Residents of Bangkok's northern suburbs have been reluctant to leave their flood-hit homes despite the risks to their safety.
People in Luangphukhao have seen their homes inundated by floodwaters over the weekend but have chosen to stay.
They have been wading to the local store to buy supplies and ferrying small children around on makeshift rafts.
One man cleared debris from around his house while seated in a floating bathtub.
The water is stagnant and murky and authorities are warning it could harbour escapees from crocodile farms that operate on Bangkok's outskirts.
"Of course I'm worried about the crocodiles," said one man as he pulled his son along on a foam mattress through waist-deep water. "What we have to do is remember to tell others if we see one."
Local resident Napaporn Chainiwat said: "I'm scared of crocodiles... so if I hear of any in this area, I'll leave."
The nearby Laksi Temple is also partially submerged but Saffron-robed Buddhist monks are floating around in small boats.
Sandbag walls protect the temple's most valuable Buddhist artefacts.
Its main hall is on higher ground and the monks have taken in 500 evacuees, including three water buffalo and several pet dogs.
Volunteers provide hot meals of rice porridge and vegetables and the Thai military has pitched in with free haircuts for flood refugees.
But life in an evacuation camp is boring and crowded, and because the flood waters may take several weeks to recede there is little prospect of going home.
The Thai government now says 80% of Bangkok may escape inundation, but that is little comfort for those who have already lost their homes.
"I'm glad that many people won't be flooded," said Nongkran Phonjanpreuk, who has been camped out in the temple for two weeks with her young granddaughter.
"But that's what the government said to me and now my home is under water."
Elsewhere, tensions erupted when angry residents scuffled with security forces as they tried to force open a floodgate to stop their homes being ruined.
The clash at the Klong Sam Wa floodgate showed the rising anger in some neighbourhoods that have been sacrificed to keep Bangkok's central business district and historic heart dry.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/bangkok-residents-defy-crocodile-warning-063528253.html
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