View from the Rooftop

Walking around the vicinity of Bangplad, Bangkok at night shows no different thing from anywhere in Bangkok. The street signs, food vendors, folks eating pad thai or tom yum are sights seen throughout the metropolis.

I wanted some place different to point my lens at. This night was windy and a hint of thunderstorm was at the distant Bang Na area. Only one thing came to my mind: Lightning shots!

The perfect vantage point was of course, across the street from home, the place I go to everyday to earn my baht- the Hospital! Rising ten floors up and with the fifteen-floor building under construction, this hospital was like a giant compared to the buildings around.

I wasted no time and went up the the rooftop. The hum and vibration caused by the three giant water coolers was nothing compares to the wind blowing from the majestic Chao Phraya River which was 3 blocks away from the hospital. It was drizzling when I got to the top and I was having second thoughts because I knew thunderstorms in Bangkok were practically electric storms and all the steel frames over my head would surely attract a lightning bolt.

I decided to push on with my plan: to capture lightning in my camera's digital memory. The only risk I thought of at the moment was only being shocked by a million volts. Not that bad, huh?

I stayed for almost two hours on top, trying to catch that ever illusive lightning shot. Well, as the night slowly deepened, All I got were lousy lightning shots and a few city scapes and cloud shots that might be worth keeping just to remind me of that one boring, rainy night in Bangkok.