Weather

Weather 1st of April 2011 (update)

Today after a sunny morning, Samui is overcast again and even has some rain now, not very heavy though :-)... but water on the roads is still slowly but surely is going down. In some places it still remains pretty high - some places above one meter, but most of the roads are water-free now as I am writing it. 
All transport routes of Samui were badly affected, and maintenance crews, despite the rain, are busily dismantling damaged sections of roads and now paving them over. Destroyed foundations and stills of cement houses are being rebuilt.
According to the experts, the coastline winds and waves destroyed or damaged about 10% of the buildings.
In the petrol stations the tanks are still empty, especially diesel has proved to be a problem to get, but the locals are facing it with a true Buddhist patience. The streets are filled with people again, and ...apparently the crocodiles. The authorities are trying to catch crocodiles who escaped Samui's Zoo in the midst of the flood. Reptiles are being caught and hastily snapped to the nearest pole and left there waiting for the return to the zoo. 
Much greater discomfort is caused by the snakes which were simply washed with the water into people's houses' rear yards from the jungle. Some of them can actually be not very nice...

The stores are still quite empty, many of them are closed because of the flood inside, in the ones which are open - even instant noodles pots are leaving the shelves with an amazing speed, everything is going quickly, hope the situation will improve soon. Meantime - don't wait for anything - grab what you can!
Communication with the mainland is becoming stronger every day. Now, when the wind has calmed down, ferries and planes are departing from the ports in the mainland and back. Although the departure terminal of the airport building still has pretty long lines of passengers waiting for free space on the board. There is no tickets left for the next 2 days.

The biggest problem on the island for many people was abcence of electricity for a few days,  as in Samui it's also means - no water in the bathroom, as water is only coming when pumps are working...No electricity - no pump - no water - no toilet...that's where it getting very bad. Anyway, it seems everybody is back in a good spirit, especially those who got electricity back after 5 days of not having it...They started getting used to live without it...As one of my friend told me this morning : "When the light came on, I didn't know what to do with it..."