Ask Harriet
One of the things I love most about travelers like you is how compassionate you are about the world. When global events occur—whether they’re cultural, political, or natural—you want to know as much as you can about the situation, including how local people like our Trip Leaders and OAT travelers in the area are doing. In fact, we’ve heard from many OAT travelers about the flooding issues in Southeast Asia over the past couple of weeks. The question below was posted by Naner Shinay on OAT’s Facebook page. I thought it was a great opportunity for me to provide some updates on what’s going on in Thailand, and how OAT trips have been affected:
Q: Do you have a local perspective on the flooding in Southeast Asia?
How have OAT trips been doing?
—Naner Shinay, a concerned traveler
A: Naner, thank you for sharing your concerns about Southeast Asia with us. We have more than 30 regional offices worldwide—located in the destinations we travel—so we're in constant contact with our worldwide associates.
Our regional office in Bangkok is open and operating normally, and according to Ton Terkdee, Regional General Manager in Thailand, the flood situation is continuing in the areas around the outer northern and western suburbs of Bangkok (none of which are areas we travel to). Central Bangkok, where we do travel to, remains free from the flooding.
Tourism and Central Business Districts such as Silom, Sukhumvit Road, and Siam remain unaffected, and all major sites are open, including the Grand Palace, Emerald Buddha, Wat Arun, Wat Trimitr and its Golden Buddha, Marble Hall, Chinatown, and Jim Thompson House. Floodwaters in Ayutthaya and some other central provinces have begun to subside, however many areas are not fully accessible yet. Sites in Ayutthaya will reopen once they have been restored.
Suvarnabhumi International Airport, the main international airport in Bangkok, is open and operating normally. Don Muang Domestic Airport has been closed due to flooding, so all services are now operating from Suvarnabhumi, the other domestic airport outside of Bangkok. The Skytrain, subway, and airport express trains are currently operating normally.
For those of you who might be traveling to Thailand, I want you to rest assured that our traveler’s safety is our number one priority. We won’t send you to a destination that is unsafe. We will continue to remain in contact with Ton and his team in our Bangkok office to ensure that we’re receiving the most up-to-date information we can. If any changes need to be made based on our assessments, travelers will be contacted.
If you have any questions or concerns about an upcoming adventure, please share them with me by emailing me at harriet@oattravel.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
Letters to Harriet
My team and I are always trying to provide you with the most engaging and useful information we can in Harriet’s Corner—which is why we want to hear all of your feedback, no matter how small it might be. So when we make errors, we try our best to correct them.
Elsa Waters emailed me about a recent Global Kitchen recipe we featured in our October edition of Harriet’s Corner, letting us know about the proper usage of a Spanish word we incorrectly used in the article:
Dear Harriet,
Sorry to be such a nit-picker, but I just read your Global Kitchen recipe for Salteño Pie and found the following “boo-boo.”
Salteño Pie allows you to get as caliente or sauve (mild) as you wish—the more ground chili powder, paprika, and cumin you add to the recipe, the spicier the dish will be.
The correct way to say that is “as picante as you wish.” The term caliente implies temperature.
Respectfully,
Elsa Walters
7-time traveler
Glastonbury, Connecticut
Elsa, thank you so much for taking the time to write to me and pointing out this correction. My team and I have updated the Global Kitchen article to reflect your edit above.
Please continue to send us all of your suggestions, thoughts, and comments on any of the articles we feature in Harriet’s Corner. We want to make sure Harriet’s Corner is a place you enjoy visiting again and again—so help us keep the conversation going.