How To Survive REAL Rain in Thailand and Hong Kong.
About submarine-scooters and gouged-eye-canapes.
Life brings all sorts of life lessons. In Hong Kong, there is no better test of a high guard than when it is raining. Everyone takes out their umbrella and open them while under the roof. You shall not pass, even if you have no umbrella, and try to walk the street underneath those tiny roofs of the shops. Because there they are, the Balrogs, the Hong Kong aunties with umbrellas walking UNDER the roofs. Hong Kong logic = no umbrella, you are not qualified for a roof.
Back to the high guard. I am 170cm tall and in Hong Kong that means TALL. Even though young people are taller now, when it is raining and everyone opens their umbrella, they are exactly in the height of your eyes. My blocks and the high guard were never better than when trying not to have my eyes gauged like a canape on a toothpick.
The funny thing about being tall has nothing to do with rain, but if that offends you, just skip a paragraph. I always had trouble not laughing because when I was in the MTR (metro) and all I could see were dark color hair heads, with hair pulled into the eyes and bent over iPhone screens, I felt like in Japanese horror.
I spent the last 8 years in Hong Kong where there are two seasons per year: rainy and wet. When it was not raining, the air was so humid that water literally run down the walls inside your house. Hong Kong has built its city with a number of bridges, underpasses, and overpasses, where you can quite effectively keep yourself dry when raining.
Thailand, on the other hand… Well, let’s start with the idea that you are actually on the scooter. In the middle of the rain. Rain that strong, that you can see a meter ahead. And no, staying at home until it stops raining sometimes is not an option, because it may take hours as well as days.
Autumn 2022 was especially bad for flooding. I was lucky that my place stayed dry, but I was one of the minority. Our gym emptied more and more day by day because people were either flooded or stuck. Every time I left the house to go training I would think: “Hmm, ok, I guess I can’t take this road back anymore,” and I would have to start going around in hilarious circles to be able to find roads back that were not underwater.
That’s when I learned the ultimate lesson: How do you know the water is too deep to drive through on the scooter?
Not sure if that is true, but so far no scooter died while writing this blog post.
The wisdom passed from generation to generation under the full moon is that if the water reaches below half of your calves (what is the length of a standardized calf?!) you are fine. That is when you are on the scooter. So when you are standing, it is freaking deep!
Photo by Hannah Tims on Unsplash
