Penny and Fred

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink!

For the first time in 18 months living in Phnom Penh, it looks like we may be experiencing our first ‘wet day timetable’.  It appears to have not stopped raining since 4pm yesterday afternoon, which has resulted in a number of comical stories to share.

I was at my bosses place yesterday and it starts to rain…  I think, this is going to be interesting trying to ride my new bicycle home, as flooding occurs very quickly here and makes getting around the streets almost impossible, plus my flat tyre was also going to pose some problems… 

So I decide to call my faithful tuk tuk friend Mr Hua.  He arrives and we load the bike into his tuk tuk, resulting in wheels poking out each side, leaving me exposed enough to feel the onslaught of the heavy rain.

By the time I arrive home and get out of the tuk tuk I am standing in almost knee deep rushing water.  My attempts to avoid getting drenched and pull the bike out of the tuk tuk, almost result in me loosing my thongs.  Bike in hand, I race across the road, by this time my efforts to avoid getting drenched are lost, to the front door of my landladies house, where I knock on the door.  She opens up, only to find a 6 foot foreign lady, looking like a drowned rat staring back at her.  I stand around listening to her telling me that it’s no good that I bought a bike with a flat tyre.  Thanks for pointing that out, as if I hadn’t noticed…

I park the bike and go to say my goodbyes when she kindly hands me an umbrella.  I try to refuse as I am already soaked through, but she is insistent, so I take the umbrella with grace and head down the street to buy some dinner from our local restuarant.  At this stage I am thankful for the umbrella, as the heavan open up once again…  I wade through the water down the street, still trying to not loose my thongs in the rushing water, the umbrella not providing me with much protection and making me a little nervous that the big metal point on the end is going to act as a becon for lightning.  Over a hundred Cambodians have died this year from lightning, granted most in the provincial rice fields, but under the circumstances I’m not thinking all that straight.

I arrive at the restuarant to laughs and giggles from the patrons and staff and order my food.  Another short wade through the flooded streets and I arrive home, only to find that we are loosing the battle with the rain on the home front.  Fred has covered most of the floors with towels to mop up the water running in from the tiny cracks around our windows.

So, I wake up this morning, it’s surprisingly and unusually cool.  A glance from the balcony, sorry did I forget to mention that we now live in a 5 story walk up, shows me that the streets are still wet from the ongoing rain.  I make a coffee and attempt to settle in to doing some work, but the heaven once again open up and I am running around the house closing windows and this time instead of trying to save my thongs, I’m trying desperately not to slip on the wet tiles and crack my skull open.  Windows closed and towels once again covering the floor, I’ve managed to avert disaster, avoid doing work for half an hour and update you on one of the many regular dramas of Phnom Penh.

Here’s hoping I keep my word and post more often…

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