It's raining!
Malaysia (and the rest of this part of the world, I guess) are in the midst of monsoon season--and this year, it has meant RAIN, RAIN and more RAIN.
We spent Wednesday to Saturday in Singapore, and it poured rain (bad pun, I know). Somehow, despite the supposedly "tropical" climate (Singapore is basically right on the Equator), I froze the whole time (wet+air conditioning on high=not too warm).
However, on the way home, we realized that the adventure had just begun:
Here we are (me, the parents and a colleague of Dad's), trying to drive through the flooded roads on the way back home. We made it, but the water was pretty deep in some places, and non of the drivers coming the other way seemed to know if we could get as far as Kuantan. We discovered this afternoon--2 days later--that water had seeped in the doors and soaked all the carpets in the car. We also read in today's paper about a bus that got swept off the road--I think everyone was OK, but pretty frightening. Many of the roads through this part of the country (the southernmost state) are closed, including this one.
Here is the water rushing by on the side of the road--those palm trees are pretty high!
These folks seem to be making the best of the situation, checking out the flooding and the passers-by--some were even fishing! Through out Malaysia, however, over 100 000 people have been evacuated, and some of the shelters are starting to run out of space, food and water. It's a bad situation--the worst flooding in over 100 years, apparently.
Today it was finally sunny, and a local guy told us that he thinks the monsoon season will be over this weekend. Here's hoping that will be true!
We spent Wednesday to Saturday in Singapore, and it poured rain (bad pun, I know). Somehow, despite the supposedly "tropical" climate (Singapore is basically right on the Equator), I froze the whole time (wet+air conditioning on high=not too warm).
However, on the way home, we realized that the adventure had just begun:
Here we are (me, the parents and a colleague of Dad's), trying to drive through the flooded roads on the way back home. We made it, but the water was pretty deep in some places, and non of the drivers coming the other way seemed to know if we could get as far as Kuantan. We discovered this afternoon--2 days later--that water had seeped in the doors and soaked all the carpets in the car. We also read in today's paper about a bus that got swept off the road--I think everyone was OK, but pretty frightening. Many of the roads through this part of the country (the southernmost state) are closed, including this one.
Here is the water rushing by on the side of the road--those palm trees are pretty high!
These folks seem to be making the best of the situation, checking out the flooding and the passers-by--some were even fishing! Through out Malaysia, however, over 100 000 people have been evacuated, and some of the shelters are starting to run out of space, food and water. It's a bad situation--the worst flooding in over 100 years, apparently.
Today it was finally sunny, and a local guy told us that he thinks the monsoon season will be over this weekend. Here's hoping that will be true!