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YOGYAKARTA - First some lightning and later with a rolling thunder from the south, a bunch of dark clouds heads towards the north. After two rainshowers yesterday afternoon it is very likely that it will rain again today. A clear sign that the wet monsoon finally will kick of. Somewhat late, but with half a year of virtually no rain at all, every single drop of rain is a gift from God for farmers and people with their own garden. Yesterdays rain was just a reminder of the arrival of the wet monsoon and also cleaned the streets from the dust that had been gathered in all possible and impossible places during the last six months.
All of a sudden I realize that it is almost November already, and however a little later than earlier announced - what not in Indonesia - it was about to happen anyway. The previous wet season was shorter than average and also brought less water than it normally does. With that given fact we here in Yogyakarta and environs entered the dry season. Drought at a large scale was feared, but now at the end of the dry season it will become clear that man and nature alike seem to have survived this ordeal as well. A bright lightning draws my attention and I look outside. The first raindrops touch the seemingly fresh green leaves, causing them to dance slightly. What a nice idea after all those months of drought - here in Yogya we didn't see much rain indeed - to be sitting in the rain once again.
However you will need to take this weather - with it's almost daily returning rains - into account a little, by finishing your business before the first rain or to bring an umbrella, raincoat or piece of plastic, this doesn't cause dramatic changes in the daily rhythm here. Getting up on time is a real benefit here; the times it is raining here at six in the morning is very low actually. The remaining days of the wet season have a fairly regular returning afternoon rainstorm which typically lasts several hours, every once in a while until the evening, but very rarely until the next morning.
Not quite as heavy as in this picture, but the wet season promises a lot of rain in the coming months.
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Now it's waiting for nature which will develop itself in the coming weeks - even in the coming days. Soon everything will be colored fresh green; trees and plants which have backed down for months will start an immediate growth race to catch as much sunlight as soon as possible to extend their growth. Other trees start blossoming and will soon start to develop their delicious fruits. A good example are the rambutan, a lychee-like fruit. Earlier this month some kinds already blossomed and now it is time to produce fruits so they can be picked and eaten in about two months time. For three or four weeks I can get unlimited amounts of those fruits from my own trees here. Since it's just a short period, I'll have to enjoy it then.
When writing this piece a thundershower comes over, bringing the very first heavy thunders. Lightning however gives enough time to prepare for such a bang. The rain is not really tropical of quantity at the moment; it more resembles that wat usually falls in the Netherlands. But those are not tomorrow's facts. It is very well possible that it will be a pouring rain for several hours in which 50 millimeters of rainfall per hour is possible. That is five buckets of water on every square meter. No garden hose that will do that job, because that is what you need at the end of the dry season when you have your own garden to maintain. Fortunately plants here self-regulate themselves pretty well; some die off during the early days of the dry season, but have by now almost fully recovered. As if they knew it was about to rain. Which weatherman can make such a perfect predictions?
The rujak-seller makes his trip through the neighborhood with an umbrella above his head and some schoolchildren enjoy themselves with the first rains. With a flickering lightbulb above my head and the emergency power supply that makes its first call of the season the power goes down. That was kind of early in the season. I realize that I am in Indonesia and not in a modern Western country with perfect utilities - which fail as well. My laptop does what I expect from it and let me finish my texts. Even better, internet still works without any problem so if I want I can always look for pictures of blue skies. For now I will just enjoy this for a few months.
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Yerun, is there also a "dry monsoon" then? 
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Of course there is, monsoon just means 'seaonal prevailing wind' in fact. 
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Yesterday there was some localized flooding more downtown, but with 70 mm of rain in some three hours that is barely amazing. It looks clean in the streets again and the garden here gets greener with the hour 
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