When it rains the river rises (well, duh!)

By John Roberts
19 May 2009 02:47:00

The signs are all around: the mahouts' kids are beginning to look like Lychees they've eaten so much of the ripe, red fruit; the other day I got my first sighting of the daftest beauty around, the Blue-winged Pitta (Pitta moluccensis); every night-time dinner has to be eaten in the dark to avoid eating the swarms of maeng mao (flying termites drunkenly, it seems, searching for new homes, usually down my shirt or in my plate of sticky rice); the guys are suddenly interested in all those little roofing jobs I've been asking them to do for months; the eles come to work each morning with an inch of mud caked to their backs, the laundry operatives responsible for mahout uniform start stoning my car on sight; the bigger mahout kids have got severe haircuts and have gone to school; the hillsides are ablaze with colour from flowering trees and you can no longer see the ground for the new bamboo leaves; I need mud tyres on the Kawasaki to avoid spilling my coffee on the way to work; my flip-flopped toenails have turned a red mud brown....
 
    ....and, for those of you not as tuned into the natural rhythms of life and all these natural harbingers as I am, as an extra hint, the sky has dropped four and a half inches of rain on us in the last five days, oh, and our peaceful little river is now up to your chest and there's no way you can stand - my favourite time of year is upon us.

    Call it what you will, the green season, the wet season, the monsoon has arrived.



    The baby elephants are grateful for the aircraft hanger Anantara built for them...



...the maeng mao leave their wings on Nam Chok's back...



...there's plenty of green grass down at the polo pitch for Boun Na and Lanna to enjoy...



...hmmm, I swear I could ride my ele in here yesterday without getting wet...





...we suddenly find out which mahouts can swim...



...and which elephants secretly enjoy the feeling of being swept away in the torrent.