Usually balmy Cambodia struggles with a cold snap

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Across Cambodia, residents engaged in a rare activity: turning off their air conditioners and stilling their fans. Some of Phnom Penh's intrepid moto drivers were seen zipping around the streets at night in puffy parkas.

It was cold here -- the coldest in 27 years, according to Seth Vannareth, the director of meteorology at the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology.

She had good news Monday: The cold spell was officially over.

Still, for Cambodians, the brief flirtation with sweater weather was such a far cry from the norms of the cold season, which peaks in early January, that some people even wore socks.

The cold snap began Jan. 30. Low temperatures ranged from the mid-40s to mid-50s in the northeast and mountainous areas, far below norms of 62 to 68 degrees.

What, if anything, it had to do with global climate change, Seth would not begin to guess. She attributed the chill to a high-pressure front from Siberia, which, she said, cooled off greater Indochina, including Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and parts of Thailand.

Krang Karath, a Phnong chief in the northeast province of Mondolkiri, which had some of the most extreme cold last week, said his people had taken to drinking little cups of fish sauce and stashing hot coals under their beds to stay warm. Inmates in Mondolkiri provincial prison complained to the prison director of a strange new sensation in their arms and legs: numbness.

The cold did not become a national emergency, even though many people in the countryside live in thatch homes that offer little protection from the elements. Uy Sam Ath, the director of the disaster-management unit of the Cambodian Red Cross, said he had not received requests for extra blankets.

But Friday, a local charity distributed warm clothes and blankets around Phnom Penh, where many homeless have struggled with the cold. Seth Rom, 13, had on two long-sleeved shirts and a pair of grubby pants. "It's too cold to take a shower," he said. "Too cold to fall asleep."

Un Sophal, huddled in a Phnom Penh park, expressed appreciation for a pink sweater she received two days ago. Before that, she said, she had been clinging to a mosquito net for warmth. "It wasn't warm at all," she said.

Many short-term tourists, of course, didn't find it cold at all, and some of the country's long-term expatriates enjoyed cozying up to some long sleeves.

"This is not cold," said Mark Treacy, the country director of Flora and Fauna International and a Wisconsin native. He said he was delighted -- and slightly dumbfounded -- to find himself wearing a sweater the other day.

A few people braved the tepid waters of the elegant pool at Le Royale Hotel in Phnom Penh, but pool attendant Chan Sok said overall attendance was down. "I wouldn't get in that water," he said archly.

But Helmut Waldheim, who was stretched out poolside, wasn't thinking twice about diving in. He's from Vienna. "It was zero there!" he said, looking content.