It was such a relief arriving the bus station but we still had no idea if there would be any buses leaving that same night. We searched the terminal but it seemed as if everything was already shut down. Then we heard a voice shout out at us, "where do you go?" and we followed this man to a window where we were able to purchase bus tickets for a bus that was to leave in two minutes. This man escorted us directly to the bus and just like that we were on our way to Kanchanaburi. As we drove out of Bangkok, we drove through some more flooded areas. People's houses were filled with water, people were sitting on top of tables in their homes watching t.v., and there were even some street vendors still selling their food on the side of the road. Amongst disaster life goes on in Thailand.

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Photos

Plowing through the water
After this SUV passed by you could feel the rippling of the water beneath our feet from under the taxi. surreal.