Heavy Rains

Around 1.00 am, it began to storm and rain quite heavily.  The rain continued through the early part of the morning and ended just before lunchtime.  Caitlynne had a basketball game this morning and I heard from some of the moms and dads that there is flooding outside the side and back gates of Nichada and near the Central World, the large mall where we do most of our shopping.  Since I can't take the golf cart through high waters, it looks like we are confined to Nichada for the next week or so.  A few of the girls on Caitlynne's team live downtown and they were talking about the high waters already in the streets.  The river is supposed to peak next weekend so it will be interesting to see how bad it gets before then.  

Our car was released by the Embassy earlier this week and is now parked in Kevin's office compound.  I was going to wait until he returned so he could drive it home but, since I can't use the golf cart to get anywhere or do anything, I am now trying to think of a way to get it to me.  While I am eager to drive in Bangkok, I REALLY did not want my first time driving here to be coming from downtown Bangkok to Nichada.  It is absolutely crazy and the expressways are still confusing to me.  The fact that the road signs are all in Thai doesn't help either.  

As promised, here are some photos of the walls of concrete blocks and sand bags that are being built in Nichada.  These photos are taken on the main road near the area where the Starbuck's, gym and market are located.  They are very low-lying on the lakefront and would certainly flood if the conditions were right.  

  

A while ago, I posted about the large numbers of street sweepers we have in Nichada. One of them happened to be working while I was out so I quickly snapped his/her photo.

Our dinner last night was a variation on the green papaya salad ( sum tom) that I love so much.  In addition to the green papaya, PeePorn used other fruits and vegetables (grapes, apples, pineapple and shredded carrot) and put some shredded chicken in as well.  She made the same "sum tom" lime and chili dressing and garnished it with dried shrimp and toasted peanuts.  It was so delicious (and really beautiful)! 

Christopher is having three friends spend the night so I need to get going and figure out what we are going to do for dinner!

Have a great day!