Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Farm road wet as a river

The above scene is typical of Bintulu these days. Since my arrival here last Friday, it has been raining everyday, if not in the day it will surely rain at night. This morning while on the way out to fetch my worker I was met with heavy downpour that made the earth road slippery and negotiating up the steep hilly slope a tricky adventure. But I managed only because I used a 4x4 vehicle.
For Sarawak, the months of November to January are referred to as the 'Landas' season or the rainy monsoon season. The term monsoon was made popular by Arab traders who found that two monsoons a year come to tropical Asia bringing in solid downpour of rain in different places at different times. In Arabic 'musim' means season.  For example the North Easterly winds that blow through the months of November till January will result in torrentious rain for Sarawak, Borneo, Sumatra and Java. While the South westerly winds will wet the areas of India, Thailand and the western parts of Peninsular Malaysia. 

2 comments:

Geri said...

Where exactly is Bintulu? It does really look wet and I heard those monsoons can't be terrible in that they can wash everything away. So, be safe!

Mahmud Yussop said...

Hi, TQ for droppin'by. Bintulu is a town situated in the middle coastal strip of the northern coast of Borneo island( in South East Asia)It faces the open South China Sea. Politically it is part of East Malaysia which comprises the two states of Sabah and Sarawak. Bintulu is in Sarawak.Yes this year the monsoon rains have created floods and thousands of people in West Malaysia have been evacuated.However there are no serious floods in Sabah and Sarawak this year.