Floods

Yesterday we decided to stay where we were for a day, because the weather further north looked really bad. It had been raining like crazy thoughout the night, hours and hours of torrential rain. We therefore enjoyed a lazy day at a nice place, mostly reading and writing. Today, forecasts were much better and indeed, the sun came through this morning, so we were good to go again. Goal: get to or close to Hat Wanakon national park; we're very close to it now indeed.

Home for a day: Sananwan Beach B&B in Bang Saphan Noi. Bad weather still, but a nice lazy day.

The Gulf of Thailand, with a lot of mess washed upon the beach, and the water all murky because of the mud from the flood waters

But what a day it's been! With all the rain of previous days we expected a lot of water, but we were unaware of what was actually ahead of us. The first small thing was, that while we found really nice small roads to ride on, at some point after a few km we came to a slightly bigger road that was blocked, at both sides, by high floods; locals made it clear to us we could not get through. We had to turn back; no problem, because there were a couple of alternatives. Back at a junction, people guaranteed us we could go in the direction that was best for us. There was a small flooded area just ahead, but we could easily cycle through.

A beautiful morning, finally, and a cocktail growing in the fields (quiz: which cocktail grows here?)

It feels good to ride in nice weather again!

Later on that road, a woman was shouting "no no no" to us, pointing in the direction we were going, making signs to indicate we could not go there. We ignored her, it was a bit weird. There was some mud and water on the road left and right, but nothing that looked serious at all. Until... we came to Bang Saphan Yai. The road was blocked, and flooded ahead. There was police, and they said we could go ahead, but water was waste deep. They then helped us to get a ride with the bikes on the back of a pickup truck, which of course was a great solution! This area had been hit very badly, the road was broken up, water was flowing everywhere, houses were flooded, ... it was painful to see. And this was not the end of it. 

From the back of the pickup truck which was so friendly to take us across the flood

The flooded streets of Bang Saphan Yai. The water had been much higher than this before we came through. Surely, if we would have left yesterday, we would not have been able to get through.

Once we came back to the main road, it was full or cars, emergency teams, sirens. We could not turn right (where we should have gone), that was clear, so we turned left - not where we should go but we had no choice, and we could still manage with a detour. There had been water (and mud, a lot of thick, sticky, red mud!) everywhere in this place, up high (much more than a meter in some places). Even the hospital was flooded. Later we saw, that this place, Bang Saphan, was one of the most devastated places because of the floods; houses flooded, bridges washed away, hospital evacuated, apparently some people died (article with the hospital, article with the road etc...). We were not aware before we got there, and it felt very awkward to cycle through. To see the misery, know that many things have been destroyed and possibly lives lost in that place, which by itself already feels bad, and then to be the "happy tourists" cycling thought that area... it felt totally awkward.

Huai Yang station, a cute little station. Imagine getting on the train in Bangkok, and arriving in this station, must be wonderful.

Also here the floods show their impact. No trains to the south, as the tracks have been flooded and damaged.

A consequence was, that we had to cycle on the big highway no4 again (which was very heavily jammed for 15km as traffic had to go bit by bit over an emergency Bailey bridge), and even though that was not the nicest ride, you just feel that you should not complain and simply carry on. It's a very small, insignificant inconvenience compared to all that misery we saw. So we did carry on, in fact the cycling was not too bad at all, we made good progress, and at the end of the day we had clocked 100km! Tomorrow another day, it looks like things will go much more back to normal, we'd be cycling on small roads and through the national park, and the destination for tomorrow is: Ron and Martha in Sam Roi Yot!!!

A small park near the station, also flooded, like so many places here currently.

After a weird, confrontational, emotional, humbling day... good to be at the sea, with the late afternoon sunshine, and a coke (that must have been my first entire coke in yeeeeaaars)