Arriving In Bkk On Wednesday, Help/Info Greatly Appreciated!

[QuestionMark]

Hello,

I will arrive in BKK wednesday evening with my gf, have booked a hotel for one week and planned to look/find an appartment by then.

Naturally I have a lot of questions regarding the flood since there are so many contradicting posts/articles..

- my hotel is in Khlong Toei ("hope land executive residence"), I asked them and they told me they are fine/don't expect any trouble but can't be sure they are telling the truth ofc - I still have about 24h in which I can cancel the booking for no fee and look for another hotel, should I do it?

- if the answer to the above is "yes" would you recommend looking for another hotel in a safer area of BKK (which?) or going somewhere completely else (like phuket) for a while? the latter would be quite inconvenient since we have loads of luggage and also my gf requires special medication in her carry on baggage

so just booking another flight wouldn't be so easy, costly of course also but it wouldn't break us financially..

- I'm reading about a supply shortage, food and water.. is this only for the shops/malls or are restaurants etc closed and out of stuff also?

- the airport rail link and bts are running normal, yes?

- 3g internet is still working/unaffected yes?

will post more questions here if I can think of them,

thank you very much in advance for any help/answers and good luck to everyone affected by the flooding, I hope it won't get much worse than it already is!

[ChristopherWilliamsBKK]

according to locals (take that wi a pinch of salt ) soi 22 will be under a metre of water within the next 2-3 days, so make sure you get a room higher up in the building

[QuestionMark]

thanks for your reply but I believe you are talking about the wrong hope land hotel (yeah there are two, I was got confused multiple times also haha) the one I mean is on sukhumvit 46/1 which doesn't seem to be too close to soi 22?

[QuestionMark]

ok whatever I cancelled the hotel booking for now, figure I can book it again once I arrive in BKK..

the other questions still stand though.. and upping the priority of in which area I should book a hotel concerning the flooding?

thanks

[ThreeProperty]

No one can answer this question, unfortunately you will just have to wait and find out. The gov are saying to expect "1m of flood water in Bangkok" however it's not guaranteed what will happen as no one has any real idea.

If you need an apartment or some long term accommodation, checkout our site or give us a call / e-mail

Three Property

http://www.three-homes.com/

082-202-9139

Edited October 22, 2011 by ThreeProperty

[Bpuumike]

I don't remember what hotel information desks there are in Arrivals at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi but if you intend to book when you arrive it might help to look around on your right immediately you exit Customs. You will see (usually) a lot of hotel reps holding their placards. Those you see will be there because they are operating their hotel pick-up services normally so might be worth talking to some of them, perhaps Novotel and the like.

Just a suggestion and hope you find something suitable. The situation here is changing constantly, with confusing information being given out by the authorities so no one can give you any definite information regarding Wednesday at this point in time.

As you are going to be here for some time you might want to walk further up the Arrivals hall and buy a pay-as-you-go SIM card from the DTAC desk.

[jybkk]

I live right next to the Hopeland residence you mention (it is considered as being in Phra Khanong rather than in Klong Toey).

So far we're all dry.

While not in the center of the center, it is still pretty much in the area the authorities are going to protect the most and not in an especially threatened zone.

I can't promise anything about the future though, because anyway I'm not sure anyone has any idea of what's going to happen... So booking another place would raise the same questions.

Note that what people call "Bangkok" can vary a lot depending on who is talking. Administratively speaking, Bangkok is very big and already partly flooded. However, those are districts pretty far from the center and many are used to consider those as suburbs rather than Bangkok per-se.

In the center, and this includes the area where you're planning to go, restaurants and shops are still opened and business is continuing almost as usually unless for a much reduced traffic compared to usually. Empty shelves seem to occur pretty randomly according to rumors that go around. You can still find what you look for if you go more to the center.

However, if you don't have much obligations, you could go to places like Phuket for a few days until things get sorted out. As far as many of us are concerned, we have jobs, we can't really afford leaving the city yet because the extend of the danger is still really unclear.

[BigRick]

Basically find Victory monument and Dusit draw a circle around those two until they connect anything in that zone will be the last place flooded. One is the heart of Bangkok and Dusit being home to the King who is in the hospital but the Thais take that aspect of these floods very seriously and consider it an honor issue to protect the Kings home)

[Bpuumike]

I don't remember what hotel information desks there are in Arrivals at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi but if you intend to book when you arrive it might help to look around on your right immediately you exit Customs. You will see (usually) a lot of hotel reps holding their placards. Those you see will be there because they are operating their hotel pick-up services normally so might be worth talking to some of them, perhaps Novotel and the like.

Just a suggestion and hope you find something suitable. The situation here is changing constantly, with confusing information being given out by the authorities so no one can give you any definite information regarding Wednesday at this point in time.

As you are going to be here for some time you might want to walk further up the Arrivals hall and buy a pay-as-you-go SIM card from the DTAC desk.

I happened to drive from Sukhumvit to out beyound the airport this morning. The whole area around the Hopeland is dry, as is the route to the airport. In fact I have still to see any flooding in central Bangkok yet (with apologies to those who are less fortunate). Looks promising for Wednesday but it could all change very quickly.

[ThreeProperty]

http://crisislanding.appspot.com/?crisis=thailand_floods_en

High tide is due on the 27th, that is when Bangkok will be tested.

[tw25rw]

It's near to Prakhanong BTS. My gf lives nearby and says it's fine around there.

And the elevated railways should be the last to be affected.

[jybkk]

Basically find Victory monument and Dusit draw a circle around those two until they connect anything in that zone will be the last place flooded. One is the heart of Bangkok and Dusit being home to the King who is in the hospital but the Thais take that aspect of these floods very seriously and consider it an honor issue to protect the Kings home)

There are probably places they would try to protect before Victory monument. First, I would argue about the definition of the place being the "heart of Bangkok". I think one of the characteristics of this city is that it doesn't have one heart but a lot of centers.

Siriaj hospital is where the King stays. Although it is on the banks of Chao Praya, it will probably be highly protected.

Business districts like Ploen Chit/Asoke area and Silom/Sathorn. This is where the money is, and we know what are the priorities of politicians.

On top of that, there's the fact that this flood is strong enough to force decisions, so we can't really guess which area are more at risk (unless those right along the river, which are already partly flooded)....

[QuestionMark]

thank you all very much, especially jybkk!

To whom I have another request if you don't mind:

Would you be so kind as to give a small update on the situation at around midday on wednesday?

Then I could read it when arriving at the airport and make a decision with up to date info..

thank you very much again!