Time has gone quickly since last summer. I still remember my summer holidays last year like it was yesterday. But really it’s one year ago already. Now, I have to open a map of Thailand and plan my photo trip for this summer. We have a web site called www.thailandguidebook.com and I am one of the chief photographers. I am very excited and happy. It’s time for me to go out to meet other people and foreigners again. I am not sure where I will go this year.

I take a look at my map of Thailand on the wall. There are quite a lot of pins in it. The pins mean that I have been to those provinces already. I look around the map and then I see a pin from last year. It’s Sukhothai Province in the north of Thailand. I remember about that trip. It was the worst trip I have ever been on in my whole life. It was a nightmare.

Sukhothai and other nearby provinces are quite famous in Thai history. Lots of things happened there in the past. I didn’t really know much about the background of those provinces before I went on my trip because I never paid attention at school. I don’t like studying history, it is very boring for me. But after I had been there I became more interested. It wasn’t boring like I had expected. It was fun. I learned so much about the first capital of Thailand while I was there. I think the best way for me to learn about Thai history is to visit the real places and not to sit down and study in the classroom.

On this trip, I stayed in a guesthouse called “Baan Thai” in Sukhothai. The guesthouse is near the Ping River. Here, I met and talked to lots of foreigners. One was an English couple. They had been there for a few days already. They told me that this is a nice place to stay. They also told me that they were about to get married. They said they wanted to see the world before they married and before they had a baby (I think it would be very difficult for them to be backpackers when they have a baby). We talked about their country and my country. I suggested that they go to Samut Prakan province, where I come from. I told them about tourist attractions in my province such as “Ancient City”, “Phra Samut Chedi”, “Crocodile Farm” and “Paknam Market”. They said it is very interesting. We talked for a while and then I went to bed because I had to get up early to go to take pictures.

While I was sleeping, I heard water splashing somewhere and also people talking about something. I didn’t pay attention because it felt like I was dreaming. A little while later Richard woke me up. He said something to me about water and wet but I didn’t really know what he was talking about. I only knew that I was very sleepy and that I didn’t want to get up. Richard turned the lights on. I opened my left eye and looked at my watch. It was 2 a.m. I opened both of my eyes and got up. Then I realized that our room was full of water. It was about to come over my bed. I didn’t know what to do because I was shocked. Then Richard told me to get off my bed and grab our stuff. He was looking for our laptop under the water. I jumped down to rescue our bags but it was too late. Our suitcases were wet already. I told Richard about the suitcases then I started to look for more stuff. I took everything out of the water and put them on the bed, where it was dry. Richard found our laptop. It was under the water by his bed. He took the laptop out from it’s bag and held it up. The water poured out from the laptop. I was very sad when I saw it. The laptop was broken, that means we had lost all of our work. Richard dried it with the bed sheet and put it together with the other stuff. Luckily Richard had put the digital cameras next to his pillow when he went to bed last night and so they were OK.

I opened the door and looked outside, it was really bad. The water was very high, it was nearly higher than my knees. I saw that everyone was packing their stuff away quickly and moving to higher ground. I saw a few girls come out from their rooms in their underwear and bras!!! I was sure that they had no time to be embarrassed while it was flooding like this. We quickly packed our stuff and then went to stay at the dinning area with the others guests. Now the water was above my knees. Everyone was worried that the river would burst it’s banks.

I kept an eye on our suitcases while Richard tried to get his car running. It wasn’t easy because the engine was wet and the water was over it so I needed to go to help him. We pushed the car out of the guesthouse and onto the road which is higher (the guesthouse is lower than the road). Some people came to help us. We walked back then I went to thank those people who had helped us. We sat down and talked while some people were arguing with the owner about the cost of their stuff. The owner is a foreigner. He runs this guesthouse though he is not really allowed to. Foreigners can’t buy or own land, that is what Thai law says and that’s why this guesthouse is in the name of a little girl. I think they must be related or something like that.

I walked around taking some pictures and then I went to sit down with Richard. He told me that we can’t go on anymore, we need to go back. I agreed with him. We had no more clean clothes. Although the cameras were OK, the battery charger was wet and the memory cards for the cameras were nearly full. Without the laptop we couldn’t download any of the pictures. So, we packed our stuff in the car and got ready to go back. Richard went to talk to the foreign owner and asked him to write about what happened and then sign the paper. I read the paper, it said “During the night, at about midnight, there was a flood. The water came from the Ping river near the guesthouse. The water came very fast and we couldn’t really do anything. It was a natural disaster. It never happened before so we couldn’t prepare for it. The guesthouse is very sorry. We cannot be responsible for anything.”

It was eight o’clock by the time we left. We were really tired and felt very dirty. We didn’t sleep much last night also we couldn’t take a shower at all. All we had was our wet, dirty clothes. Our original plan was to drive home slowly stopping at a few places on the way to take pictures. But, all we wanted to do now was to go home as quickly as we could. I couldn’t sleep as I usually do in the car as I had to keep Richard awake by talking to him. We drove non-stop and I think we got back to Samut Prakan in about seven hours. Someone said we looked like zombies, I am sure we did.

Now I have to start planning my trip for this year. After my last trip, I have learned a lot. Now I will be extra careful so nothing bad will happen on my trip. Of course I was sad that I had lost the laptop and a lot of my work. But these things happen. If we worry too much about what might happen we will be too scared to leave our homes. Now, where shall I go? Maybe this time I will go to the north-east of Thailand. I hear that they have long droughts there!

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This is the uncut version of Panrit's article that first appeared in his Gor's World column in the Bangkok Post when he was 16 years old. We will be posting his full versions every Sunday for him while he is still in prison.

Read further information about Sukhothai at our www.ThailandGuidebook.com website.