Drowning...

For the last week or so there's been a big cloud over northern Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. It has been sitting over this area and drenching us with rain. This week we've had more flooding. It was almost as bad as last month, but people are getting good at watching the signs for flooding and being prepared. Needless to say, life doesn't go on as normal. Schools have been out for the last two days. On Tuesday, we got word that the river was rising and all students had to go home. It's sort of nice to have a break from the routine but it's difficult to be always worrying about the flooding. The ground is saturated and the reservoirs are full, so with every heavy rain we have a difficult time leaving our house as our street turns into a river. Thankfully, our house was built high and the water doesn't usually come up to our floor level. Today, we decided to take a break from the flood and the work attached to it and went to a hot springs outside of town with our friends. It was a cool place to go. Normally, hot springs aren't very appealling, but with the cool weather the rains have brought made it just right. Here's a picture of some of the signs by one of the springs. One says Careful Heat Water and Careful to slide. We bathed in the hot springs and boiled eggs.