Ganoksin office and home in Thailand are flooded. They need your help

Ganoksin offices are heavily flooded, Please read through their daily journal presented below, which describes their daily struggle with the crisis and how YOU can help our Orchid community to survive it!

Floods Daily Journal
October 27 at 7:47am

Floods update – Thursday morning

In non-ceremonial event, we received late yesterday afternoon a government emergency relief bag. It arrived by boat. With no handshaking, flashes, no smiles to the cameras and no fat self-content politicians. It was a simple survival kit, made with thought, love and care, containing 5 kg of rice, one bottle of fish sauce, half-dozen canned mackerels, 6 small chili relish servings and brand-less soap, toothpaste and toothbrush. They also did not forget to toss inside some mosquito repellent. 

So cool! 

Later, I sailed away from my living room pier to find a mango tree in distant neighbors' gardens. I dreamed to find a tree so heavily laden with fruits that I wouldn't be able carry them all back on my boat, but all I truly hoped was to find a single mango hanging exactly at my hand reach, and I did! 

I'm just your 50-year old urban gatherer on a quest for a spicy mango salad.





October 26 at 12:07pm

Floods Update – Wednesday morning

We are gradually settling into the routine of life in isolation. The house windows that just a week ago greeted our lush garden in are now a uniform greenish water panorama, to which the TV set oddly adds aquatic clips from the floods front line. 

The water levels are now such that it is inconvenient to embark our boat from the front door (Pier Tua Lek). They are knee deep there. The boat is now parked at the hall that leads to the dining room. The last dry grounds left at the first floor. 

We now can sail from the inside of house to the black waters pond, the home to a myriad of both life, and after life creatures.

 



October 24 at 8:34am

Floods update: Tuesday morning

Our neighborhood is becoming a forgotten island. As the floods continue toward the city center, the flocks of media and life vest equipped reporters keep chasing the water front and are bravely standing in an ankle deep waters on the floods shore. We, in our personal owned Alcatraz are yesterday's news. TV channels bring experts with inconvincible tone who bet on the next turn the floods would take. Fashionable Bangkokians are ordering metrosexual cup of Arabica latte art or designer of espresso coffee, as the less fortunate struggle to save their modest belongings. I bet they would be submerged before the formers finished their drink. 

Our neighborhood is isolated and difficult to reach. We had no contact with the outside world for almost a week now. We still have enough food and water to continue the involuntary house arrest for couple more weeks. There is something very surrealistic in the situation we got caught in, in the cage made of water. 

 




October 24 at 7:59am

Floods update, Monday morning.

The first thing that I did this morning was to check if we still have electricity and running water. Both are fine at the moment! The floods water in the first floor acts as an indoor natural air-condition, we only hope that clouds won't form on the ceilings. In the 12 days that we have been dealing with the floods issue, I am transforming from a spoiled foodie to a savage islander. I am losing weight, my muscles are getting toned, I wear a club-med sun tan on my face and I might answer you the phone with Tarzan's ululating yell if you would call me. 

 


October 23 at 7:02pm
Floods update 

The waters now are almost 2 meters deep around the house. I am sorry to report that we are losing the fight to save the kitchen, like newton that had to get hit by an apple on his head to understand the law of gravity, i am getting it in my face - water mechanics for dummies - waters are oozing through the floor tiles gout lines. Of course moron me, the kitchen is below the water level…. should let it sink like a treasure ship, or should i wear the captain hat and be the last who dessert my kitchen? 





October 23 at 1:38pm

Floods update 

Floods Update, Sunday Afternoon: street water level in front of the house is now marked at
@1.75 meter. It is fully satisfies my "water park biz" entrepreneuring urges. This is almost the top we can absorb without dire consonances. Now speaking on consonances I think we, humans, should be held responsible for all this mess beside mama nature... 


October 23 at 10:08am



Floods Update, Sunday Morning:

Electricity was cut off this morning, the pumps went silent, water levels in the pantry rose swiftly, and the war to save the kitchen was almost lost. Ton suggested that we should use buckets to bailout our sinking kitchen, and rush to grab the nearest one. I was on the phone trying to reach out to the authorities. Just before I could yell names at the busy tone I got, electricity was on again. What a relief! We just realized that 10 minutes of electricity cut separates us from the scene "To kitchen or not to kitchen". 

Ploy our maid, who never appeared in any "Survival" episode, made it to the outsides of her third floor apartment through a 2.5 meters water filled lobby, Like Gene Hackman at the movie "The Poseidon Adventure". 

Once she reached outside she still had to struggle through 2 meters deep waters, and when the viewers almost believed she failed the task, she managed to climb into a boat and sailed all the way here to check on us. 

When the crisis is over, I am going to give her in an homemade ceremony the "The best Maid Bangpoon" star award 

October 23 at 7:23pm
Floods Update, Saturday evening:

Water levels are rising fast. Our daily routine starts by assessing the night damages and determining what to fight and what to sacrifice. Today we concentrated on saving the kitchen. Water entered the back pantry despite bricks barrier we placed earlier last week. It shamefully failed to protect the service quarters because of hidden cracks the water could found without a tour guide. We carried with our boat sunken sand bags, placed them on the cracks to slow the water inflow, than relocated the water pumps and by midday we managed somehow to control the leakage, and lower the water level in the pantry in 10 cm. The kitchen was saved, at least for now. They do tell us in the news that a nastier body of water is heading our way in couple of days…. We play. We mark lines on the wall and bet to see who's prediction was the closest…. 

The floods are getting really deep, river fishes and our neighbors' beautiful koys (Japanese carps) are elegantly swim in their newly discovered territories; our parking and garden. A face to face encounter with a giant cat fish squeezed from me a high toned scream that alarmed no one. 

The front door is now our marina; we named the pier "Ta Naam Tua Lek", after our hero dog. Afternoon boating is a good exercise and completes the regime of the morning sand bags lifting. 

In our 200 houses community only 10 are still inhibited. It is a sunken ghost town. I imagine what it would take to restore it to what it used to be just a week ago, and envy those who are in the construction business. A huge body of cash is heading their way. 

We rely on stored dry food, and what we are sharing with our neighbors. In a sense I feel lucky to have to go through all this hardship, it's a life time experience in which one can measures his mental building blocks. There is also something very poetic about it, beauty is all around us, even when it's painful.





October 22 at 7:18amFloods update 

Floods update, Saturday morning. The waiting is over. The water did not spare our interiors. I was hoping that the energy of our determination to keep the house dry, would somehow find its way up there and the water would draw or at least settle at a mutual agreed status quo line. We lit incense from mythological fish statues, which were smoking out the fragrant smoke through their mouths, another way to please the spirits of the land. The holiness does stop here my friends; the flooded home appears strangely familiar. Evoking deja vu of hollow architecture - is it the biblical water pools I remember from The city of Beit Lechem or lost the Persian gardens I dreamed on? Walls surround a yard in the middle of which nature imposes herself on man's handiwork 


 



October 21 at 9:50am

Floods update 

Floods update, Friday morning. we retired to bed quite late and very exhausted. so exhausted i couldn't find the words to compose a simple sentence. a full blown flood dyslexia. We surrendered the first floor completely. disconnected the electricity system, and phone lines and set up for a long camping upstairs. --- this morning is very quite. the water only concord the wooden decks, and are still hesitating in entering the front door. it is very quite, the sounds of city and the yelling of distressed neighbors are now gone, the big silence is now made of the sound of bugs, frogs and birds. we are in a middle of a big pond. Its hard to believe that just few kilometers away, on the other side of the 'war zone' life is as usual. 

I walk around the house watching the flooded lushes yard. what a great opportunity for an amateur garden designer to see a real life demo on where exactly to place the water element in the garden for the perfect harmonious location. it's hard to imagine but it does look quite beautiful, except for the awful smell of sewer, we must to get used to it, because we are located just at the southern border of the mass of body traveling to the sea, the rest of the 13,000 BILLION cubic meters of water should pass at least partly over our heads. If all would go well, we are looking at 2 more months before we can start dry things out.... i feeling quite relaxed today, we did all we can and now we have to get used to live like this, just for a while. our greatest fear is that they will cut electricity, tap waters and internet from our area, and our greatest joy is to find out among our friends the precious souls who do care and help. that is for me way more emotional than soaked sofa......



October 20 at 1:28pm

Floods update 

O our neighbors are already deep under water, washed of most of their life possessions.. a meter deep in good cases in most of the houses around. security caught looters last night, they are made of pixels of anarchy. our neighborhood is cut off the supply routes for food and drinking water. we relay on friends from the outside who make it halfway to send supplies. luckily we lost only the parking lot and garden. surprisingly the plants look amazing surrounded by water...in few days when their roots will rotten, i will definitely add a drop of tear or two to the pool of water that surrounds me. we TRY to be optimistic. the water is only kissing the edge of the home entrance. would it regret and go back home? or would it invite itself as an unwanted guest? we are prepared for at least two months of camping within our own home, a trip we would never forget nor recommend to anyone. please keep the comments coming in, it give me both slimes and tears. hanuman 



October 19 at 10:55pm

Floods update 

Floods update. A TV announcement tells us to expect an extra 50-1meter rise by tomorrow. That will officially make me a dolphin 



October 19 at 8:44am

Flood update: Wednesday morning.

... water are raising faster today, garbage bags float and start to smell, walking to the neighborhood gate is getting harder and quite riskier, the water are getting deeper. i cant stop thinking of of health hazards i cant see and try to avoid the snakes, centipedes and other venomous creatures who are trying to escape the water just as we are. The one paddle boat is harder to master than i thought, it seems to have its own mind, turning around instead of going straight.... the first floor is mostly empty now, a truck came yesterday (just in time) and carried away the furniture. we still have many details to try and save to reduce the damage, today i will move up some of the rare plants from the garden to the second floor veranda.

This image shows a satellite view of the floods currently devastating the Thai kingdom. You can see two bodies of water marked in blue just north of Bangkok. 13,000 BILLION Cubic meters of polluted water are making their way to the Gulf of Thailand.
Ganoksin offices are unfortunate to be on flood's path. We Need Your Support

Thailand is currently facing its worst flooding in 50 years. Floodwaters have swamped more than two-thirds of the country, submerging complete towns. Hundreds of lives have been tragically lost. Rice fields and businesses of millions of families have been severely impacted.

We Need Your Support!
At this moment, our offices are completely inundated. We are very much isolated, surrounded by a swamp wide as far as the eye can see. Our only links to the world are email and phone.
At this unfortunate moment, your help is crucial. It is truly needed deeply appreciated.
We have extended the rules for participation in the amazing Rio Grande $10,000 Gift Certificate Prizes Giveaway. For every 35$ you donate to Ganoksin we are offering ONE (1) entry in the Rio Grande $10,000 Gift Certificate Prizes Giveaway.
Help us to keep the long service to our community!
Click on http://www.ganoksin.com/donate .
Alternatively, you can purchase any one of our eBooks and participate in the Rio Grande $10,000 Gift Certificate Prizes Giveaway by clicking on http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/1c8
Yours Truly,
Hanuman and Ton.

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