Weather
on So Now It's Cambodia (Cambodia), 01/Apr/2011 08:47, 34 days ago
Normal0falsefalsefalseMicrosoftInternetExplorer4st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}One of the attractions of Cambodia for many people is the warm weather. The tourist or high season is December to February. During this time the weather is warm by Cambodian standards but hot compared to English summers! It is dry and consistent. Most tourists are here to see the temples at Angkor Wat which is just outside Siem Reap. Because of the heat and the walking around needed to see the temples well, many start early– around 5.00am. This can have the added bonus of seeing a beautiful purple pink sunrise over the main temple at Angkor Wat. Usually!!This year, there has been rain and even a few storms during this time. Temperatures have varied more than they seemed to last year. There has also been more cloud cover so some people have travelled half way around the world for a beautiful sunrise or sunset to be greeted with rather English grey cloud instead! Then they like to lie by the hotel pool to recover from their exertions– this too has been unreliable. We’ve often felt a bit chilly and at times the water has been cold.All this is, of course, relative! Compared to having to dress up warm, stay indoors with the heating on etc. that people enjoy back home, our short sleeves and shorts lifestyle is very comfortable, as is being able to swim outdoors. I’m not the only one who doesn’t usually need pyjamas at night but if the temperature drops overnight I might pull a sheet over me – in extreme cases – wear pyjamas as well!!March and April are usually the hottest (and dry) months of the year. When we arrived back from Bangkok last year at the beginning of March it was scorching and much hotter than we’d left it half way through February. These months are not best for tourism as it’s so hot, though some hotels call it their mid season (an excuse to charge more I think!). This year has definitely not been so hot and there has been the odd thunder and (very dramatic) lightning storm accompaniedby rain which is much more typical of the rainy season - which should be May to November.However, in the last few days we have experienced the coldest weather many people have known for a long time here. I believe the temperature dropped to 25 in the middle of the day to around 20 at night. Now you might dream of such balmy conditions back home, especially after a harsh winter but for the Cambodian people this feels really cold. It should be about 35 to 40 now. The amazing thing is that we and other volunteers we know, now feel pretty much the same! To us it felt freezing! So we must have really acclimatised to the weather even though the heat can still be very wearing.This meant shutting the doors, shutting the shutters, turning the fans off and wearing clothes!! I mean wearing lots of clothes! Long trousers, thicker T shirt (where usually a T shirt is too hot - I rarely wear a shirt in the house!) and my thick winter jacket from home! I even resorted to socks in the morning!! I was dressed like an Englishman! At night, I was rummaging around for a thick blanket to put over the thin blanket and even wore a shirt under my pyjamas!!! Very cozy!On Tuesday, I went to the University in Sisophon where I have been going a couple of mornings a week to help with English pronunciation. The teachers are Khmer and have never studied (or even been) abroad and the students are around 20 to 21 years old. The teachers know their grammar and spelling very well and put me to shame. They use a structured course from a book and the students are taking a bridging course in year 0! Yes, year 0! They are all studying a range of other subjects but this course is to help raise their standard of English as it’s seen as so useful out here.A couple of views from the tuk tuk on the way to and from the university:I had been asked to do a session of about 30 minutes on description this week so I prepared a description of a moto accident I had seen in Siem Reap recently– fortunately, there was no serious injury as it was in slow motion at a cross roads in town. When I arrived, the teacher asked me to take the whole session (1hr.15mins.). As the weather was the “hot” topic this week I started with a question and answer session with them on that. Starting with: why do English people talk about the weather so much?! It was accepted that it was exceptionally cold this week but when I showed them typical temperatures in England they were horrified! We went on to compare Cambodian and English houses. One bright student stood up (local custom) and said we hadthings like electricity, lots of furniture and equipment in our houses. Cambodian houses are designed for the outdoor life and for air to flow through the many openings as well as being on stilts in case of flooding.....A view of the river at the back of the university taken from the cafe:I went on to describe double glazing and central heating. Even the teacher said he’d learnt something as he didn’t understand how that worked before! I hope I explained it properly as I’m no engineer!!! So with it being so cold we were really wishing for central heating and double glazing. Weirdly though, it’s now Friday and the heat’s back and the sweat and the shortsand no shirt – so much nicer to moan about being too hot!!!