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Knee deep in water and still smiling…for now.
It was a Wednesday afternoon in June and I was having lunch with my friend Claire in Phnom Penh.
We were eating on Street 136 near the Riverside, when suddenly torrential downpours, thunder and lightning were right on top of us. For two hours.
We were happy hanging out, watching the rain, delicious coffee in hand. We watched as the water level in the street started to rise. Then the restaurant we were in flooded in the kitchen due to some clogged drain pipes. The staff were sweeping water through the whole restaurant, down the stairs and out the front door.
Cockroaches were coming out of nowhere (I don’t want to know) and were grasping onto anything dry (namely us and the other people inside). We were hilariously sweeping them off of ourselves in good humor (laughing to keep from crying) waiting for the rain to stop. One even crawled up a business man’s pant leg!
When the rain finally settled to sparse, but still big drops, we ventured out into the flood. We couldn’t see the end of the high water in any direction. We seriously could have used a kayak! Lots of Cambodian kids were out in the streets playing and swimming in the water.
Photo by Claire Eggers
When we arrived at an intersection we turned right, which was the wrong decision. We were walking along and I said “At least there aren’t cockroaches out here.” I shit you not, a cockroach was on my hip at that moment. It ran onto my dress, into my jacket, and I was doing a crazy person dance trying to throw it off of me, while still trying to hold onto my bike. I looked up and people lining the road from the safety of their shops and balconies were taking pictures of us with their smart phones. Of course they were.
Once we were closer to Kandal Market there was so much rubbish floating in the water nearby that we didn’t want to keep going. We moved up to dry land on a slanted driveway and a group of Khmer guys standing there started laughing and pointing to my back tire.
I looked back, horrified, to see a condom hanging off of my bike chain. I made a disgusted noise and quickly kicked it off with my sandal. We had been consciously stuffing down the thoughts of what we were walking through on the way there, as unidentifiable light and hard and slimy bits of things rubbed against our legs in the water, but this condom was too real. (I’d like to note that the pictures of me smiling above were pre-cockroach and condom).
Photo by Claire Eggers.
We trudged back through the way we’d come. A car drove down the road perpendicular to us, sending a huge wave crashing by, soaking our clothes. It hit a meter high against the glass door of a convenience store behind us, where they were already frantically trying to mop out water.
We finally found dry street a block away and proceeded to scrub our legs with all of the soap and hot water back at Claire’s. Then we went out for foot massages.
Stay tuned for updates on what diseases we now have!
Wow thank you for sharing these amazing shots. I missed being in there. I am in PP since 2006 and right now stock in Hanoi due to pandemic.
It’s fun
Thanks for reading, Yan! I hope that you are safe and enjoying Hanoi. I haven’t been to Hanoi since 2007 and would love to go back. Take care! -Jen
Wow, this sounds like a story from a horror movie. How do you manage to laugh about it?:) I would be so scared! Just think of all the dirt washed away by the water…
Haha I don’t know if it was quite that bad! There are many situations that happen here that are out of our control, so all we can do is laugh and keep going 😀 Somehow the dirt is still there, but the sky was so clear the next day!
it must be difficult to stay cool bloded in this situations! What an adventure! I admire the way you look calm and happy despite it all. And..oh, water can carry on so much “stuffs” over than matters
Thanks Sabrina! Yoga breathing kicked in 🙂 Had to remain calm! It’s best not to think of what was in the water…so gross!!!
Oh my god, what an adventure!
It’s amazing how quickly train can change into flood!
It was crazy! The rain was heavy, but the flooding was totally unexpected!
Awesome story! Even if I would also have been horrified at the condom hanging off my bike chain! Asia can have some incredible weather – and we saw downpours whilst we were there – but nothing like this!
Omg the condom still makes me cringe!! The weather here can be completely unpredictable. Somehow that’s another thing I love about living here 🙂
THIS is what makes a good travel story, isn’t it? 😀 It’s always the things that don’t go as expected. I admire you for not screaming in horror at all the cockroaches – because that’s what I’d probably have done 😀
Haha that’s so true Kathrin! The most memorable experiences are usually the ones we didn’t plan. I definitely screamed about the cockroach that was on me outside!!
I can’t help it :)))) the photo of you and your bike made me laugh, I don’t know why, maybe because you are smiling there 🙂 I also tried to imagine how you were in the restaurant while your feet inside the water 🙂
Glad it made you laugh!:) There was nothing else to do but smile with the absurdity of it all. Until the cockroach and the condom came on the scene that is…
Tropical rains can come down so heavily and build up so quickly even in cities with great infrastructure, we had city streets in Brisbane (Australia) flooded out a couple of weeks back after a bit of a deluge. Never had an ‘encounter’ like yours though, it definitely left me shuddering – ewww.
It’s true, even in California we’d have minor flooding from time to time. With the poor waste management and infrastructure here, flooding is a mess! This was definitely not an experience I’d want to repeat!
What a turn that couple of hours took. From enjoying a meal to wet feet, roach fest and then condomgate … Ah the joys of travel 🙂
Haha when I left the house to bike to lunch my biggest concern was getting a sunburn! The unexpected is what makes life fun…and sometimes gross 🙂
OMG I hope you had had your shots! I cannot imagine how that place would look with so much water but being on the Mekong I am guessing it is maybe a regular occurrence?
The flooding is just in certain areas of the city, so hopefully in the future I can avoid those when it rains! Live and learn 🙂 I think I’m up to date on my shots, but now I feel like I should look into that!!