My Bangkok

It may seem cruel to say this but 'my Bangkok' never flooded and I assess that it never will in the midst of this terrible disaster for Thailand. There is an inland sea around us but it has never reached my doorstep.

There are reasons for this. The basic one is that they want to save Bangkok as best they can. That is the choice of the government and I can understand why. So they are pumping water out to get it to sea via other directions and this means that other parts of this region are suffering terribly.

This decision comes at a tremendous cost for others. The inland sea remains, creating havoc for so many, while the authorities do what they can to pump it out and while we all wait and see what course nature takes as that is the superior force at play.

So while the disaster goes on and on, my sense today is the critical period is past for central Bangkok as I see the old 504 bus return after being stopped by the floods. 504 is one of my usual ways of getting to the Bangkok Refugee Centre which has been at the southern edge of slowly approaching floodwaters from the north. I also see that these same approaching floodwaters have receded.

The floods have not come to my Bangkok but they are still here and they are still causing a lot of pain and destruction and terror for the people. I may have my new found sense of personal safety and I may feel more relaxed for the first time in quite awhile but it all comes with a cost and I wonder. I so feel for the ones sitting in these awful waters for weeks. It makes me ask - why me? - even when I wish these waters on no one, even myself.