Skywatch Friday for 1 August 2008

This week has seen some strange weather. Thunderstorms followed by clear skies and hot muggy weather. I also dropped my camera while bicycling and by the time I retrieved it, a car had run over it - the camera works as well as before but the LCD screen is cracked.

The picture above is of That Dam, which must be several hundred years old. Legend has it that it was entirely covered with gold until the invasion of the Siamese (the Thai) in 1828, when they removed all the gold.

Last week, I stopped by the river after work. A thunderstorm blew up, which blew leaves around but produced only a few drops where I was standing. In this view, the rain is over the far eastern part of Vientiane but moved east over Thailand. The Mekong River is very high now, just about a meter below the edge of the levee. It has been raining a lot in the northern parts of the country and Thailand - in fact, too much. There have been floods and landslides - while in the southern Laos, there has not been enough rain.

View of another threatening cloud while I was driving home this week.

Yesterday I went to pay my internet bill in one of the taller buildings in downtown Vientiane and took this picture of the Morning Market. The old buildings, making a U around the lot in the middle, were built in 1995 and for as long as I've been around, has been the center for buying silk, appliances, handicrafts and jewelry. Two years ago, they opened a four story mall on top of an old parking lot. And last year, they tore down the central section of the market, which was newer and had air conditioned rooms. A Lao-Vietnamese joint venture will build a new mall in the central lot.

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