Selling Sand in Sahara...

Today is a very special date 11-11-11. This applies to almost all countries no matter how you order the date according to month and year etc - of course except for Thailand where it is today 11-11-2054.

One should imagine that sand can never become highly priced. Especially in Thailand where you can find loads of the best sandy beaches in the world. However the price for sand has gone up wildly. If this sand is packed into a bag to protect against the flooding in Bangkok, well then you have a great business!. The price for a single (small) sand bag is now around 10 euros! This is an outrageous price in a country like Thailand. It means that 95% of the people here can hardly afford buying a single bag of sand.
The area I am staying in right now (Sukhumvit) is not (yet!) flooded, but it MAY happen. No one knows for sure. I am staying in the business district and flooding here would be a catastrophe for the economy of entire Thailand - so I am hoping that it will remain protected...
So people build walls instead. It seems to be a cheaper solution. You build a wall around your shop, around your hotel or similar. You leave a very narrow opening where you can then put the expensive sand bags if the flooding starts. So Sukhumvit now has thousands of small walls protecting every single shop (I assume selling material for a wall is another good business now here ;o). There are exceptions: With my basic calculation, I saw a bank that was protected with around 1000 sand bags. This would hence be around 10.000 Euros! Wow, I hope they have a guard all night to look after the sand bags, since it may be more money than inside the bank ;o).
But generally, Thai people handle the situation very calmly. No panic, no demonstrations, no nothing. The normal life continues... Even though I know quite a few people who have had to leave there home due to 2 meter high water inside their living room. Well, then they have some friends or family in an area without flood and they move there until it is all over. No one would steal sand bags from their neighbors (most thieves in Bangkok come from outside the country). I tried robbery one time in Bangkok (foreigners) and I have tried theft one time (foreigners). That does not mean it is totally safe in Thailand. It is still a poor country and especially in tourist areas you may want to be very cautious. Last year, around 20 tourist were killed in Phuket. The government (= the military) try to hide these facts, but you may find this information in a very few independent newspapers (and maybe in the newspapers of the home country of the individual tourist, but here is may sound like a one-time thing). But what to expect in a country where around 90% of the population earn around 100 Euros per months? Yes, crime exist here like in any other country, but of course it is a serious problem if the government try to hide it - especially when the worst crime takes place in the areas visited by most tourists. But avoiding crime is also easy in Thailand. Unless you behave stupid, well then it most likely will never happen.

One problem is however getting evident in Bangkok. Getting drinking water. 90% of the companies producing bottles for drinking water have been flooded. So drinking water is becoming sparse in Bangkok. The same gos with local beers (again due to lack of bottles). So the choice here is to drink imported and more expensive beer. Other things are also becoming a problem to get. Small things you would assume that you can always get, but suddenly you cannot find even after visiting 10 shops.

You will see photos from the situation in Bangkok, e.g. a totally ripped Seven Eleven. But you will also find a photo of a surprising cover for a DVD movie that I buy yesterday here (look closely ;o)

Finally, yesterday I went to a Buddhism celebration. Which - funny enough - is about asking for enough rain and water in Thailand. This tradition means that you put a small contribution into the river (which of course was heavily raised!). You will also find photos from this.