Rain, Rain Go Away...

 This photo is a bit deceiving... it is on the river, so we don't know how much it is normally.

Tuk tuk driver workin' hard for the money. 

When I heard the words "rainy season" before moving abroad, I thought, "Oh, so it rains every day, that's ok."  Living in Mexico for 3 years gave me an introduction to what rainy season can be: streets becoming fast-moving river (especially dangerous if you are at a bottom of a hill,) soaked clothes in less than 2 seconds, the need to wear rubber shoes and a plastic coating of some kind, and that almost no umbrella can handle this kind of rain. Then, after late September, it hardly ever rains.  It usually rains once in January, so the farmers know when to plant the corn.  It is called Cabañuelas. 

I thought moving to Cambodia would be more like it was in Mexico... Rainy season in Cambodia lives up to the name "monsoon season" but there needs to be a more extreme term for it:  "river season?"  Within minutes, roads are flooded.  Somehow the moto-taxis (called tuk tuks) plow through.  One guy had a plastic covering for some innard of his motorcycle engine to prevent stalling.  It was pretty ironic driving by a kilometer of un-installed drainage pipes.

However, when the water is up to your knees  all you can do is walk (trying not to think about what's in the water,) or, if you're strong enough, bicycle, through it. 

The day before leaving for Siem Reap for the week-long holiday of Pchum Ben (a time to honor your ancestors according to the Buddhist calendar), I got a travel advisory about the flooding from the US Embassy.  We were taking a boat, and the warning would be a few days old by the time we got there... no worries. Well, I were kind of right.   I am pretty surprised the boat even let us leave Phnom Penh, as most of the flights that day were cancelled.

The tuk tuk driver earned every riel (the currency in Cambodia along with the US dollar) for his 15 kilometer drive to town.  The hotel we booked, thankfully, was on the non-flooded side of town. We saw the 3 major sites of Angkor (Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Ta Prohm) and a few of the smaller sites.  Many were inaccessible... they were not crowded, which was great.    We had a fun time despite most of the restaurants being closed either for the holiday or due to flooding.  

Well, it is still raining nearly everyday buckets and buckets.  Hope people are managing ok in the provinces (aka countryside.) Luckily, I am staying dry with my 2000 riel (50 cent) thin, plastic covering, 100% rubber shoes,  and hoping the "river season" will end soon... It will, and there is a holiday for it.  I will celebrate.