Skywatch Friday - 8 August 2008

It's always difficult to figure out what I want to post. The skies are very dramatic here at the moment - really they should be gray and more gray but the rainy season has been strange. There's been more thundering and noise than the drizzle that does the work of growing the rice.

Haha - just realized that I posted the date on Title as 15 August - but it's for 8 August. Guess I'm getting ahead of myself!

We played cat and mouse with these storms around Tha Khaek as we were driving down south last Saturday.

Whenever there is a lot of unexpected heavy rain, everyone gets out with the fishing nets, hoping to catch escapees from backyard fish ponds. They don't usually catch much but everyone always seems to have a great time. Except for the fish, and the people who raised them.

It continued raining on and off all day. This storm at sunset was really strange, and the rain splattering on the surface of the rice ponds gave it a gunmetal appearance.

The following day, the rain stopped for a while in the morning and the mists rose on the hill behind these teak trees.

Here's a view looking across the Mekong River to Sri Chiang Mai, Thailand. I was sitting in a Vietnamese restaurant in Vientiane yesterday and amazed at how much the river rose while I was gone.

When we visited Salavan, it rained a lot. The Department of Health thanked us - it hadn't rained in the Salavan area for a month until that day. I knew it had been bad, with thunderstorms dropping rain around the city but not on the surrounding rice fields, but I hadn't realized how bad it had been. I hope the rain stays steady until the few weeks before harvest, when the rice has to dry out.

This post is my contribution to Sky Watch Friday. Click on the link and see the skies around the world.