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| Pakkret is the city within the province of Nonthaburi where we lived. |
"When life floods, go fishing." – The Opportunist
Justin is the second one from the right. After three attempts they finally pull down the wall.
The flooding in our area had gone down enough
that most of the major roads were now open, but cars still lined the sides of
the elevated freeways for safe keeping from the still-abundant flooding. Don Meuang airport was submerged in the flood
waters, and the planes rested their swollen bellies in a large lake which was
once the glorious city of Bangkok. Because
the flooding was beginning to recede our seven hour road trip to Kanchanuburi
had been reduced to a grateful three hours and before long we were home.
Little restaurants were starting to reopen as their owners
were returning from their flood torn homes in the surrounding cities. Our motorcycle ride around the city showed us
the sincerely happy and resourceful spirit of the Thai people.
Even though they now had to ride in a boat,
rather than their scooter or the bus, to get down the street from their flooded
homes they were still smiling.
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| A man floats by our bus on the other side of the very submerged road. |
People
used the flood as an opportunity to get chores done like washing their trucks –
the water was right there, all they had to do was bring the bucket, or fishing
– they no longer had to walk down to the canal they could just step outside
their front door with their net or pole, or they could relax and enjoy the ride
to the next town in their inner-tube.
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| A man washes his truck in the flood waters. Seems a bit counterproductive to me. . . |
Everywhere we looked people were smiling, laughing, and carrying on with
their life as though this flood was a normal part of their everyday lives.
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| The Thai people are very resourceful, here they are using a large piece of Styrofoam to float upon. |
People tell Justin and I that we have some of the worst
luck they have ever witnessed or heard of.
We don’t tend to disagree with that statement, but at the same time we somehow manage to
have one of the most amazing lives and we are daily blessed with more than we
deserve. Today was one of those
days. Our little netbook computer was starting
to retire, and one of my dearest friends back home wouldn't hear of us not
being able to communicate with our friends and family back home so he bought us
a computer for our wedding/Christmas present - an extremely generous gift that
I could never repay.
But here in
Thailand just because you have the money to get a computer doesn't mean that
you can hop over to the nearest Best Buy and pick one up. Because of the flooding the stores weren't just out of food and water but paper products, clothing, and electronics as
well. At one o’clock in the afternoon we
started to the nearest Tesco Lotus (the equivalent of Wal-Mart), but they were
all sold out of the model that we wanted.
We took the model number up to the customer service counter to see if
they could call around to the surrounding stores and check if there were any available elsewhere. Try communicating that
without speaking the language! A combination of Justin’s rudimentary pieced
together Thai and a few rounds of charades later we finally convinced the
customer service representative to call around for us.
* * Challenge: Try
communicating with another person using a language that they don’t understand. Use hand motions, facial expressions,
charades, and speak using only made up words.
After 5 minutes you’ll have a better understanding about what daily life
is like for us. * *
The operator
looked at us as she placed the call, her face a combination of doubt and
wonder. A few phone calls later and success!
She was able to locate three stores in the surrounding area that had more than
one computer available in the model that we wanted. We knew this because she wrote three cities
on a piece of paper, that we didn't recognize, with numbers next to them.
Justin pointed to
one of the names and asked in Thai how far away it was. She shook her head and spoke rapidly in
Thai. A few rounds of charades later and
we came to the understanding that the Tesco Lotus with the most computers
available was too flooded for motorcycles but that cars could go there.
We had already
spent two hours trying to purchase a computer at this point. We weren't really familiar with the
surrounding cities yet, but what better way to get familiar with them than to
go on a wild goose chase around the city!
We consulted our
map, got on our motorcycle, and headed out; and as is our MO - with only a few
hours of sunlight left. The closest
store was only 15 kilometers away (about 12 miles), but the road on the way was
very flooded.
“Should we
attempt it?” Justin asked me as our bike came to a complete stop in front of a
road sunk beneath three or more feet of water.
“Hmmm . . .” I
paused to gather as much information as possible about the situation, “Other
scooters and cars are doing it.”
You know what
they say, when in Rome! Or in our case the familiar saying became, when in
Thailand! It always gave us the go ahead to do something dangerous, illegal, or
against our nature.
We pressed
on. We lifted our feet to try and keep
our sandals as dry as possible. Cars
came at us from all directions, and Justin’s voice rang out concerned against
the mayhem, “Which way do I go?”
“Follow the other
bikes!” I shouted against the sound of the splashing water. (Watch video here)
Eventually the
water began to recede and we were safe on the other side only to be thwarted by
another flooded road two miles up the road.
After watching a few trucks pass through the flooded road it was clear
that it was too deep for our bike and we didn't know what the road ahead would
bring. After contemplating hitchhiking
in one of the trucks that went by and then deciding that we didn't really want
to be hitchhiking back in the dark; we contemplated our situation. Although disappointed that our immense
efforts to get to the Tesco Lotus were hindered for the moment, we sat on our
bike watching in amazement at a man who intentionally parked his box truck in
the water so that it could be washed more conveniently.
Two stores down,
two more on the list to try, and we decided that we should try the one where
‘motorcycles couldn't go’. Once again we
consulted our map and rode off towards the store. Sure enough the streets were too flooded for
scooters – even the bravest ones, and we were forced to park a block away. There were planks set up all over the city to
make it more convenient for people to walk to stores, major freeways, or roads
that weren't as flooded, and this store was no exception. We balanced delicately atop the planks and
sandbags lining the side of the street and turned our nose up at the murky
waters full of sewage, trash, and automobile oil. I held my breath not only against the stench
but also my fear of falling into the caliginous deep.
Store three was
yet another unsuccessful attempt, and we stubbornly headed off to our last
ditch effort before it became too dark to navigate the deluged streets.
The dirty waters
sparkled playfully with the last hues of the dying sun - it nearly caused you
to forget that you were riding through human and animal waste. The streets became even more confusing, and
to top off our tumultuous undertaking it began to sprinkle. The street lamps flickered dully against the
darkening skies. The light from the
lamps as well as the bright beams of the headlights from other vehicles
reflected in every drop, and the water on the streets blurred our vision.
“I think we turn
here, but I’m not sure.” Justin squinted into the night and strained his neck
to peer down the road to our left.
“Maybe we should
ask someone then.” I posed an unlikely
suggestion. Getting a man to stop and
ask for directions is asking him to admit that he doesn't have full control of
the situation and that directly affects his manhood. Fortunately for me Justin doesn't mind
admitting that he doesn't have the first clue what he is doing, and he actually
enjoys asking for directions because he gets to show off . . . I mean practice
his knowledge of the native language.
We pulled over to
where a man was standing on the corner of the street. “Yahk pay Tesco Lotus. Yu thi nai na kup.” (I want to go to Tesco
Lotus. Where is it?)
The man’s face
scrunched up in confusion as he held a hand up to his ear.
Justin repeated,
“Tesco Lotus.”
The man tried to
repeat what Justin said, but stumbled with the words and ended up shaking his
head.
“Te-sss-cooo
Looo-tu-sss.” Justin said slowly as though the man may be hard of hearing.
“Oh!” The man
exclaimed, “Tecco Lotaaaa!” He proceeded to ramble on instructions in Thai
while pointing down the street, and then waving his hand to suggest it was on
the left side of the street.
I nearly smacked
my head in disbelief and remembrance. Of
course! They don’t say their s’s! And
because they speak with a tonal language we have to put on an Asian accent and
add a strong emphasis on the ‘a’.
Every adventure
away from the protected dry pocket that is our apartment complex we learned
something new. Even if it was just the
location of a few more stores and the simple, but extremely helpful, fact that
you had to speak words – even English names – with an Asian accent in order to
be understood.
I was starting to
get pretty tired from our little excursion, and this was our last chance before
we had to call it a night. We walked
into the brightly lit Tesco Lotus only to be stopped half way through the store
by a luring sound. Our eyes closed, our
heads cocked to one side we stood transfixed in the middle of the aisle. What was this glorious sound?
Our bodies moved
without permission as though possessed by the strange elixir in the air,
twitching, swaying, and popping. Our
feet shuffled, tapped, and two stepped their way towards the sound. We stopped.
Our eyes opened; we stood before a large television with surround sound speakers
bursting forth music sung in a language that our ears couldn't understand but
our souls connected with.
“What is it?” I
whispered in awe to no one in particular.
Justin shook his
head in bewilderment.
“It’s the most
beautiful thing I've ever heard.” I
cooed.
The
reggae/rap/contemporary/pop song sung by a group whose ethnicity and language
eluded me, floated throughout the store caressing the aisles and provoking
passion amongst its listeners.
“Is no one else
hearing this?” I looked around only slightly broken from its spell. “I must have it,” my words uttered cold, possessive,
and covetous.
“I’ll try to ask
someone who it is.” Justin half aware of his actions called on a store clerk
nearby.
Our eyes
transfixed on the television we tried to ask how we too could possess this
magical sound. The clerk, confused by
our fascination with the music, showed us a book full of karaoke songs. We looked down at the book and tried to ask who
it was that was singing. He only pointed
towards the television and then back at the book.
“Are we really so
music deprived that this is the most amazing music we have ever
heard?” I asked Justin, concerned for
our sanity.
We had lost our
ipod, and only source of music, a month ago in Phuket when our room was
flooded, and we had only experienced less than fantastic music while traveling through
Nepal.
“We need music
desperately.” I shook my head at our music deprived souls, and pulled Justin
towards the electronics counter.
Finally our
computer was in stock, and would be available for us in thirty minutes. They had to find one in the back room,
inspect the contents, and then they would allow us to make the purchase. We had already been searching for the
computer for seven hours – what’s another half an hour?
“I just want to
go home, grab a beer, and watch a movie.” Justin sighed.
“A movie! We
haven’t watched a movie, or anything in ages!” I squealed excitedly, “That sounds
amazing! Do you want to go to the movie store on the way home?”
A large grin and
a definitive nod was all I needed to send my face into a cheek breaking smile.
A half an hour
later we finally had our computer! But no, alas it is not that
easy. My mind fills with bemused
laughter as we realize that the computer is DOS only, and that we have to go
somewhere else to have Windows installed onto the hard drive.
I won’t bore you
with the frustrating details of getting to a store that is closing within a
half hour, or running through a large mall trying every computer shop only to
have it close right before you get there or to be told that they don’t sell it
and they don’t know (because of lack of communication) how to tell you who
does, or finally reaching the last floor of the mall to find the store and
successfully have Windows (legally or illegally – I’m not sure) installed, only
to get home exhausted after ten hours to discover that there is an error
in the installation . . . (Pause to breathe) Did I mention that the movie store near
us closed 5 minutes early, and the other one had closed up for good? Or that we finally broke down and bought a
movie only to have the computer say that there was an error in the player? (Sigh)
Yes, life in
Thailand is oh so good, a bit challenging at times, but good. And although it may be a bit ironic, I must admit we have some of the worst luck, but over all, we lead a wonderful and serendipitous life!
