ChiangMaiMike

Good News!

The Hydro Site is back up and has been updated.

River levels continuing to drop...

It amazes me that the press uses such words as 'unprecedented', 'unexpected', etc about Chiang Mai's floods.

Incidentally at the river end of Loi Kroh Road there are a couple of very old wooden houses on poles. Although these get isolated in the floods and the owners have to clean up their grounds afterwards their houses always remain dry. Maybe the people who built these houses years ago had a little bit more foresight than the people of today, who are all trying to emulate western design in the construction of their ground level homes.

Jack... The Ping River flooding last year was the worst in 40-50 years (I think depending on where you were exactly)... but you are correct about the yearly flooding of the low lying areas in the city due to heavy rainfall. Chiang Mai is in a flood plain and I think historically the flooding of the Ping River has raised the surrounding area about one meter every 200 years. (Info from Chiang Mai News)

I think the problem is exacerbated by the number of houses constructed in the last few years because before building they raise the ground level of the building sites thus making more 'high ground' and decreasing the area that in many cases used to be rice fields that can absorb the rainfall.

To me this is reminiscent of the Mississippi River in America where they built levees to contain it, and people built in the former flood plains... this worked for many years as they kept increasing the height of the levees, but eventually 'Ol' Man River' prevailed and the levees failed and thousands of people found their houses underwater. I'm inclined to agree with you that building houses in a flood plain at ground level may not be a viable long term option and if I build here the living quarters of my house will be well elevated. Perhaps here where the Ping River is 'only' about 569 km. long a levee system and dams can control the river... It will take time and money but it probably could be done.

Will it happen? I don't know, but I think it is technologically feasible.

Meanwhile, poor people are suffering and mans battle against nature looks to be inadequate.

No updates on Thai Hydro site since 9 p.m. Tues.

Wednesday at 7 a.m. Ping River at Superhighway appeared to be about the same or up slightly from yesterdays high... had about 1.5" of rain here (1km north of Super highway) overnight.

So far things 'o.k.' up here...

Gosh Terry, you really have a great wit and I'm delighted that you find the situation here amusing...

Have another beer and congratulate yourself for being so incredibly clever as to not live near a river that floods...

And if you could find another forum that needs your sage advice that would be a real bonus for us.

Gonzo... fine print says this: Critical level for warning

when P.67 = 4.20 m. and P.1 = 3.70 m.

But it does appear the worst is nearly over... and my forecast doesn't include a lot of heavy rain in the near term.

And under the increasing list of things I thought I knew for sure comes the myth of the direction of the vortex when water drains...

Apparently the Coreolis Effect, which does affect cyclones, doesn't care about bathtub and sink drains...

Later,

Mike

Hydro site back up at 8:00 a.m.

P.67 crested at 4:00 a.m. so that should hit P.1 (Narawat Bridge) about 11:00 a.m., looks like about another foot or so of increase in river level yet to come...

That's my amatuer hydrologist guess.

m

Yea , heres a morning report..... Its wet wet wet wet......

Water is up in my back yard..

Gonzo

PS whatid we do wear out the hydro site, can't get on to it either

Gonzo... Where exactly are you located?

m

Just back from ride from Superhighway to Gymkhana golf course on Faham Road on east side of river.

Looks like Rishi can sit on his benches for a bit without getting his feet wet for now... Hydro site down so no information on river levels upstream since last night at 11:00.

Road was blocked at Narawat Bridge for southboand traffic and at Rim Ping Supermarket the water had seeped(?) through the sand bags and just gotten to the curb on the far side of the road.

Gymkhana still o.k.

M

Dang! Can't get the Thai Hydrology site to load... anyone have any Ping River level reports this morning?

Guess will go do a visual at the Superhighway overpass...

m

Rishi... according to Google Earth, Faham Road is 2 feet higher than the Ping River just north and east of the Narawat Bridge... I'm gonna turn in now, but hope to see you there in the morning... provided Faham Rd can be negotiated going south at 8 a.m. or so...

Happy wading,

mike

For about the past 4-5 hours the per hour water level increases have been getting greater and greater.

The past hour took a really good jump. And I got a guarantee that this wouldn't happen.

Where have the water levels been increasing exactly? And who guaranteed this wouldn't happen and when?

On Ping River ... we're talking about flooding - as in flood - not local rainwater-poodles caused by insufficient drainage...

Rishi... Ping River is fairly long... I don't think it's flooding anywhere yet i.e. River out of it banks... but it looks as if that will indeed occur... and it will not flood everywhere at the same time which is why I was wondering where on the Ping River you were talking about.

later,

M

If you like guarantees... I can assure you that if you are in Chiang Mai you have not yet seen the crest of the Ping River and won't for probably at least 7 hours... rate increase seems to be increasing only slightly... a bit more than 10 cm. per hour... adding about 1 cm/hour... 10 p.m. report from Narawat Bridge is 3.24 meters and flood stage is at 3.70 so that level should be reached about 2 a.m. or so... And heavy rains are continuing up north, so I don't see water levels going down for a while...

Good luck to those in the low lying areas.

Mike

For about the past 4-5 hours the per hour water level increases have been getting greater and greater.

The past hour took a really good jump. And I got a guarantee that this wouldn't happen.

Where have the water levels been increasing exactly? And who guaranteed this wouldn't happen and when?

Looking at reported Ping River levels at Narawat and Mae Tang my amatuer prediction is that Narawat should reach flood stage (3.70 meters) at about 3 a.m. on Tuesday and the Thai doppler radar shows pretty heavy rain to the north of us...

Let's hope they are doing some good sand bagging...

M

Thanks! For those who can't read Thai you need to click on #2 to see the river levels...

m

Can anyone tell me the URL for the website that shows the heights of the Ping River at various points? Had it last year and now cannot find.

Thanks,

M

Build it and they will come...

I think that's from "A Field of Dreams".

Applies to freeways and the internet, imho.

From 2002 to 2006 Thailand has increased it's internet bandwidth in/out of the country 10 fold.(I think)..

The better and cheaper it gets, the more people want it.

I have ADSL from TT&T... sometimes great, sometimes sucks...

I've called many times to try and find out when things will get better and occassionally can get a techie that can say something like "CAT expanding bandwidth... better next month".

I came from the U.S. and had a small ISP who always provided more bandwidth than his customers needed... Capitalism at its best.

Here in Thailand we are at the mercy of a monopolistic(?) goverment owned system, which appears to be stuggling with bottlenecks in the system and my attempts to find out exactly where they are and when they will be improved has not been fruitful.

I think letting your provider know, in a polite way, that you are not happy with the service is all that can be done... I urge everyone to express their dissatisfaction often believing that the 'squeaky wheel gets the grease'...

And I know that this is Thailand and Thais are conditioned to endure rather than complain, but if 'they' don't know they're not providing 'good' service, there will be less motivation to improve.

Again, let me stress for the newbies, I think politely expressing your discontent is likely to get better results than yelling and screaming at someone who probably doesn't know the difference between a fiber optic cable and a coaxial cable.

m

Anyone know the url for the Thai Hydrology Website that shows the level of the Ping River at various points?

Thanks,

Mike

TT&T HiNet 1,089baht/month ADSL in Chiang Mai

Download Speed from Chiang Mai to Seattle,Wa using the Speakeasy test is highly variable...

Results from Speakeasy Speed Test http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ at random times...

Sunday 2/26/2006

8:00 Download Speed: 65 kbps (8.1 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 429 kbps (53.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

18:00 Download Speed: 427 kbps (53.4 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 452 kbps (56.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

19:00 Download Speed: 513 kbps (64.1 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 456 kbps (57 KB/sec transfer rate)

19:23 Download Speed: 537 kbps (67.1 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 443 kbps (55.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

23:00 Download Speed: 462 kbps (57.8 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 437 kbps (54.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Monday 2/27

8:25 Download Speed: 206 kbps (25.8 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 413 kbps (51.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

15:20 Download Speed: 68 kbps (8.5 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 402 kbps (50.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

18:00 Download Speed: 63 kbps (7.9 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 216 kbps (27 KB/sec transfer rate)

19:00 Download Speed: 190 kbps (23.8 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 442 kbps (55.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

20:00 Download Speed: 288 kbps (36 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 652 kbps (81.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

21:00 Download Speed: 102 kbps (12.8 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 603 kbps (75.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

22:45 Download Speed: 542 kbps (67.8 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 605 kbps (75.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

23:05 Download Speed: 248 kbps (31 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 599 kbps (74.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Tuesday 2/28

00:00 Download Speed: 66 kbps (8.3 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 465 kbps (58.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

8:07 Download Speed: 472 kbps (59 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 655 kbps (81.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

11:01 Download Speed: 65 kbps (8.1 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 483 kbps (60.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

11:36 Download Speed: 65 kbps (8.1 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 650 kbps (81.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

13:00 Download Speed: 66 kbps (8.3 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 604 kbps (75.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

13:20 Download Speed: 83 kbps (10.4 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 650 kbps (81.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

14:21 Download Speed: 136 kbps (17 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 650 kbps (81.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

16:54 Download Speed: 92 kbps (11.5 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 605 kbps (75.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

17:36 Download Speed: 141 kbps (17.6 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 578 kbps (72.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Pretty poor much of the time... if you want to watch streaming video it's quite annoying often times.

m

Article is in today's 'The Nation' online edition under National news...

Could someone tell me exactly which 'endangered species' will be served?

Croc's, cats, dogs, zebras and giraffs aren't on any lists I've seen...

When I was a drunk I never had a problem making certain that I had booze on hand... If you can't plan 24 hours ahead then you probably should quit.

Tip for the brain damaged: Metal hip flasks are a safe way to carry spirits.

Furthermore, however ill conceived, I think this law is aimed at Thai's and not Foreingers and will have little affect upon their habits.

I personally hope it will reduce the number of drunk drivers... but that is merely my hope and not neccessarily my expectation.

I remember years ago seeing many bumper stickers in America that said "America-Love it or Leave it"... I wonder if JoefromDC used to sport one on his car?

Don't know how any farang could forget they are a guest here... but does being a guest mean you shouldn't complain about something you don't like?

Maybe it will soon be illegal to complain about the government...

There are already taboo topics here... easy to add more.

Gotta remember Joe it's not a simple black and white thing... On the whole I still prefer living here to America... but it could change.

I also don't like the air pollution... Maybe I should just stop breathing?

I was curious about Thai genealogy... Like how many people were decendants of Thai Kings back in the good ol' days when 58-73 official wives were common.

I found I couldn't access a site that listed many of the offspring. My friend in America could. I tried again and had another person here try repeatedly as well and we never got through.

I assume it was blocked... and I can't really understand why... but I guess someone perhaps knows better than I do what I should see.

Slippery slope indeed.

I also read that Thailand was upset with the Google Earth and I think was considering blocking it because it was a security threat... Now that is a site I would REALLY miss.

Perhaps next would be to block news and information about H5N1 as people might panic... Remember Mr. T admitted to doing that earlier? Denied it's existance here for a couple of weeks I think... Wondered why, but I'm sure he had good reasons.

I Love the internet and freedom of information... Don't think most Thais will be too concerned about this however... food, clothing and shelter seem to be more important worries than civil rights and liberties, is my guess, but maybe it is a cultural thing.

Will this further slow down our Internet connections??

ADSL speed here up north is almost a joke... Often get only 56kbps download speed...

I agree the ads will be more amusing... for a while.

But what I really want to know is if UBC will now be generating revenue from showing these ads... Wasn't there something when they were set up that prohibited showing them and that justified the high price they charge?

I'd certainly be delighted to hear that they will now be dropping the price... but I've been here long enough to not hold my breath awaiting the announcement.

Probably if generate more revenue will just sink it all back into improving the programing, right?

TMD forecast for Northern Thailand from 6a.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday:

"almost widespread thundershowers with isolated heavy rain

mostly in the western part. Minimum temperature 22 C, maximum temperature 32 C.

Westerly winds 10-30 km/hr."