Bird’s Nest Bevarage – 25% bird’s nest

Sorry to keep posting forward (i still have about five posts before i get to my present location) but this needs to be said, just in case…

Northern and north/central Thailand have recently experienced torrential downpours leading to massive flooding, numerous missing persons and a number of deaths. In Nang state the situation is the worst in over 40 years. Some areas of the province are submerged under nearly 2 metres of water. (I advise the Thai government to send FEMA and George W to sort out the mess, I’ve heard they worked wonders in New Orleans).

Anyways so I arrived in Sukhothai yesterday from Ayutthaya. Dumping my bags i immediately set off on my now ritualistic exploration of the surrounding area and stopped in my tracks upon sight of the river. It is incredibly swollen. The water level is at present above the bottom of the main bridge and the river bubbles up violently from its exit under the road due to the sheer volumes being forced under it. The currents are extremely rapid and burst onto the surface with some force while large whirlpools form, merge and then disperse. Watching the water rage one feels quite insignificant!

Sukhothai is a low-lying small provincial town. All that prevents the river from submerging half the town is a precarious looking metre and a half tall levee. Now i’m unsure how much funding has been pumped into maintaining these concrete walls, but we all know what happens when small-state conservatives reduce funding for important flood control construction works by 44% either because they are neoliberal, market fundamenatlists (supposedly!), or they have an unpopular and unwinnable foreign war in progress – or both. All this in spite of academics, engineers and experts all concluding New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters to befall the United States. Thailand isn’t currently waging any war on foreign soil as far as i know, so i can only hope the government isn’t blinded to essential public infrastructure works by free-market ideologies.

Even if these walls hold (and i hope they do as my Bungalow is 20 metres away from the river and currently below the waterline) the volume of water flooding down the river is so great that it threatens to spill over the top. Sand bags nestle insignificantly on top of the levee but in some areas the river is already leaking onto the roads. Eek.

Last night a group of men with sticks poked and prodded the trees, logs and other debris which are becoming stuck under the bridge while commuters in their cars and those walking home stopped to stare, usually with mildly worried faces. For one group of boys it has become the main attraction in their day. They sat on the banks for hours. Sukhothai is not particularly vibrant it should be added.

Photos:

Uh oh, the bridge is straight ahead but you cannot see the botton of it as it’s submerged. To the right is the levee wall with the white building half of which is below the water line.

Uhuh, those sandbags will save us!

Workers clearing the debris. Interesting? Probably not.

On a seperate note i have found a restaurant called The Poo restaurant. Setting aside any worries i had that the name corresponded to the quality of service or food, i have decided to eat there tonight. I hope its not white tie. Lucy Allan (best friend extraordinaire) offered some timely advice – “don’t have the chefs special”. Thanks trubbers. Noted!
Evidence…

Krabi was merely a stop off before we hit the first of the thai islands. I wish we had stayed longer as around the actual town are many beautiful waterfalls and beaches.

We contented ourselves with a boat trip. The four of us (Myself, Lisa, Jon and Mark) hired a traditional, wooden, thai longboat. Tied to the bow of the boat (which is a strip of wood that juts out and up) were ribbons, strips of cloth and flowers, all different shades of colour and which purportedly bring luck. Large or ancient trees also have such colourful adornments strung around them.

Our guide took us along the winding, narrow and overgrown waterways of the river Krabi, past mangroves and large limestone monoliths stretching up from the water. He pointed out monitor lizards in the water or birds in the trees and answered any questions we had in his broken english (far better than my broken thai – i can say thankyou and hello however) after which he would say “Me good eh?” or “Manchester United” with two thumbs up, clearly with no eye on a tip at the end of the journey of course!

Then we stopped off at some limestone rock formations where we climbed up a rickety wooden staircase to a set of caves.

Afterwards, in the evening we sat on the waterfront along which a number of hawker stalls had set up shop. These are small food stalls where thai people cook the most amazing food within about a square metre. We ate deep fried whole crab, tiger prawns drizzled in sweet chilli sauce, pork sticks, pad thai (a noodle dish) all washed down with some thai beer. All for about one or two pounds! Forget the cafes here, no one but westerners eat in those places, follow the local population and invariably you will end up at a hawker stall; definitely the place to eat.

We did not explore Krabi much…at all. We were all eager to get to Ko Phi Phi. You can’t do everything while travelling and Krabi was one of those places that got struck off the list. Phi Phi more than made up for it though and that would be my next stop.