back from mondulkiri

The weekend before last we went to a province near Vietnam, you'll see photos on our main blog. Last weekend we both had colds with a bit of a fever- not fun! It didn't help that the weather was really really hot and really really humid. The air was like thick soup, so hard to move to do anything, and hard to sleep cos of heat and fever and pain. And the power was off on Monday which made it worse for 2 reasons- we were hotter cos we couldn't turn the fan on- and we were frustrated cos we couldn't do what we had planned to do, it was all depending on the power being on.

Anyway, we just have the tail end of our colds hanging around now, Sunday and monday were the worse, since then its been much easier.

A bit of a storm

So there was a bit of a storm in the Philippines on the weekend and its moved on to SE Asia:
Typhoon Ketsana has left a trail of destruction across Southeast Asia on Wednesday, killing at least 49 people in Vietnam and Cambodia and churning towards Laos, officials say.

Tens of thousands of people had fled their homes to escape flooding caused by Ketsana, which had already killed 246 when it struck the Philippines over the weekend as a weaker tropical storm. (click on quote to see full article)

I got a weather warning email from the Oz embassy with these two links if I wanted to know more:
Humanitarian Early Warning Service
Mekong River Commission

We haven't had a storm in the last few days but there is still water sitting on the driveway and volley ball court. Green slime is starting to grow.
Haven't had as much internet access recently so can't blog as much as I'd like.

Its only just May and already the Bible school is kind of flooded. The new roads are higher than the old, so i guess the water has to run off to some where. It didn't flood like this until around August last year.

almost but not yet

With the heat and the power cuts its been hard for many people to sleep. At school today all the teachers talked about when their power was out and how long for, and what time they did/didn't sleep.
It is also hard for them to teach this week as some people have already gone on holidays. New Year isn't until this week but many schools had this week off too. Those who could have already travelled to their home province as the bus ticket prices will be more expensive next week.
Hot, sleepy, and not yet on holidays!

Deadliest bushfires ever

I've been listening to Radio Australia a lot the last few days to hear the bush fire news. About an hour ago I heard this. The death toll is up to 131. So horrible, I hope it ends soon. 

Cold weather part 3

It's still cold....I'm not the only one writing about it, in the Phnom penh post there is an article about the soldiers on the border (yes, still there) who are cold- Not equipped for cold.

Also on KI media Unusual cold season

Cold weather part 2

While we head south on the weekend others headed north, someone told me that it got down to 16 up there! I caught up with a Khmer girl this morning who said she couldn't sleep when she was there as she was so cold, if she stayed there a few days maybe she'd be close to death. She was worried about old people and kids, with cold weather how can they survive. 

If you live somewhere where it gets even cold than this , it might sound strange to you. But most of the year Cambodia is much warmer, so people aren't prepared for these low temps. As well as people's bodies being used to much warmer weather most people also don't have the sort of clothes that we might call "winter clothes". Also houses are built with he heat in mind, wooden houses on stilts have bamboo slates for the floor, this way the air can flow. And people don't usually wash in hot water. I haven't washed my hair for awhile- its just too cold.

The cold weather rated a mention in the paper- click here.

And by the way, when my Khmer friend saw my pink beanie (see photos below) she started laughing. She said that's the kind of hat that women wear after they have given birth. New mothers are kept warm and given a special alcoholic medicinal drink.

Cold weather

Recently it has been in the low 20s here, colder than usual. I've had to wear all the clothes I can find both at day and night. I'm not used to dressing for such cold weather. Soeun has been taking photos of me, he thinks its funny I find Cambodian weather so cold. He wonders how I lived through winter in north China, where is was almost 40 degrees less that this! (minus 8 at the moment).
This is me doing my Saturday morning Khmer language study- watching a cooking show. Its one big long advert for MSG, everything they cook has MSG in it. (CTN, 10.30am , Saturdays)