Clouds over the Tonle Sap.

Around three in the afternoon billowing white thunderheads begin to fill the sky. Soon they loom over the entire lake. Later in the afternoon the clouds are tinged orange and red by the setting sun. As the thunderheads push higher into the atmosphere the winds increase, pulling warm air and moisture from the lake into the towering clouds. The shallow brown water begins to roll in low waves--each crest tinged bright green by algal blooms.

After sunset the storm clouds are illuminated internally by the constant flash of lightning. Hours later the rains arrive. The large drops resonate on tin and bamboo roofs--they fill barrels and pots with clear, cool water. Shortly after starting the rains stop, silence settles over the lake, and the clouds are replaced by innumerable stars.

During these hot, dry months of spring the rains are a welcomed rarity. Momentary relief from the baking sun and heat. Once the rainy season arrives these storms come with such intense regularity that after a few months the lake will rise nearly eight meters. As the water rises whole villages will go up with it, buoyed by hundreds of long bamboo floats. The lake will spill into its floodplain, covering hundreds of kilometers of pasture, rice paddy, and forest--quenching the parched earth.