Somehow the rain now reminds me of Thailand.
The storm today brought back vivid memories of my trips. The islands, Bangkok, it was always raining or at least it seems it always was.
The people there have a sixth sense when it comes to the weather. But of course they should being that for many of them their livelihood depends on being able to sell their wares out in the elements. The ratio of street vendors to actual shopfronts is amazingly huge. Very few can afford to have an actual locking door or inner sanctum to their shop so the streets are packed with street vendors.
I remember one late afternoon Samantha and I had returned from a small trek that we had taken to a temple north of Bangkok. We had decided to sit in a small restaurant (restaurant meaning a place that has a kitchen housed inside a building but still no aircon, no bathrooms, nothing fancy, and most of the seating is on the patio/sidewalk) have a cool drink and talk about our trip to the temple. We had just returned from the Tiger Temple, Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yanasampanno Forest Monastery, in Saiyok District of Kanchanaburi Province. To be exact. ;) I really have no idea where that is but I do know where the website is so check it out if you're interested. http://www.tigertemple.org/Eng/ cut and paste yo!
Samantha had walked with the abbot and one of the tigers as they were escorting the tiger back to his digs. There is a picture of her doing it. One of the few i managed to save from her pyschotic need to erase all pictures starring herself. It had been raining at the temple. Usually the tigers were lying around sunning themselves in the heat but because of the rain they were up and pacing and quite interested in what was going on. The cubs in particular were fun to watch. They were trying to attack the raindrops as they plopped in the puddles and mud around them. They were very cute but lets keep in mind here that these tigers were on 10ft chains and we were sitting on makeshift benches 25ft away. No walls. No fences. Just 30 or so chains holding the 30 or so tigers to their particular spots. Interesting experience to say the least. We had a lot of fun.
So later that day, Samantha and I were sitting at a red plastic table on the sidewalk of koh sahn road sipping our drinks (I think she had a Pepsi and a watermelon shake while I had my usual mango shake. Shake meaning fruit and ice blended, no dairy) and talking about the tigers and the rain and our upcoming flight down to the islands. As I looked around I noticed that most of the street vendors had started to pull out plastic tarps and were rigging them up over their stands. It had been raining up north but there wasn't a cloud that I could see in Bangkok. About ten minutes later the sky opened up and threw down a massive amount of water. It rained for 4 or 5 hours, only slowing down to a drizzle by the time we fell asleep.
I vividly remember the smell of Bangkok in the rain. The feeling of walking between the stalls on the sidewalks under the rain tarps. The air was sticky and hot, so heavy it felt like a physical presence. There was almost a claustrophobic feeling because of the tunnel like atmosphere that the rain tarps created. Every once in a while there would be a break in the tunnel, people crowded around it, either waiting for a the rain to let up or taking in as much of the fresh air as possible before pushing back into the next section of souvenir bliss.
The air smelled like a mixture of spices, rain, incense, sweat and depending on where you were standing, garbage. But every now and again there was the scent of sandalwood oil coming from one of the massage parlors or the smell of fried spring rolls and noodles. The stalls were an eclectic combination of goods. Small brown wooden frogs carved by hill tribe people that make the exact noise of a croaking frog when you rattle a stick down the ridges down its back were sitting next to the newest burns of American music. The people call out to you in English offering deals and bargains for tailor made suits and ballgowns. Tuk-tuk drivers hollering "50 baht! Tour of city!". Beautiful Thai girls dressed in short skirts and tube tops passing out bright pink and yellow flyers about the hottest new dance clubs and drink specials. Just an everyday night in Bangkok.
That is what the rain in Arizona makes me think of.
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