gina matranga: The Great Flood- March, 2011

Koh Tao Part 2- The Great Flood

Koh Tao was the epitome of an extreme vacation. On one end I had a fantastic time and pretty good weather for scuba diving. I got some beach time and enjoyed some swimming. On the other extreme was the most intense rain and flooding I’d ever experienced. Luckily I was able to finish my scuba course with no problems. On the last day of course though, the weather looked as though it would be turning for the worse. I decided to stick around on Koh Tao after finishing the course because I wanted to do some bouldering and kayaking, and I was waiting for the weather to clear up. Well I waited and waited…and all I got was rain and more rain. At first it was just some light but pretty consistent rain. Then on a Sunday night it started to rain hard, and the power and water went out, and it didn’t stop raining at all until the next day around 2pm, and that was just for a short break. When the power went out I wasn’t really concerned, the power cuts in and out on islands. But when the power still wasn’t on the next day I was a little worried. More concerning though, was waking up at 5:30am with the other folks in the dorm I was staying in, looking outside, and seeing the courtyard of the place we were staying at destroyed by water. We jumped out of bed to take a look outside, and plenty of other guests were awake doing the same thing. We all stood outside with our jaws dropped. Overnight this place was transformed. Where a little covered table sat for eating and hanging out in the middle of a walkway from the back of the resort to the beach, there was a massive river with water rushing through it so fast it was astonishing. The bungalows opposite us were starting to fall into this new river where only a sandy walk way existed before. The kayaks that were tied up to one of the bungalow posts were now pulling on that rope, nearly about to pull away and into the sea. There was no longer a beach- the river and the ocean met and the water was waving back and forth, pounding against the office of the dive resort porch and the porch of the restaurant. One of my chakos got washed away and is now swimming at the bottom of the Gulf of Thailand, or it’s thrown up onto a rock down a beach somewhere else on the island. All of us guests stood around a little shocked, but there was little that could be done. So I went back to sleep.

I woke up around 11am to continuing downpour. Not much had changed except that it was light out now, and the river had just created more damage to the resort. Trees were uprooted and branches were floating down the river towards the ocean, and an employee of the resort tied a rope from a tree on our side of the resort to a tree on the other side so that the people staying in bungalows over there could cross. Not like they’d want to at that point in time, but it was handy later on when the water wasn’t gushing so quickly. I woke up starving, as did the other people in the dorm so we ventured out to get some food. And it was quite a venture- to get up the path and up the driveway of our place we had to make our way on the remaining concrete (that was being destroyed by flood waters), then trudge through knee deep water at some points, then get up to the street. Once on the street, we realized we weren’t the only people to encounter a river where there wasn’t one before. The main road through the beach town of Hat Sairee was a river, and very deep and very fast at some points. Motorbikes driving through had to be extremely careful- their wheels were almost completely submerged. Cars carrying loads of people passed both directions, shuttling people through to get from one side of the river to the other. Restaurant and shop owners were throwing out buckets of water and trying to salvage furniture from the water. Sandbags were being filled and piled everywhere you looked. Despite the destruction to shops and restaurants, the Thai people still seemed to be in relatively good spirits, and the visitors- those who weren't panicking because they had flights to catch or visas that would soon expire, looked just a little uncomfortable to be entirely wet, and cold.

Later that day I helped the Burmese men who were the workers at Big Blue Diving Resort fill sandbags. I'd say that was a highlight of the whole event. They were quite jolly, and only when I started helping them did I understand why. They were getting drunk! Some were in more on their way then others, but everyone was singing and dancing in the nearly waist deep water in the driveway. The neighboring resort had diverted their flood waters somehow, so Big Blue had a lot of water to deal with. They kept handing me glasses of Hong Thong (Thai whiskey) and coke, and pretty soon I was feeling a bit warmer and happier as well. I held bag after bag while the men shoveled sand that they scooped from the "driveway" (now well underwater) into the bags. All the while their Thai boss sat on the side under an umbrella. Hmm.

That night I relocated to new lodgings with a handful of others staying at the resort. Big Blue has another hotel they use when their beach front property fills up. I snagged a spot on the floor of a room where some other stranded folks were staying, and I slept their for the next 3 nights. Over the course of those days and nights I made some great friends, so while the flood was pretty frustrating and terrible, it did bring people together. On top of this the internet wasn't working very often, and if it was, internet shops were open only sporadically, so this also brought people together. All anyone talked about was rumors we'd heard about when boats were supposed to start running again, what the weather was looking like, how big were the waves, and when the hell could we get off that blessed island. Everyone started to get bored and anxious. Islands aren't so great when you can't do anything that normally happens on an island. It was raining and cold (I wore my fleece everyday for 3 days which was a first in a long time), and really not much to do but eat, sleep, watch movies, and read. Stores weren't really running out of water so we were ok there. Restaurants were running low on ingredients though, so after a while we'd simply ask waiters what dishes they could make.

Soon, we all caught wind of a Thai Navy boat headed towards the islands to pick people up who desperately needed to get off the island. Since I wasn't in dire straits and I didn't want to fight my way through a huge crowd to get on a crowded boat, I stuck it out. It did leave many who were reading BBC or CNN online in a panick- namely my mom! She has been unable to call me while I've been away because she doesn't have international calling capabilities, so I was very surprised to pick up the phone and hear her voice! But I was happy to hear from her and she was relieved to know I was alright.

I left with my friends Johanna, Kerri and Javi the next day on a catamaran and 1 1/2 hours later we were back on the mainland at Chumpon, thank goodness! Javi, Kerri and I parted ways, and Johanna and I boarded a bus bound for Bangkok. My friends Kerri and Javi (English gal and Argentinian fellow respectively) were headed toward Phuket where they were to catch a flight in a few days bound for Australia. That was my crew for the flood days, and we had a really good time hanging out considering the circumstances. Johanna and I would then spend the night in Bangkok and head for Koh Chang, an island south of Koh Samet on the eastern side of the Gulf of Thailand which is close to where I live in Rayong, and were hoping for some better beach weather over there.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the flood days- the place where I stayed, beach trash, and the road through the beach town where I was staying- Hat Sairee.

Big Blue Diving Resort Before...

Restaurant Deck

Deck of the Office

Office

Starting to get cloudy

Flooding begins...

6am


River and ocean meet, no more beach


No beach!

View from the other direction- bungalows up toward the road. That tree and that hut weren't really there before...and those pipes weren't exposed...and that river wasn't there either.