Bangkok Flooding

Everyone is interested in the flooding in Bangkok.  We were determined not to let it keep us from our vacation, though it certainly did make for longer commute times.  As you look at these pictures, keep in mind that the flood waters had already begun to recede by the time we saw them.  On this trip, we were heading into Bangkok after our time at Ryan and Laura's house.

This home has water up to about the halfway mark.

The normally 2 hour trip into Bangkok took about 4 hours.  Before our arrival, traffic was rerouted around the normal highways into the city.  At this point, the roads were reopened, but only to one lane of traffic either way and as you can see, there was still plenty of floodwater on the roads.

Some people waded through the thigh deep water, others took small boats and canoes.

This man was fishing alongside the road in some flood water.
On a side note, look at that tangled mess of power lines RIGHT NEXT TO THE WATER...
Needless to say, safety codes just aren't what they are here in the good old U.S.of A!
One evening, Jeremy and I were walking the streets of Bangkok in search of Roti (YUM!) and while we were unsuccessful in our hunt, we did have quite the chuckle at Jeremy reminding me not to get my head entangled in the mess of wires that were hanging down from the posts.  It would have been the perfect time to test out that whole "birds don't get electrocuted because they don't have a pathway to the ground" theory.  If what we are told our entire school career is true, I am not sure how I escaped death.  I have this habit of frequently tripping and occasionally falling across Thailand, so I am usually looking at my feet to see where I am going.  There are certain things I have come to take for granted as a spoiled U.S. citizen...like even sidewalks, stairs that are all the same depth and the fact that all the tiles on a floor will be present and accounted for.  It obviously didn't keep me from going back a second time, so don't let it stop you!  ;)

There are 2 airports in Bangkok.  The International Airport that we flew into and this local airport.  Not knowing that there were two airports, when we saw pictures of this local airport online, we were a bit worried about whether our trip would be happening or not.

I had decided that as long as water didn't squish out from under my feet on the plane in L.A, I was going!  :D  Thankfully, it was just the local airport that had flooding issues.

All over the highway overpasses (and really any high ground), people parked their cars to try to keep them from being flooded.  These obviously weren't so lucky.

Sandbagging of the streets to protect the bank from flooding.

A Garuda
Marshall read about these in a book about Thailand before we left AZ.
It is a mix of a bird and a human and is said to carry the Buddha of the sun across the sky.
We had no idea what he was talking about, but he had even our friends who live there noticing these strange statues everywhere.