Freak Storm

We decided that it would be fun to get a cycle rickshaw back after dinner which was a bad mistake! It started to flash with lightening and we were willing our driver to speed up, but to no avail. We resigned ourselves to getting very wet. But that would have been fine compared to what happened....

Our driver was hit on the back by a hail stone so pulled over under a tree only for a fierce deluge of golf ball size hail stones to rain down on us - no exaggeration! We had a small piece of fabric above our head which we sheltered under with our driver. It only lasted or two minutes and we were on our way.

Thinking that was it, we just sat in our soggy clothes hoping to get home soon and discussing how large a tip we would give our persistent driver who was more wet than we were....but then a power line fell down across the road with a spark and all the lights went out. And a short while later the golf balls pelted down again and we tried to shelter under a tree again. This time a woman who was passing also sheltered with us so she and Michelle sat on either side of me while our backs got pelted with ice...it was really painful! We were just trying to make sure our heads stayed under the abric cover we had as one on the head could have been lethal....

Just as we were asking ourselves how long it could go on for as it looked like it might never end, it stopped with the hailing and just rained hard....our driver got back on and drove us through the blacked out streets back to our hotel (which fortunately had a generator) - needless to say the driver got a big tip! The locals tell us that the last time they had a storm like that was 28 years ago...