Hatyai,Thailand For Sawadee Newbies

[KatoeyLover69]

Report from Bangkok Post dated Tuesday 27 December 2005 :-

South drying out just in time for New Year

Thailand's southern gateways including Hat Yai in Songkhla Province, are clearing out the remnants of floodwaters, ready to welcome tourists from home and south of the border to the New Year's countdown.

As floods begin to recede, famous tourist attractions in southern Thailand are ready to celebrate the festive New Year countdown, expected to draw a large number of tourists from neighbouring Malaysia.

Tourism in several southern islands inundated by the floods for almost two months has resumed.

Ferries between mainland Surat Thani Province and Samui and Pha-ngan Island are back in service after being suspended for several weeks, according to Tourism Authority of Thailand PR and Advertising Executive Director Vunsadej Thavarasukha.

Many foreign tourists - mainly from neighbouring Malaysia - are visiting Hat Yai, where a major highway linking the southern business hub with neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia has reopened after being made impassable by the recent floods.

Many tourists have booked travel packages in Malaysia, wanting to celebrate the Thai New Year countdown at Hat Yai.

According to tourism operators at Samui Island, Hat Yai, and Trang Province, where up to 70 per cent of hotel rooms have been booked, no foreign tourists have cancelled or postponed bookings, Mr. Vunsadej said.

But some flooded tourist attractions are not ready to serve tourists, he said, and some activities being canceled, including boat excursions to Tham Le Khao Kob cavern in Trang Province, where high waters block the passage into the cave.

Information for press and tourists during the New Year festival is available from TAT special telephone services.

TAT's special public relations centre, which operates daily from December 28, 2005-January 3, 2006, 08:00 a.m.-08:00 p.m, can be reached by direct telephone at 02 250 5681, by fax at 02 250 5682- 3 or by dialing the TAT's call centre--1672. - (Thai News Agency)

[stiffneck]

Originally Posted by taurus75

yeah... brudder. miss Paragon man..
still waiting for your answer to the BIG BANG during CNY.
wow..ah bow call you huh?? u got miss her bo? or miss her something else??!!

KLK..nice to hear yr HUMSUP xmas so enjoyable.

Sorry Brudder Taurus

I cannot make it for CNY in Hatayi,sobs no money hiazzzzzzz

But hope you and the gang (KLK TD etc)will have a Sextifation trip but not for you brudder Taurus cos you will not be bonking right?kekekekekeke!!!!

Take care!!!!(so sad that i cannot go!!!)

[taurus75]

Originally Posted by stiffneck

Sorry Brudder Taurus

I cannot make it for CNY in Hatayi,sobs no money hiazzzzzzz

But hope you and the gang (KLK TD etc)will have a Sextifation trip but not for you brudder Taurus cos you will not be bonking right?kekekekekeke!!!!

Take care!!!!(so sad that i cannot go!!!)

WAU LAU... but i keep praying and hoping u can go.
btw how much is Ne-o hotel ? u stayed there at last trip..
planned to ask T to book for me...

[stiffneck]

Originally Posted by taurus75

WAU LAU... but i keep praying and hoping u can go.
btw how much is Ne-o hotel ? u stayed there at last trip..
planned to ask T to book for me...

Don't know what the surcharge for CNY will be like.

With tour voucher (i bought the voucher from Davis Tour) it is 580 baht(without B/F) 680 baht (with B/F) and 700 baht for walk-in.

Brudder how is T?Think he should be ok?From the last "talk" i had with him he sounded sad and when he said "Thank you" it sounded like he wanted to cry (maybe too moved to have friends like us? )

Anyway take good care of yourself ok!

[taurus75]

Originally Posted by stiffneck

Don't know what the surcharge for CNY will be like.

With tour voucher (i bought the voucher from Davis Tour) it is 580 baht(without B/F) 680 baht (with B/F) and 700 baht for walk-in.

Brudder how is T?Think he should be ok?From the last "talk" i had with him he sounded sad and when he said "Thank you" it sounded like he wanted to cry (maybe too moved to have friends like us? )

Anyway take good care of yourself ok!

well..no worries..he sounded jovial and relieved , telling me hatyai drying up liao! he is ok now..oredi moved back to his house and started to clearing the water in his house.
yeah..he keep saying thank you...thank you and thank you..

[taurus75]

xe.com Universal Currency Converter ® Results
Live mid-market rates as of 2005.12.28 03:22:36 UTC.

1.00 SGD Singapore Dollars = 24.5712 THB Thailand Baht
1 SGD = 24.5712 THB 1 THB = 0.0406980 SGD


1.00 MYR Malaysia Ringgits = 10.8268 THB Thailand Baht
1 MYR = 10.8268 THB 1 THB = 0.0923633 MYR

[taurus75]

HAT YAI NIGHT PARADISE & COUNTDOWN 2006
December 31, 2005– January 1, 2006
Along Sanehanusorn Road and other main streets in the city centre

The New Year celebration and Countdown in Hat Yai includes a ‘Miss Night Paradise and Countdown 2006’ beauty contest, concerts and stage performances. Guest artists from Malaysia and Singapore join their Thai counterparts. School marching bands, the ‘Street Carnival’ and a myriad of stage activities add interesting elements to a colourful setting. Rise and shine early the next morning to enjoy the sunrise, participate in merit-making activities or run in a ‘Greet the New Year’ marathon.

[taurus75]

Hat Yai flood prevention strategy opts for InfoWorks RS and FloodWorks

The southern Thai city of Hat Yai lies 50km north of the Malaysian border. This important commercial city began the journey to its present urban sprawl in the early 1970s and today is southern Thailand principal town, serving as a popular tourist centre for Malaysian and Singaporean visitors from the south. Thailand climate is equatorial in the extreme south, while the centre and north experience a tropical monsoon climate.

Most of the country has abundant but not excessive rainfall, mainly between May and October when the weather is dominated by the southwest monsoon. This blows from the Indian Ocean, bringing warm, humid air and banks of cloud. Rainfall in the region of Hat Yai is around 2m annually.
Why Hatyai will flood?
The city of Hat Yai is low-lying, sitting at the base of a roughly circular valley. It is also prone to inundation from the Utaphao river, which flows through its heart, often in concrete channels that provide limited drainage. The Utaphao rises at Sadao, on the border with Malaysia, and flows to Songhkla lake, a coastal lagoon just downstream of Hat Yai that is hydraulically connected to the Gulf of Thailand.

The river suffers from regular flash flooding during the monsoon season ?serious flooding occurred in 1988 and again in 2000, due to unusually heavy rains that were attributed to the La Nina weather phenomenon. During a La Nina, normal trade winds become stronger, and cold, nutrient-rich waters occupy much of the tropical Pacific Ocean, increasing rainfall over South East Asia.

During the 2000 La Nina downpours, most of Hat Yai was inundated and flood depths of two to three metres were recorded. Many basements were flooded for up to one week, and there were over 40 fatalities. Such serious flooding has a major impact on livelihoods, as well as seriously affecting the city economy and infrastructure.

Hat Yai existing flood forecasting system dated back to 1996. However, the original software did not predict the 2000 floods, demonstrating the weakness and lack of robustness of a manually-operated telemetry system. This failure triggered a project to review the city抯 flood forecasting capability.

A comprehensive flood mitigation study of the Utaphao river catchment and Hat Yai city areas was undertaken between 2001 and 2003 as a result, with the study awarded to Kasetsart University for its client, the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) of Thailand.

The study utilised Wallingford Software InfoWorks RS, an integrated software solution for simulating flows in rivers, channels and on flood plains, to undertake the detailed flood mitigation modelling. High-resolution calibrated InfoWorks RS models were developed and used to assess existing flood prone locations and possible future flood mitigation options. The options suggested included numerous bypass channels, reservoir storage, land use guidance in the surrounding area of the city, and a real-time flood forecasting system.

The study culminated in a high profile public hearing held in Hat Yai by the RID in early 2003. One of the report major recommendations was that a real-time flood forecasting system be established, and that the system should be based on Wallingford Software InfoWorks RS and FloodWorks, the software widely-used, modular, dynamic flood-mapping system. Design of the system began in 2003.

Both parts of FloodWorks, the configuration and operational sides, utilise audit control, which enables users to readily track changes in models ?it is possible to see who has made edits and run flood simulations. The software also has tools for quality validation and data management, and runs on a client-server system that allows clients at any location with a connection to the server to access the system. The system then generates warnings when event thresholds are passed.

The new system has been operational since June 2004, with the FloodWorks server based at RID southern regional headquarters in Hat Yai and Event Manager clients in RID headquarters in Bangkok, the Hat Yai local basin office and the Songkhla Province administrative offices in Songkhla. Operational flood forecasting rooms for the city are situated outside the flood risk area. Around 80% of project costs were spent on automated telemetry, which is essential to make the system work.

[taurus75]

The successful Hat Yai flood forecasting system in Thailand that utilizes Wallingford Software FloodWorks software created much interest in Troms Norway last month.

Richard Body of Wallingford Software attended the event to present a paper on the Hat Yai flood forecasting system in Thailand. Hat Yai is a low lying city prone to flooding with serious floods occurring in 1998 and 2000. During the 2000 La Nina downpours, most of Hat Yai was inundated and flood depths of six to ten feet were recorded. Using Wallingford Software InfoWorks RS and FloodWorks software a new real time flood forecasting system has been implemented to provide communities with advance warning of flood risk.

The conference was attended by 105 delegates from over 25 different countries as diverse as the UK, the US, New Zealand, Columbia, Denmark, Russia, Romania, Iran and China. The conference had a progressive agenda, moving from uncertainty in precipitation forecasts through the development of pre-operational flood forecast models to data assimilation and decision support systems and best practice papers. Finally there were a series of case studies including mine on Hat Yai.

TROMSO Norway

[KatoeyLover69]

Originally Posted by taurus75

[COLOR="Green"

The river suffers from regular flash flooding during the monsoon season [/COLOR]Serious flooding occurred in 1988 and again in 2000, due to unusually heavy rains that were attributed to the La Nina weather phenomenon.

Bro Taurus,

Very good report !

Do you have any photos of the BIG FLOOD in 1988 ?

[taurus75]

Originally Posted by KatoeyLover69

Bro Taurus,

Very good report !

Do you have any photos of the BIG FLOOD in 1988 ?

hmm... i always like to look forward to things and not dwell in the past so much..
maybe u can try do a search on other sites.

[KatoeyLover69]

Originally Posted by taurus75

hmm... i always like to look forward to things and not dwell in the past so much..
maybe u can try do a search on other sites.

To be a successful we must always look at history and know what happened in the past in order to move forward ........... in other words, learn from the mistakes of others so that you don't make the same mistake(s) again

Like they say : " You have to move 1 step backwards in order to move 2 steps forward "

[pomrakthai]

Originally Posted by KatoeyLover69

To be a successful we must always look at history and know what happened in the past in order to move forward ........... in other words, learn from the mistakes of others so that you don't make the same mistake(s) again

Like they say : " You have to move 1 step backwards in order to move 2 steps forward "

Bro KTL..very philosophical leh! What about "moving 3 steps forward and fall back 2 steps?? Malaysia Boleh mah!

Yes, I agree with you, as you can see that Hitler met his downfall when he did not heed what Napoleon had failed by attacking Russia! The Russian winter won both wars!

[KatoeyLover69]

Originally Posted by pomrakthai

Bro KTL..very philosophical leh! What about "moving 3 steps forward and fall back 2 steps?? Malaysia Boleh mah!

Yes, I agree with you, as you can see that Hitler met his downfall when he did not heed what Napoleon had failed by attacking Russia! The Russian winter won both wars!

I thought that both Hitler and Napolean lost because they were 'seduced' by sexy Russian babes until both cannot walk properly kekekekekekekekeke..............

[pomrakthai]

Originally Posted by KatoeyLover69

I thought that both Hitler and Napolean lost because they were 'seduced' by sexy Russian babes until both cannot walk properly kekekekekekekekeke..............

Yaloh...with those sexy Maria Sharapova around, who can stand??