Rain, sniffles, more rain

What a wet week! Bad luck if you came this week for your one week holiday. Last week was much nicer.. and next week probably will be too.. I am awaiting the end of the month for the official rainfall data for August. Reckon that, although there was lots of sun, the last week has made up for any shortfall in water supply! Boy oh boy....

Last update on this blog was on Wednesday... after that, Thursday was not real wet, not sunny either, but I was feeling a bit "under the weather" and did not go to work, slept half the afternoon. These sudden changes in weather from hot to raining-cats-and-dogs play havoc with people's health! Lots of coughs and colds at this time of year. Our son was rather sniffly too, no fever though and we bundled him off to school on Friday with some medicine in his bag.

Friday - very, very wet day. We waz drownin! Rained all day, sometimes heavy. Reports of localised flooding on the roads all over the island. Not really windy, though... this kind of rain is more normal later in the low season. Heavy, straight down. Did you bring your umbrella? I was at Karon Beach all day. I'll say again - WET! Here's a photo I took on the way home - it's on the road between Chalong Bay and Phuket Town.



That little flood was repeated in many places around the island. Nothing too serious, but the drains do struggle sometimes. Was all gone by the next day. A rather more serious effect of the rain was seen on the road between Patong Beach and Phuket Town. It's a big hill and you can get some rivers rolling downhill on wet days... But this time, rain had undermined the road surface and created a sink hole. Luckily nobody drove into it...



More about the hole and more photos - Phuket Gazette.

According to the Phuket Wan, August rainfall total last year: 252.9mm; August so far this year: 490.9mm... According to the data I received from Steen, a Danish resident in Patong, that is certainly more than average but there have been wetter Augusts in 1998 and 2000.. of course there is a lot of fluctuation in rainfall over the island.

Saturday was slightly less wet, but certainly not a day for getting a tan. Seemed like dark clouds appeared, dropped their load and moved on every 30 minutes. We moved the laundry outside, back inside, back outside, back inside (a fascinating life we do lead). Rain managed to hold off for a little birthday party at a friends house in the evening.

Sunday, plenty more rain, but certainly better than the previous 2 days. I was again rather off colour, slept until late morning, but headed out in the afternoon to find some lunch, a drive and some fresh air. Almost a nice day... plenty of dark cloud, rain here and there, but some sun too. Looking more hopeful for next week. It was a nice drive, we headed via Kamala to the Cherng Talay area, which is home to Phuket's largest mosque:



We hit Layan Beach for lunch.. there is one small restaurant right by the beach. There were only 2 other customers. Ah! Low season! Yeh, OK it was not perfect weather, but the sun did shine and lunch was tasty, the air was fresh.