Tuesday, November 15, 2011
BANGKOK—Flooded out but still want to make a fashion statement? Try these lime green rubber boots. Feeling stir crazy with the fetid waters surrounding your home? How about special snorkels to keep your car running in high water -- or a jet ski to navigate submerged streets?
In Bangkok, a tireless Asian mega-city never shy about making a buck, an ongoing flood disaster has provided plenty of opportunity for business ingenuity to flourish.
Months of floods in Thailand have paralyzed auto factories and disrupted other big businesses and are estimated to have caused billions of dollars of damage to industry. But the slow-moving floodwaters have been a boon for quick-witted small traders looking to cater to some of the startling demands of water-weary Thais.
At one of the flood markets that have sprung up in Bangkok, dozens of makeshift shops line the sides of a road just a few hundred yards from encroaching floodwaters -- ready to arm those coping with a disaster that has killed 500 since July.
Operating out of the back of trucks and on the sidewalk, the flood traders sell plastic boats, jet skis, waders, water pumps, nonperishable food, propellers and plastic tarp marketed as "refrigerator wraps." In other parts of the city, builders are erecting cinder block walls trying to protect shops and houses.
There's even a new car-towing service that uses styrofoam to float stranded vehicles to safety.
The capital's mechanics have been busy with special modifications that allow cars, trucks and motorcycles to navigate swamped streets.
Thong Dechapak said his family's auto repair shop has been refitting up to eight vehicles a day with an engine snorkel and exhaust pipe modification that together cost 10,000 baht ($333) -- a month's salary for many in Thailand.
The device for the engine sticks up above the car's roof like a diving snorkel, sucking in air so fuel for the engine continues to combust while driving through flood water.
"Right now there's a lot of demand. There are no spare parts left. We started getting client orders about two months ago" when provinces north of Bangkok began to get flooded, said Dechapak, 24.
"They keep coming. There are more and more every day," he said, vivid red and orange sparks flying as workers welded an extension to the exhaust pipe of a gray Frontier Navara pickup.
They've also fitted the exhaust snorkels to motorcycles for friends. The price: a case of beer.
Diamond stud
Read more
In Bangkok, a tireless Asian mega-city never shy about making a buck, an ongoing flood disaster has provided plenty of opportunity for business ingenuity to flourish.
Months of floods in Thailand have paralyzed auto factories and disrupted other big businesses and are estimated to have caused billions of dollars of damage to industry. But the slow-moving floodwaters have been a boon for quick-witted small traders looking to cater to some of the startling demands of water-weary Thais.
At one of the flood markets that have sprung up in Bangkok, dozens of makeshift shops line the sides of a road just a few hundred yards from encroaching floodwaters -- ready to arm those coping with a disaster that has killed 500 since July.
Operating out of the back of trucks and on the sidewalk, the flood traders sell plastic boats, jet skis, waders, water pumps, nonperishable food, propellers and plastic tarp marketed as "refrigerator wraps." In other parts of the city, builders are erecting cinder block walls trying to protect shops and houses.
There's even a new car-towing service that uses styrofoam to float stranded vehicles to safety.
The capital's mechanics have been busy with special modifications that allow cars, trucks and motorcycles to navigate swamped streets.
Thong Dechapak said his family's auto repair shop has been refitting up to eight vehicles a day with an engine snorkel and exhaust pipe modification that together cost 10,000 baht ($333) -- a month's salary for many in Thailand.
The device for the engine sticks up above the car's roof like a diving snorkel, sucking in air so fuel for the engine continues to combust while driving through flood water.
"Right now there's a lot of demand. There are no spare parts left. We started getting client orders about two months ago" when provinces north of Bangkok began to get flooded, said Dechapak, 24.
"They keep coming. There are more and more every day," he said, vivid red and orange sparks flying as workers welded an extension to the exhaust pipe of a gray Frontier Navara pickup.
They've also fitted the exhaust snorkels to motorcycles for friends. The price: a case of beer.
Diamond stud
Read more
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