Just in case you were wondering what it looks like a few minutes before one is about to get drenched in the tropics, this should give you some idea. Even without any wind, it rained hard enough to sting bare skin.

I did some much needed laundry all the while thinking of the different type of rain Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump recalls while describing how soldiering in Viet Nam. Sideways rain, upside down rain, stinging rain ...