The wet season started Tuesday night here in Chiang Mai. It rained all night and the next day. Wow the air is now a lot cleaner. So the early rain was most welcome.
It’s my favorite time of the year here. The rain cools the whole place down. Much the same as the 3 deg rise in water temperature (from the great Pacific Ocean drift) Heralds Summer back home in New Zealand. Here in The Far North of Thailand we only have 3 seasons, A very short winter (not so hot) followed immediately by Summer (Hot) As the temperature starts to get unbearable the massive amount of evaporation causes precipitation (RAIN i.e. the start of the WET season).
The Wet Season is more like New Zealand (it can rain any time)
If it doesn’t rain for 3 or 4 days it starts to heat up again and the cycle repeats. What goes up must come down.
The Monsoons that sweep across India and the Indian Ocean that devastated Burma last year, peter out to a good storm by the time they reach here.
The Mountain range (high hills) that run all the way from the Far North of Thailand right down to the South past Bangkok protect us.
That’s not to say we don’t get some bad flooding as the spill over from China rushes down the Mekong River. In 1994 my guest house just off Chiang Mai Lampoon Road (next to the Ping River) was like an island.
Luckily for me my Guest House was built on raised land so I just opened the gates and parked my Citroen up on dry ground.
I went out and hired a LARGE 4 wheel drive until the waist deep water receded.
The biggest problem with the flooding is for the poor. By Kings Decree they can build over flood land and water (no mans land) and not be moved on by the authorities.
Each big storm that we get the Water Board in its infinite wisdom openening the flood gates of the large earth Dam on the upper Ping river and flooding all the flood land south.
Washing away a few poor but saving Chiang Mai from a wetting. Eventually a country as rich as this will one day get around to building a proper concrete Dam.
You can help the flood relief victims directly by making a
donation
to the Hua-Fai Community flood relief fund by using pay Pal a safe and secure was to donate on the web.
Click this link to take you to Akha Hills PayPal donation page
Or indirectly by buying Akha Hill products.
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