rain

Rain Rain,

Well, it seems the rainy season has begun, even if thats not what the old-timers say. Frankly, if you see no rain for 3.5 months, and then one week it rains every single day, you're going to get suspicious. In fact, calling it rain is a bit of an insult. Chances are, you will never have seen rain this incredible. It's amazing. The rain itself is mere musical accompaniment to the deafening brightness of the lightning and the blinding volume of the thunder.

It usually starts around 6pm, just as the sun begins to go down, the sky becomes utterly terrifying, either a dark brown or blue with flashes high up among the clouds. Later, stabs of lightning skewer the clouds, and the roads begin to flood.

Bangkok is on a flood plain. You may think that sounds like a bad idea, but it does mean that if you go up in a building of even a little height, you can see for miles. It would of course be possible to see further without the perpetual layer of smog over the city.

When it rains heavily, the roads fill up with water. The "soi"we live on has good high curbs, and becomes a canal. If we removed the cars, it would be indistinguishable from the canals near the river. Of course, it all goes away in no time at all.

Sadly, there's no wood around, so my main idea of saving taxi fairs by building a raft had to be abandoned.

Come again another day!

Dom