Rainbound in Bangkok: Boats Outside, and a Boat Button for Bolt
The road outside became a little canal. I added a boat to a Bolt screenshot—a small joke to get through the rain that had kept us at home.
The rain in Bangkok has barely stopped these past few days. It began on the afternoon of September 24 and continued for almost two days. Reports on September 26 said the city had designated all 50 districts as flood-affected areas to facilitate relief, with rainfall approaching 300 millimetres in some places during the prolonged downpour. The designation did not mean every district was flooded to the same extent. For those of us living in a residential neighbourhood, the immediate consequence was simpler: we could not get out.
A little canal outside the gate
I sat in the living room and looked through the full-height windows. The usually quiet road was covered in murky water. Floodwater had reached the metal gate, and the plants were moving in the rain. Seen through the glass, the world outside felt slightly unreal.
Then I saw it.
Neighbours in rain ponchos were sitting in a shallow blue-and-white boat, pushing themselves along with a broom. They drifted slowly past the gate, as though travelling along a little canal outside their own homes. A distance normally covered in a few steps called for a different kind of transport today.
Later, I stepped outside and took a photograph. The blue house, the frangipani tree and the metal fence were reflected in the murky water. The little boat was still there, beside a blue pickup truck. The scene felt both absurd and ordinary. My neighbours seemed to share a familiar understanding: when the water comes, you find a way through.
Adding a Boat button to Bolt
So I made a little prank.
I opened Bolt. The home screen had rides, scheduled trips, motorbikes and deliveries. I edited a screenshot and added a blue boat, labelled “Boat · On-water rides”. The familiar slogan still read “Let’s hit the road.” Except the road had become a river.
I posted it in my university classmates’ group chat with a line: “You can book a boat now. Who’s trying it first?”
It was a joke, of course. I had added the Boat button myself; it was not a feature launched by Bolt, and nobody could actually book a boat through it. Yet the flooded road outside and the little boat on the screen suddenly seemed to belong together.
Waiting for the rain to ease
That is what these days in Bangkok have felt like: drainage, relief efforts and waiting on one side; ordinary people finding ways to cope on the other—with small boats, high-clearance pickups and a sense of humour. The water has not fully receded. For now, a joke is one way for me to make sense of it.
When the water finally goes down, that fake Boat screen may become a small keepsake of this rainy spell in our group chat.
No car, and no boat, for now. I’ll wait for the rain to ease before heading out. May everyone stay safe, and may the water recede soon.
