Monsoon Rains

The hours of sunlight I experienced during my one week visit to Myanmar total 3. I am entirely confident in this number because my jetlag was such that I woke up before the sun was presumably rising and fell asleep after it had presumably set. However, I never saw a sunrise or a sunset through the dark monsoon rain clouds.

This was a little disappointing because the big thing to see in Yangon is the Shwedagon Pagoda which apparently is beautiful at sunset. So we waited for a day when there was a sunset to see it, and such a day never arrived (we went on our last day instead).

Every time I left the hotel, I was handed an umbrella. I think there was someone employed by the hotel whose only job was to hand out umbrellas to everyone. I brought a rain coat but it was so humid I couldn't imagine putting anything long sleeved on. So umbrellas it was- everywhere.

The nice thing about a rainy rainy place, is that foot fashion just cannot matter. Everyone must wear flip flops at all times- that is simply the only reasonable option. You are constantly stepping in mud and puddles- so you step in mud and your feet get gross, and then you step in a puddle and they're clean again. No squeaky wet shoes- boots would be filled with sweat moments after putting them on- so flip flops it is.

According to my colleagues, it rains for about 5 months of the year- and the rain is particularly heavy for two months (July-August). Sometimes colleagues in monsoon climates ask me when it rains in the US and I never have an adequate answer. I guess according to poem there are showers in Aprils that bring flowers in May (and then Pilgrims!) but by no stretch of the imagination could we call April a rainy season. It rains in a totally unpredictable fashion in the US. Sometimes I try to explain "maybe it rains on Monday and Thursday but not any other day that week" and that usually doesn't work, and then I try "you have to watch the weather channel every morning to know if it's going to rain or not". Again, not a ton of success. One nice thing about the monsoon rains in Myanmar is that you never have to wonder- it will most certainly rain multiple times every day.

I think that in rainy places, people are much more aware of the skies. It is entirely possible that I am abnormally oblivious to my environment but I almost never know when it's going to rain. However, people in Myanmar seem to get some sort of signal for a five minute warning. Change in wind? Pressure shift? Sky color? I don't know what it is but you really don't see people "caught in the rain without an umbrella".

There was a pool boy at my hotel- and as far as I could tell, his job consisted of sweeping the pool deck and then putting out and removing the lounge chair cushions 100 times a day. If there was a small period of no rain, the cushions all went out, and then magically, 30 seconds before the rain began to fall again, he would put them all back. I started taking my cues for impending downpours from him.

Rain Rain Go Away
Come Again Another Day (season)
(Not so) Little Laura Wants To Play (or just walk in dry shoes)
Rain Rain Go Away