Thank you, mother nature, for making my outing particularly... wet. That's right - about 15 minutes into my drive, it started POURING and of course I was sans raincoat in a T-shirt and black leggings. For approximately 30 seconds I had the bold idea to "tough it out" and just drive through the rain, but when the drops started to feel like bullets and zooming over puddles started to feel like fording small rivers, I decided to wait it out under a covered carport on the side of the road.
I should have anticipated this, but the rain turned into a downpour and then thunder and lightening got involved... turns out I didn't need to drive all the way to Sekayu to experience a waterfall after all. Suddenly I was really wishing I had decided to curl up with a book back at school rather than venture out on my scooter.
That's the risk you take every day in Malaysia though - monsoon season is apparently supposed to end in January, but it has rained nearly every day since I've been here (even if the rain shower is only for a few minutes). My students naturally attribute this unusual weather to the earthquake in Japan (?), the ever-impending Doomsday, or "maybe" global warming... all I know is that rain here is generally a mixed bag: on one hand, it really does cool things down, but on the other, you can find yourself stranded with your scooter in the middle of a thunderstorm, the duration of which could be minutes or days.
Lessons learned:
a) never leave your raincoat at home
b) ...but life might be a little more fun if you do.
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