A land of elemental weather.

A couple of days ago, I got to learn the real meaning of "weather". It is not the meaning Europeans customarily know.

We were in a shopping centre and had just about finished up, when we heard the rain outside. It was not rain as you might think of rain, if you have never been to this part of the world. It was rain times a hundred. It was an absolute deluge.

We called a cab, but we couldn't get one.

We went outside to wait, under the shelter of an overhanging roof. Beyond the roof, the world seemed a dark grey, with every line blurred into a ghostly haziness.

Fortunately, a taxi arrived to drop someone off. One of the staff from the shopping centre got him to wait for us to approach.

Unusually, the driver helped us pack our bags into the back of the taxi.

Then there began one of the most bizarre taxi rides we have ever had. Though it had only been raining perhaps some ten minutes, the water was deep in the roads - many inches deep, perhaps a foot in places. As the car cut through it, a wall of spray shot up on both sides of us, about six feet high. Every time a car past us, at any speed, an avalanche of water would land on the taxi, obscuring the windows and making the driver temporarily unable to see anything on the road at all. The windscreen wipers fought back bravely...but they were far from winning.

I did wonder if all this water would drown the engine. Fortunately, though it was not quite deep enough to do that.

"We could almost do with a boat." I remarked, on seeing the depth of water ahead of us.

No-one said anything. I think at times like this, there is nothing more important to focus on than nature herself.

Then came the most bizarre moment of all. The taxi driver slowed, not because he saw anything ahead, but because he couldn't see anything ahead. The rain was so heavy, the skies so grey, vision so blurred that it was impossible to see why what was happening was happening. Cars were coming the wrong way down the road. They were turning around up ahead, driving back, then turning off onto the road to our left.

"They are all turning left." said the driver, a bit obviously, but with a strange puzzlement in his voice, since he was unable to see why.

Then there was a stirring in the wind, ahead. We could just make out the outline of a fully grown tree laying across the whole of the road ahead. No wonder they were turning around and coming back. The whole road was completely blocked.

"That could have killed someone..." I remarked unnecessarily, on noting no car beneath it, "and still could, since it is so difficult to see."

No one said anything. I think, by now, everyone was focussed on just getting through this incredible weather in one piece.

The driver turned left, onto the side road, like everyone else and drove us slowly to our destination...or should I say floated us to our destination.

It was the sheer suddenness of the weather that made it so surprising. When we went into the shopping centre, it was a hot sunny afternoon. When we came out, it was in the midst of a downpour unlike anything Europe has ever seen. Bright skies, had become dark grey - and within minutes, a huge tree that had stood no doubt for many decades, had fallen across our road home. It was quite surreal, and more than a tad dangerous, for visibility was measured in metres and every driver on that road was partially blind.

We made it home, however. A nice touch was that the driver got out of the cab, to help us with our shopping. Thanks to "John Ng", for his careful driving in such elemental weather.