Timing the showers in the rainy season

If you travel in the rainy season, you’re bound to get wet a time or two.  With that in mind B and I left the Le Bel Air Hotel on the outskirts of Luang Prabang, Laos in a couple of bicycles borrowed from the hotel.  It was already dark but we wanted to see the night market in town.  The day had been hot and sunny but we already saw some dark clouds in the sky before sunset.  The day before had rained all day and all night so the thought was that the clouds were already drained and it would take a while to fill them up again.    But by the time we climbed on our bikes we could already see the lighting at the distance but we thought it would take a while to get to us.  As soon as you roll out of the hotel the first thing you see is the Old Bridge into town.  A two-motorcycle lanes wide, wooden bridge over the Nam Kham River, a tributary to the mighty Mekong River just a few yards away.  The Nam Kham is dammed just up the river and its controllers were releasing a lot of water in preparation for more rains coming and it was showing unusually strong currents.  To the point that even some locals were mesmerized watching the waters rushing to meet the Mekong.  Impressive during the daytime but at night it sounded as there was a caged dragon under the bridge. 

Bicycling on the Old Bridge you really have to speed up, as the many motorcycles behind you don’t seem very patient and understanding to the slower human-powered two-wheelers.  But there was no other choice; they had to wait until we got through.

The night market was already in full swing.  The first stop was for a custom-made baguette avocado and chicken sandwich being sold for 15,000 Kips (a little less than US$2.00).  I hadn’t had bread in a while so it was a treat.  The bread looked a lot better than it turned out to be but still better than anything I had have in the last 4 months.

Being more familiar with the rain during the rainy season, the locals seemed to have a sensed what was coming.  Normally the rain doesn’t stop the locals from their business but this time the sudden winds and the lighting threatened that something big was coming.

Within minutes of us being at the market, the business women started to pack up their wares and bring down their tents.  We got the hint.  We immediately got our bicycles from where we had them parked and left immediately for the 15-minute ride back to the hotel.

Seemed that we thought of it a bit late as we started feeling a few drops along the way.  The rain started to pick up just as we found the Old Bridge and started heading into it.  The wooden lanes were already wet.  The lose dragon was still roaring.  The boards were shaking a little more than the first time around but we were happy to have made the crossing intime and soon were returning the lock and picking up our hotel room key from the reception.  Just as we were walking from the Reception to our cabin, the rain started coming down in earnest.  Now there was no doubt that the heavens were opening up to torrential rains. 

And rain it did.  That night Luang Prabang received torrential rains for at least 10 hours straight, which we heard later that it dropped at a rate of about an inch per hour.  Quite a night. I was just happy that we timed it just right and made it to our safe place just as the sky began to open up.  I feel for the vendors that night after night wait there for the few tourists that may inquire about something they sell to start their negotiations.  Hope they were able to time it just as well as we did. 

Lucky for us the rain subsided this morning and we were able to keep our schedule for the day.  Hopefully we can time it just as well the next time they are going to come down.  And come they will, this is after all the season for the rains in Laos.