... but not a drop to drink

A rather ironic side effect of the flooding in Mae Sot is that the mains water has been cut off. This is apparently a common occurrence here when flooding occurs. So, along with much of the rest of the town, I have been without running water for the last two days. Some people have reserve tanks or wells, and there are big lorries going round delivering water to houses that have a tank to put it in. I was caught spectacularly unprepared, without even a large receptacle for gathering rain water (though the rain has actually stopped for the moment, which is a blessed relief. We even had a bit of weak and watery sunshine today.)

Drinking water is not actually a problem, as that is purchased by the barrel at the local shop. But I am now reduced to using my barrel of drinking water for everything else as well, which seems a bit of a waste, but at only 12 baht a barrel it's not going to break the bank. Alice has a reserve tank, so she is never affected when the water goes off. I have been going round to her house to take showers. I think a priority purchase this weekend will be a large plastic bin with lid for storing emergency water!

The situation at the other end of town near the border, and across the river in Burma, is still very bad, and the migrant communities are especially badly affected. I was hearing today that many people on the Burma side are stranded without food. Apparently the Thai military are standing by with boats to rescue them or deliver supplies, but the Burmese authorities refuse to ask for help. It all sounds depressingly similar to what happened after cyclone Nargis.

My other minor inconvenience this week was that I noticed a few days ago that I was getting bitten at night by something that was not a mosquito, and I began to suspect that I might have brought bed bugs back from the hotel in Chiang Mai. I searched the bed and found no signs, but then last night discovered the culprit sitting on my pyjamas. I plucked it off with a pair of tweezers and made sure I killed it (combination of Tesco kitchen-spray-ant-killer and boiling water. Seemed to do the trick!) I did not get bitten last night, so I am hoping that it was a lone individual and that it has not laid any eggs....

So, what with no running water and bugs in my bed, I am beginning to feel like a real VSO volunteer! (Oly, take note! You and your walking 15 miles in bare feet through mud to the telephone!)