CAUGHT IN THE RAIN

Our luck with the rain finally ran out last night as Tim and I were caught in a downpour on her motorbike about a half-hour from home.  It wouldn't have been so bad if the huge raindrops didn't hurt so much when they pounded into us.  Tim was slightly more lucky than I since she was wearing a thin jacket; my cabana shirt, however, didn't offer much protection from the cold water.  I think I'll try to find a windbreaker at the earliest opportunity to store in her motorbike for future storms.

We had been returning from an evening in Patong and Kamala.  Most of our day had been spent at home cleaning and finishing the laundry from Sunday.  I also enjoyed some down-time to get caught up on my reading (I'm fully immersed in Nelson DeMille's Night Fall right now).  Once we got out-and-about, our primary concern was finding an Internet cafe from which I could upload my photos.  We found a couple of places that did have CD-ROM drives on the computers but they either didn't work or had some sort of restrictions to prevent customers inadvertantly adding viruses to their machines.  I think today I'll try using my memory stick to upload a couple of photo folders at a time; this method would take a long time but at least I'd make some progress.  Another option would be to try taking my laptop down to Starbucks in Patong where they have a free wireless connection but I really don't want to cart the computer all over the island in my backpack (not waterproof in case it rains).  Or, I could just wait for our phone line to be installed and use the home dial-up connection (our landlord told me he would arrange the installation later this week).

Failing at the Internet cafes, we found ourselves in Patong shortly before sunset so Tim purchased some food at a cart and we drove to a park on the high hill overlooking southern Patong Beach.  It was a very nice setting and I really enjoyed the barbecue chicken and rice we ate.  After dinner, we drove north to Kamala and visited Puk at the restaurant she works at.  We began the long drive home around 9:00, stopped at a garage to have the oil changed on the motorbike, and watched the massive lightning display in the sky above us as we roared over the mountain between Patong and Kathu.  I truly believed that the rain would hold off long enough for us to make it home but we felt the first large droplets on our heads just as we approached the outer reaches of Phuket Town.  The clouds really let loose a few minutes later and we pulled over to the side of the road and cowered under an awning directly opposite the large Makro Cash-And-Carry store.  After several minutes there, we decided to make a run for it since home was another 20 minutes away and the storm showed no signs of letting up.  I was very impressed with Tim's driving skills as I couldn't see a single thing in front of us and she didn't have a faceplate on her helmet.  I did notice that there were very few other motorbikes left on the roads as we roared down them.  We did make a quick stop at our local 7-Eleven where I waded inside (suffering the onslaught of the store's heavy-duty air-conditioning) to purchase a couple of bottles of Singha and a recharge card for my cell phone.  After hanging our thoroughly soaked clothes in our showers at home, we called it an early night.

I have no idea what our plans are for today.  I did have a thought of just taking a drive somewhere without any specific goal but I haven't yet run that by Tim.  And we have yet to visit the Zoo (very near our house) or other nearby attractions that I'm curious about...