waterdog

You can get a motorbike taxi at the Ratchathewi BTS station. It's 20 baht to Pantip. (30 baht to return to Ratchathewi from Pantip)

Weary of waiting for 15 minutes or longer in a queue to get through a busy intersection with a traffic light. Huge increase in traffic in the past year or two. Motorbike much more convenient for local travels and much more economical to use.

Very nice clean beaches in Viet Nam. Da Nang, Nha Trang, Ca Na and many others.

Comments - suggestions

Expedite implementation of the master plan for expanding the MRT and BTS systems. What is the hold-up? This should be a very high priority item.

In the meantime hire some knowledgeable traffic engineers to make the best of what is here now, coordinate traffic signals, construct fly-overs at intersections that are routinely jammed.

Enforce no parking signs during rush hour periods. These signs are routinely ignored by all, four lanes of traffic narrowed to two lanes reducing traffic flow by nearly half.

Perhaps this question has been asked and answered already but if so I've missed it.

There is plenty of natural gas on the world market. Why can Thailand, or the power companies, not purchase it elsewhere to make up for the shortfall from Myanmar?

The traditional Thai diet does not cause obesity. Please view this video

if you want to understand the cause and effect of what is happening here, and in much of the world, today.

Yes!! the traditional Thai diet doesn't cause obesity, accepted.

Now tell me, what percent of Thai children eat the traditional diet? The traditional Thai diet to them is Mcdonalds, coke and chicken coated in crap soaked in poisonous oil - THAT'S precisely why they are obese and getting type 2 diabetes at such an early age in alarming numbers!!!!.

Pretty much all of the problems stem from the American food (not really an appropriate word for describing them) manufacturers, corn, soy and wheat farmers and the FDA and American politicians that are in their pockets!!! They should be ashamed of what they are doing but their profiteering out of sabotaging people's health takes away the guilt factor and instead promotes lie after lie to keep the money rolling in whilst people die as a consequence of their actions.

God bless America!!!!

I agree. High fructose corn syrup is the major culprit. If you have time please view the video I linked to above. FDA does nothing, mostly for political reasons.

The traditional Thai diet does not cause obesity. Please view this video

if you want to understand the cause and effect of what is happening here, and in much of the world, today.

It will be interesting to compare how this govt deals with protests vs how Abhisit dealt with the 2010 shindig.

It should be obvious already, just from this video. The police did next to nothing to stop the red's violence. Images of motorcylists bringing old tires to burn and the police waving them on comes to mind.

I was stopped recently on Suk near Ekamai just after dark by two policemen on a motorbike. One approached and asked what I was doing. He was very polite and asked to look in my small bag. Sure, I said. He looked. I had another bag with a camera and asked if he wanted to look in it. He said no. Asked if he wanted to see my driver's license. He said no, no problem. Some small talk followed, he thanked me an left.

Seemed a bit strange at the time.

The Clintons and the Shinawatras are all members of the .1% and therefore natural allies.

Yep, and let's not forget the very sympathetic coverage of the red occupation and activities last year by the world's corporate media. They are largely a mouthpiece for the 1%.

This shift to militarization and emphasis on Asia will probably turn out to be not such good news for Asia if other areas where they've become similarly involved are an example.

Can anyone please tell me the situation of the main Lad Pra Khao Road from the Wang Hin intersection up to Kaset-Navamin traffic lights (anywhere around soi LPK 16, 18, 27, 29 etc)?

Much obliged and thanks

JD

As of yesterday evening Lat Pla Khao on both the north and south sides of Kaset Nawamin was still flooded. It looked to be about the same level as it did a few days ago or possibly just a bit lower. I did not go deep into either soi. I asked a motorbike taxi driver on the north side if Lat Pla Khao was flooded all of the way to Ram Intra and he said no. I might go in that direction later this evening and will have a look, but judging from elsewhere in this general area I doubt if the water levels have dropped very much.

tlansford...The National is pointing out the truth here, politics or not.

Agreed!

Exploring the flooded areas these past few days and using transportation provided by the army into and through the flooded areas. Very helpful, very polite and respectful. I offer my sincere thanks to all of those involved in providing this critical service.

Bangkok flooding - the wet and the dry:

Video from 4 November - the area around Wat Lat Phrao:

....

9) Wind-up Emergency TV

...

That's what they've been showing on all channels for about 2 weeks now -- reporters bravely standing up to their ankles in water or zooming around in Zodiacs, swamping people.

Makes a change from the 'boing' shows and the daytime soaps, I guess.

But on a more serious note, the Thai print media has begun attacking the TV coverage for its shallow (ha!) sensationalism and frequent inaccuracies which are making the situation worse.

Here are a few scenes from yesterday evening:

....

9) Wind-up Emergency TV

...

That's what they've been showing on all channels for about 2 weeks now -- reporters bravely standing up to their ankles in water or zooming around in Zodiacs, swamping people.

Makes a change from the 'boing' shows and the daytime soaps, I guess.

But on a more serious note, the Thai print media has begun attacking the TV coverage for its shallow (ha!) sensationalism and frequent inaccuracies which are making the situation worse.

So, are things getting worst ?

The extent of the flooding appears to be increasing in the areas near where we live. Here's a link to a video taken yesterday morning:

This area was dry a few days ago.

flood.htm

Made this file with the help of another TV-er.

can see Chaopraya and canals clearly. Lardprao canal rises and falls with chaopraya

Excellent information. Thanks.

Key words in the article - "the worst case scenario" - "could be" - "if dykes

are breached in many areas".<br><br>And the odds of dikes being breached in many areas is what ???  <br><br>Overall the situation with respect to keeping inner Bangkok protected from high water has been working pretty well thus far. If anything there has been, IMHO, too much hype and thus the high levels of hoarding of food and water. <br><br>The Google crisis map here: http://www.google.org/crisismap?crisis=thailand_floods_en   <br>shows the extent of the flooding. I've been monitoring it closely these past few days and there have been no significant increases in the areas inundated. <br>

Video of the Don Mueang area from yesterday afternoon, the 25th of October at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Z14eW3ZLY

I think we need lots of pictures to help us really understand the issue at hand here - lol

How about a video: Bangkok in Black and White -

Well done PM Abhisit!

You have earned a lot of respect with your patience and perseverance in dealing with this situation.

Firewater.

The dude is truly a Khwai in more ways than one.

Printing more dollars and pumping them in to the system is only postponing the inevitable. It's out of control. Expect some very bad news in coming weeks.