Floods and Snow - A Fine Day In May!

Thursday night saw the first proper rain of 2009 in Mongolia. It bucketed down / heavens opened / rained cate and dogs / p*ssed down / etc. Despite my love of the continual Mongolian blue skies and sunshine, the rain actually made a nice change.

I woke on Friday morning to snow (and I thought winter had left us ages ago).

Looking out my kitchen window I could see that road (pavement, playground, school....) was flooded.

My short walk to work was to turned into an assault course, followed by wading across the road when we realised that we couldn't walk around the flooded road.

First, getting out of the apartment: luckily some good soul had put some broken breeze-blocks down as stepping stones. Next: climb over the small wall next to the building entrance and walk across the 'garden' (patch of mud), up onto the steps of the entrance to an art shop next door and onto the pavement. Then: with the road and pavement ahead flooded, walk carefully along the raised curb (and make it quick before the car comes).

And then we found that the only way across was for me to take my shoes and socks off, roll up my trousers and carry the girlfriend!

The Mongolian attitude to rain is a polar opposite to the British. As people arrived in the office, everyone was in a great mood, enjoying the rain and not really minding the flooded roads, soggy shoes, and leaking roofs.

A nice change, I guess, but can I have my blue skies back now please?