I feel so guilty at this particular time

I usually have got on the back of a motorbike about once a week to go the barber shop down the street and to the upscale supermarket about 15 minutes away, and I still do that. Regularly, I have got in a taxi to visit some friends two nights a week, and I still do that. With shortages in some stores, I have switched to less-expensive items that I enjoy more, and have actually thus found ways to save money during this crisis – allowing me to give some flood-relief money to people with families in the Northeast who are literally up to their bellies in water.

My apartment building is old and certainly not grand, but nonetheless the owner, taking advantage of some unemployed locals, decided to tile part of the parking lot. My Christian upbringing has taught me to feel guilty in such circumstances – living quietly and happily while others are suffering – but I will just have accept that and go on. 

Some Thais with families in the drier parts in the Northeast will not leave Bangkok for home, by the way, as earning even a few hundred baht in Bangkok means the only few hundred baht their families would have.

Guy Baker

Bangkok