Rainbow
THE RAINBOW
There are few visions that truly take your breath away, but if you are really alive, and really looking, they are all around. This particular vision was one such vision and I doubt that many people have had such a glorious experience as this.
Dining by the Chao Prya River in the Thailand town of Nakon Sawan (250km north of Bangkok) is always a most pleasant experience. We arrived in the later afternoon, and the rain was just starting as we walked into the restaurant. This is an open air restaurant with views across and up and down the river. Upstream on the river to the north we can see the main road bridges and they are particularly impressive at night and really a beautiful sight. To the south, the river winding its way down ultimately to Bangkok. This is actually the birth place of the Chao Prya as it is born from four smaller rivers just to the north of the main city.
As we dined, the stormy rain and wind swirled around and we had to move further inside the restaurant to avoid being wet from the rain being driven in by the blustery wind – a typical Thailand afternoon in the rainy season that seems to have started a bit early this year.
Suddenly the rain stopped, and the sun burst through the stormy clouds low in the western sky bathing the whole area with a bright and slightly golden light. My view was restricted by the roof line of the restaurant, but I looked out across the river and saw the most extraordinary sight of just the end of a rainbow just on the opposite bank of the river. Running out to the balcony I then beheld the sight of a rainbow such as I have never seen before.
The rain was still tinkling down a little, and I was getting a bit wet, although I hardly notices. It was a sight to leave you breathless and that is what happened. Without moving for some time, I just stood and stared. I wished I had a camera, and the only thing I had was my mobile phone, so that came out and I started to snap away. The entire rainbow seemed very near, and it was impossible to fit it all into the frame in one shot, so I took a few sequences to capture all of it.
The surrounding sky was the most amazing blue while inside the bow was strangely much brighter and a very golden color. The rainbow itself was almost shimmering, and became a double bow and was equally bright over the whole thing from end to end. I have never seen anything like that before, so perfectly formed and bright.
Then I became aware of the other diners in the restaurant who were looking at me rather curiously. They seemed more amazed at my reaction than they ever were about the rainbow itself even though, I would think none had ever seen such a dazzling display themselves either.
I really did want to ask those watching me and seeming to ignore the rainbow if they really knew what it was out there that we were all witnessing. Depending on your viewpoint, this spectacle is either a clear demonstration of God’s promise never to destroy the world with a universal flood again – or it is purely a matter of physics with a wonderful display of the interaction of sunlight through the heavily moisture laden air causing it to refract into its various wavelengths of light and so colour.
For me, it was a glimpse into the wonders of the universe. Truely an eternal monent.
“Someday we’ll find it
The Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me”
