my friend I

Thailand will be making up stories until election

My friends got some pumps to get rid of some stinking black water that a group of homes in Phattalung province were sitting in for a month. The warmer weather had not evaporated any of it. I decided it was an excellent time to go to Marks and Spencers to get a xmas cake instead. Went through Hat Yai on train. North of the city is trash of all kinds everywhere and homes surrounded by stinking blackwater. No sign of anyone cleaning up. South of the railway station fairly clean. Padang Besar operating as normal. Hotels full. No sign of flooding anywhere. Lots of ongoing earthworks on train line between Hat Yai and Padang Besar. Train ran to scheduled time. Padang Besar to Butterworth instead of two hour trip was three hours. Stop and go or slow roll along.

Would help if the military was available for the clean up instead of helping out a politician

Passengers arriving from Cambodia are getting special treatment. Been going on for some time.

Whats the situation with building inspections? Quite a few homes have moved either off foundations or foundations have had water undermine them. Dengue a risk but drying out the ground definitely a positive.

We didn't get all the way in, just to hiway 408. That section north of the lake along the coast is likely to have ongoing problems We have been focussing on places with lower populations. Be a positive if this warmer weather continues because there are a lot of areas still waterlogged.

At least it's not a white flag. We did another run to Songkhla today. We figure Hat Yai is getting enough attention. They really need to help people in the countryside.

That area next to the railway station has been lacking in charm for a while now. Maybe this is an opportunity to do something there. Not necessarily straight away. For many tourists that is the first Thailand stop.

Any news has disappeared from the media. We were thinking of going to Hat Yai next week to help boost the economy because we were under the impression things there were ok. Doesn't seem like a good idea now. The Tops at Robinsons would have flooded completely being in the basement. Be a massive task cleaning that. What happened to the 14 day cleanup deadline?

MySawasdee has been cancelled again this weekend due to flood recovery. Maybe the Thai military could help with cleanup, repairs, etc.

Thai navy is in Cambodian waters firing at a beach which has one small restaurant. Across the river from Khemarak Phoumin.

Election leading into CNY and Ramadan. Low turnout?

Now you can see the water line by plastic bags in the trees out in the bush

Seems as though some areas outside Hat Yai have been ignored in the cleanup. Most focus looks to be on the CBD. At least there hasn't been any follow up heavy rain.

Read this last night then Channel 3 showed footage of Thai tanks and troops in Cambodia.

That might be the end of any interest in the floods with Thailand/Cambodia border dispute moving to a new stage. Plenty of work available for army vehicles in the area we went. Some serious erosion.

And the flood failures. Still ongoing

Thung Song. Came for a funeral two days before flood.

We took some water and bananas down yesterday. The part we went to needed a lot of work still. Some people are very stressed, understandably.

During the flood I met an elderly couple who didn't speak Thai at all and only a bit of english. They wanted to get to Malaysia because their visa was expiring and they had heard about over staying and possibility of prison. We couldn't talk them out of going. It was flooded in Malaysia then also. We put them on the train to Phattalung which was the last stop then. And still is. We gave them directions including in Thai writing but we had no idea if the usual options were available. All the government had to do was announce the amnesty for over stay a few days earlier and they could have waited here until today. Thailand supposedly a tourist friendly destination.

How about three days earlier? Wouldn't that be ok? Instead of tourists getting in the way trying to obey the law.

I met two people who were trying to get to Malaysia because their visas were about to expire. They wanted to obey the law. The last thing Songkhla needed was two more people to have to deal with on top of everything else.

Coconut brooms are perfect for cleaning up muddy roads and they are environmentally friendly. Now Mr Paradorn has to find someone to do the work. Anyone but him. Maybe some Khmer

Like everything else they could have announced this earlier.

You should be right by then. Water is draining quickly. Only problem would be more rain. The airport area seems to be one of the worst areas at the moment as water is running from there towards the ocean.