I finally broke down...
...and bought an umbrella. It's not monsoon season yet, but everyone says the rains have started early this year. Wow, such rains they are. You can literally see the downpour in the rainbow umbrella impromptu photoshoot we did the last night at Koh Lanta:
The first night of the documentary shoot we stayed in a very rural village with a small hill tribe. After a few beers and some interviews we collapsed on our bedrolls, it was quite a long day. Then around 3am one of the most intense storms I have ever experienced rolled in. Constant thunder, lightning, rain in sheets. I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep until the roof started leaking, at which point it was a mad scramble to make sure the equipment was ok, and to relocate to the lower level. That was fine until the rain started leaking through the second story floor onto us; fortunately they had a tarp on hand., and the cameras were fine. I was too sleepy to take any epic storm photos, though I took one of our second sleeping spot the next morning:
Since I've been in Laos it's rained every day. The aforementioned umbrella was purchased in another downpour, yet somehow rain managed to come through it, and I was totally soaked from the waist down. Fortunately it's not constant yet; we had some nice sun today for the waterfall in which I went swimming.