Rain on the River

I have very few photos that capture stormy weather but this is one of them.
We were in Northern Laos at a wonderful lodge in the small hamlet of Muang La. The lodge had a small island in the middle of the Nam Park river where guests could sit in a covered, elevated tower. We were in this in this small grass thatched space when the sky opened up and started pouring.

As we sat there we say these two groups of local villagers – the one of the left bank of the river who was out washing their clothes (note the metal pail behind him). And the two people crossing the river on the bamboo raft. On the left side of the river is more of a village with a temple and vendors. On the opposite side is a more residential area with dwellings made of bamboo on stilts to avoid heavy rains.

You can see how long the bamboo rafts are with the one at top right, behind the person washing clothes. As you can see these are not rafts that keep you dry, but allow you to cross to the other side of the river.

Lastly in this photo you can see the intensity of the rain – both in the drops hitting the river and also when you look at the large rocks and the vegetation at the top of the photo. It was really “coming down”. It stopped raining after a short time and we were able to cross the river on a bridge and back to our lodge.