Weather report

It crossed my mind that I haven't yet commented on the weather here, which is surprising given the fact that it's on my mind from minute to minute. Bangkok was hot, but the heat isn't as bad as the humidity which is a killer. I think I'm damp from head to toe from the second I step outside until...well, Seattle maybe. It's a bit funny how shiny I am in all of my pictures, but I guess I couldn't really tell if it was due to the sweat or the sunscreen or the bug spray. I'm positively lacquered over here.

No rain in Bangkok during the day, but Chiang Mai has been a different story. They had a big flood here recently with 2 m of rain filling the streets. I was warned in Bangkok against coming here now, but it is the rainy season and some's to be expected, right? An hour after I arrived in Chiang Mai the skies opened up and there was a real downpour which lasted for a couple of hours and left streets in floods and me soaked from head to toe. That's been the status quo here - really hard rain for a couple of hours each day and then things dry up. After the first day I wised up to the benefits of sitting out the storms so I haven't gotten caught in the rain since then.

I had planned to go to Pai, a town Northwest of here which is small and lovely. Before the flood a couple of weeks ago anyway. The town got swamped and a lot of the guesthouses and bungalows washed away when the river flooded so word on the street is that there's a lot of mud and smelly stuff in the town. Plus, the bus to Pai was sold out today, so I'm going to try to get to Mae Hong Soon instead. It's not shown on the map I've posted, but if you follow the white line that goes Northwest of Chiang Mai to the border of Burma, Mae Hong Soon is near the border. It's been described as "The Switzerland of Thailand" and I'm looking forward to small town life and cooler weather for a change.