On my way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Feeling pretty rested after the 14 hour flight from Melbourne direct to Dubai. I'm really thankful for a fairly unfilled aircraft and a whole row of seats to lay out on to sleep. Got to watch  the movie 'Spotlight' that had been on my 'to view' list. The Qantas staff were outstanding.

 Right now I am sitting in Departure Lounge 21 waiting for my next flight to Addis Ababa. I'm chatting with some young people and learning how to greet Ethiopians in their language, Amharic. If I want to say 'Hello' to a female I will say Selamnesh. If I am greeting a male I will say Salamne. I have no idea if the spelling is anywhere close, but the young people I'm chatting with don't know the English letters to correct me and Google Translate is not helpful. I did find a blog that has helped me with 'Thank you'. It's amaseganalehu. It might take me a couple of days to get my tongue around that one, but I'll need to master it.

The young guys I'm sitting with are soccer referees who have just been to Mauritius to referee the game between Mauritius and Ghana and right now they're on the Hillsong website listening to music. Good company, but our languages are not overlapping a lot :) Good practice for the next three months!

Just in case you're interested in the weather in Addis Ababa, just click on the blue link. Seems like mid-twenties during the days and cooler at night. Think I can manage that as I think of my friends and family back home in winter temparatures .

My free hour on the internet is about up so I'll hope and plan to be back here in a couple of days.

The rainy season in Thailand

It's rainy season right now in northern Thailand.
Well, it's nearing the end of the rainy season. Soon it will be what they call 'winter' but it's nothing like the winter that I'm familiar with.

The rainy season goes from the end of May until end of October, but it's wettest in September. 

Check it out here, if you like http://www.1stopchiangmai.com/about_cm/seasons/

The rainy season is characterized by torrential downpours. They can be sudden bursts that only last for half an hour or so or solid rain for hours at a time - mostly at night, thankfully.
Meanwhile the temperature remains in the thirties!

And the mini lakes in our garden form within minutes of the start of a downpour. And our tropical paradise becomes a wet tropical paradise!

Here Alicia is wondering if she'll venture out in the rain or not.

We're not inconvenienced by it too much. The downpours are usually over pretty quickly, the water drains away and we go on as if they hadn't occurred, except that it's very slushy underfoot.

I was sorry I didn't take photos of us caught in a downpour a couple of weeks ago at the night bazaar in Chiang Mai. It was raining SERIOUSLY and we got VERY wet 

and I LOVED it!
You would have enjoyed seeing me in my mauve disposable waterproof poncho.