Thursday, November 8, 2007

Winter Hits Cambodia

My colleagues at work tell me it is now "Cambodian winter." I laugh, but they're serious. The air conditioner is on, near full blast, at about sixty-five degrees and it's a warm eighty-three degrees outside. Granted, when I came in to work this morning it was probably a frigid seventy-eight degrees. But I don't think that that comes even close to warranting the number of winter jackets I saw on the walk to work.

Believe it or not, it's true. When the mercury dips below eighty, the Cambodians break out the winter jackets. For some, the "winter" jacket is little more than a lightweight pullover, but others take the "winter" aspect of Cambodian winter much more seriously. Some wear what look like down ski jackets along with knit ski caps. I'm hot just wearing khakis, a button-up shirt, and shoes (as opposed to the much preferred flip flops) and they're wearing ski parkas. Unbelievable.

1 comment:

Tony said...

I've noticed that on my trip these as well. In fact, it's common in many parts of Asia. The Indians have REALLY perfected the art of wearing knot wear in 'winter' ;-)