Originally Posted by
Dodger
I had the pleasure of navigating this flood yesterday in a failed attempt to meet with my insurance agent.
Fortunately I was driving my Ford Ranger which was able to make it in-and-out of this mess. It was like driving down the middle of the Nile River on Pattaya Tai, and I ended up getting trapped by stalled vehicles and road barricades while attempting to drive through Soi Day/Night. I finally made it out without my truck stalling...would have made a great commercial for Ford Rangers.
Whenever you see them doing repairs to the underground pipes in South Pattaya you will notice that the pipes they commonly use are 10 cm diameter blue plastic pipes, which, according to standard practice, are used for internal plumbing, or external plumbing of controlled water flowage like residential water tanks, etc. - not for underground sewerage systems in major cities.
My guess for years has been that the majority of the money that was approved and allotted for the City sewerage system ended up in somebody's pocket, and those cheap plastic pipes (which are suitable for the toilet in your hung nam) is all they could afford. What you would expect to see being used for an underground piping system in a city the size of Pattaya would be 50 cm diameter concrete castings. Not anywhere close to what they've been using.
Welcome to Thailand!