Praying it won't rain

The last Phuket weather report a few days back was all sun, sun, sun, which is often the case in a normal summer season, especially July which I'd say is the best of the summer months for weather. Not perfect to be sure, can be windy and the beaches are often too rough to swim safely, but a little rain is good for everyone, and very good for all the tropical foliage in Phuket, so this time of year is also called Green Season.

Lovely. Sunshine, greenery, I do like this time of year. And then the bad news.

In 2007, in bad weather, there was a plane crash in Phuket. A bad one. Lots of people died.

On Tuesday afternoon, just after 2:30pm I got a newsflash in my inbox from the Thaivisa.com website. Plane Crash in Koh Samui. Heavy rain, plane skidded off the runway and hit a building. Here's the Thai Visa Forum thread about it. I think all around Thailand, we waited for news, refreshing our browsers every 30 seconds. Over the rest of the afternoon, the story changed. The pilot was killed. All passengers survived. Some were hospitalised. Camille has the story and photos on his Koh Samui Blog.

The same night my wife took her friend to Phuket airport to fly to Bangkok and it was raining pretty heavily, so we were all a bit nervous.

The last few days in Phuket have seen plenty of sun, a little rain and some strong winds. Rained quite a lot on Tuesday evening, which happened to be the start of a local fair in Kathu village close to our house. I can hear the "live karaoke challenge" as I write! Always seems to rain when they hold this fair which makes conditions underfoot less than pleasant as it's held in a large open field.

This year something a bit special in Kathu. Yesterday started a 3 day event in the village with processions, foodstalls and lots of information booths with information about the history of this area of Phuket. The sky was dark at 5:30pm as the procession was due to start yesterday. Seemed like the whole village was there and all praying that it would not rain. Prayers answered. Some great make-up and costumes, lots of fun, a very happy local gathering. There were lots of people taking photos and also a TV news crew, and not a single foreigner except me. I will blog the event later. A few photos...







May well visit the village tomorrow too, the last day. Lots of food stalls along the road and information about local history. Last night the school band played. The wind did blow, the dark clouds did gather, but the rain did NOT fall!