Puddle Protocol
When it rains here, the street in front of our house floods. A giant puddle can appear which has to be navigated by those that use the road, which is the main route down to the Tonle Sap - a giant lake in the middle of Cambodia (not our front yard, but it almost seems that way). It's rained hard every night for the past four nights and last night was the worst. It truly rained buckets (and more are forecast for today) through the night, only stopping around 3am. This morning, the puddle stretches completely across the entire road, and is at least 6-8 inches deep in the middle.
Different folks approach the puddle in very different ways. I like to think of this as the "puddle protocol" and it comes in at least these variations:
The careful ones
These are the folks that slow down and try to not get very wet. Of course, their success relies a lot on the other users (some of whom splash a lot!)
The splashers
Then there are the splashers - those that don't really care if they make a splash or get very wet. Some of them even pick up their feet even while they are splashing through the water.
Devil-may-care!
A higher level of splasher is one who doesn't seem to care at all. Many of these will even speed up as they enter the puddle.
Cargo & all!
Of course, the road is host to more than just people on motos. Many users are also carrying cargo, sometimes a lot of it, and they have to get through no matter the water.
Autos & Tuk-Tuks
Finally, there are the big guys - the automobiles, trucks and tuk-tuks. Most of them are also splashers so it's the devil's gamble when you are on bicycle or afoot how much wetter they will get you!
The cars and tuk-tuks don't seem to care much who they splash - many don't even slow down for the puddles. In some cases. this has other repercussions, e.g. our neighbor's front yard is flooded from the splash overflow (and that in turn is draining through our back yard and flooding it, ...)
A morning's entertainment!
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