Another Reason to be Angry at the Floods...

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Adventure of the Day: 5 minutes of excitement over a film festival!

So, another (much less serious) reason to be angry at the Thailand floods — the postponement of the Bangkok  World Film Festival!

I spent way too much time in fake Photoshop making this.

A little background: Last week, sitting around the hostel, my teaching situation still in limbo, my eyes happened upon a copy of the Lonely Planet Bangkok guide. So I said to myself, I said, "Self —" (Sorry, only my UA friends will get that Dempsey reference) I figured I would pick up the book and get some ideas of what to see in Bangkok.

Well, right in the front of the book is a list of events/festivals/etc. by month. I check out January, February, and March, skip April through September (I most likely will already have departed dear Thailand), and land back at October, November, and December. October has the Vegetarian Festival, which I already experienced in Pattaya (though I didn't find that much great vegetarian food). When, to what to my wondering eyes should appear in November but the World Film Festival! In Bangkok! Away to the internet I flew like a flash, tore up the keyboard and opened the website*. The site's banner lists the Festival as being from the 4th to the 13th of November — this upcoming week! And right down the road from where I'm staying/working! And I don't have a teaching job yet, so I can go see a bunch of them! You can imagine my excitement. I mean, look at all the exclamation points I'm using!

But alas, all my hopes and dreams of approximately 4 minutes were dashed by scrolling down the page. You see, with the impending floods the Festival has been postponed. Not a week, or a month, but until January 2012. At least I will still be here, though not (likely) within walking distance. Sigh.

In any case, the program sounds pretty great. Obviously there's a lot of independent films from all over the world. Some I'm particularly excited about are Kids with Cameras (USA), Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbors (Mexico, Thailand), and Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Werner Herzog's lauded film using 3D technology to capture the 30,000 year old paintings in France's Chauvet Pont d'Arc cave. Check out the trailer.

Maybe Hopefully Certainly the floods will have dissipated by January, and I'll report back then with reviews of the films I've gotten to see. Until then!


* I have no idea what prompted the use of lines from Twas the Night Before Christmas. But I figured if I used one line, why not use multiple lines? My brain is random like that and/or I'm already getting in the Christmas spirit!

Thailand Floods

That Dirty Water.

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Adventure of the Day: There will be Flood.

There's this little story that's been whispered around Thailand recently. You may not have heard about it, but the teeniest bit of water is coming towards Bangkok. It's not like it's been practically the only story covered by the Bangkok Post or anything.

In all seriousness, the months-long flooding has devastated the north, affected over 2 million people, and killed more than 300. Ohio's got lions and tigers and bears, but at least they didn't have crocs swimming through the water killing people. And as Bangkok straddles the very river most of the floodwaters are following out to sea — the Chao Phraya — the city has been busy battening down as many of its millions and billions of hatches as possible.

A very well fortified store on Sukhumvit.

And I'm right in the middle of it. You can feel the tension in the air of the city. I don't know Bangkok well, but even I can tell it's a bit too quiet out on the streets. Many businesses had already started constructing sandbag barriers at their doors a week ago; many are building nearly meter-high concrete walls on on the sidewalk just outside their doors.

There hasn't been any flooding on my street (Sukhumvit Soi 1) or on Sukhumvit, the main road we're off of, yet. I don't if/when/where/how the waters will hit. I've mentally/logistically prepared as much as I can, given the uncertainty. If I prep for 4 feet of water, there'll probably only be a trickle here. If I'm sure there'll be nothing, we're likely to get hit big-time. It's the hurry-up-and-waiting that's getting to me.

In any case, I'm staying. Though the start of the school term has been pushed back indefinitely, I've got the job and bed at the hostel two stories up — definitely above the potential flood zone. The 7-Eleven's are devoid of food but there's the food stalls and outside and plenty of water at the hostel's bar. 

Photo by someone else, courtesy of a Google search.

And I know I've got it so much better than the millions whose homes are uninhabitable and who have lost their jobs. I feel that leaving now would be practically equivalent to abandoning Bangkok, Thailand, and the people in their time of need. The country needs people to keep spending money, investing in the economy, and just be there to lend a hand. Who knows — maybe that's the reason providence/fate/God brought me here.

I hope the flood comes safely, but soon. Because the sooner the waters drain out into the Gulf, the sooner Thailand can begin its recovery. Please look through some of the slideshows over at the Bangkok Post site. With so much focus on the capital, the north — while getting relief — isn't getting as many headlines, and those areas have been affected the longest. And this set (from the Denver Post of all places) is a particularly stunning, in a devastating way.

And if you're interested in helping, check out the Thai Red Cross website. Even if you can't donate from America, it's nice comforting to see that 180 million baht (and counting) has been given at this time of colossal need.