Unexpected Encounter

"Whoa, the river!" I couldn't contain my amazement when I walked up to the Banglamphu Pier. The pier itself floats, rising with the level of water in the river. But the walkway leading to the pier was submerged. Bangkok was in a state of moderate emergency. Would we be flooded or not?

The woman selling me the ticket (the river taxi had gone up between July and my last visit in September—a ticket is now 15 baht) nodded and smiled. She'd been looking at this all day and she was still amazed.

I tiptoed over the water, using the sandbags as stepping stones across the flooded walkway—I hadn't expected this, so I was wearing my leather sandals and not my Tevas—and climbed up to the pier.

The pier floats, but the surrounding items do not. The pier was so high that this street light was at head level. One false move, and--WHAM--tourist head meets street light.