Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 24th October, 2011

Today's weather;

The sky over Koh Samui is almost cloud free and very blue indeed. Right now it doesn't look like rain but rather a warm day in the making. Current temp at 7am is 26,3C

The forecast is not too bad, a bit of rain on most days, but not monsoon style, but still plenty of sunshine is predicted. We'll see.

Yesterday Samui saw a very wet start of the day but slowly but gradually it turned into a nice, warm and sunny day. Max temp reached 31.2C

Empty shelves are slowly starting to appear in the shopping malls around the island and in the South in general. This is at Tesco Lotus in Chaweng

In Bangkok the situation is still not very clear on how far the flood will reach into the city. Parts of the city are expected to be flooded for at least a month though. In the meantime, the government has made flood barriers off limits , as it struggles not only with the disaster but also with interference from protesting affected residents.

As a side effect of the floods, many crocodiles have escaped and yesterday a child was bitten by a croc in Bang Bua Thong district where two crocodiles believed to have escaped from a farm in Sai Noi district were shot dead, and six others were captured.

Yesterday I heard news of an acquaintance who has a factory in Pathum Thani which is under 2 meters of water. The government will now offer a new credit line with a special interest rate, tax incentives and various investment privileges to industrial operators whose factories have been flooded. Total losses can easily reach 500 billion Baht, I hope my acquaintance will be able to deal with his loss.

The capital city car owners are asked to park their cars outside of the city rather than on bridges and express ways. The police have given up on removing cars, unless they block crossings or hamper immediate flow of traffic.

All in all the authorities remain under fire.

Camille