As we brave the hottest months of the year in Cambodia, Georgie Treasure-Evans offers ten tips to help both you and your children keep cool in the city.
We all know it is coming, yet every year we still cannot quite believe just how much it is possible to sweat in this city in April and May. No matter how breezy our Tuk-Tuk, or how cold our car, by the time we have made it inside the school gates any pride we ever had in our personal appearance has long since melted away, never mind our ability to be calm and forgiving with our kids. Red faced, wet hair clamped to foreheads, tempers rising... Parenting with kids in Phnom Penh loses its appeal somewhat at this time of year.
Splish Splash
The most obvious way to cool down is to go for a swim. Phnom Penh has many child-friendly pools. But if you are in need of a change of scenery and a little adventure I recommend you brace the Water Park. Although the health and safety standards may not be on par with many of the hotel pools in the city, your kids will have a lot more fun! There are baby pools with fountains and mini-climbing structures, a wave pool, a lazy river with tubes, curly wurly water slides for the more daring and, what might possibly be the longest pool in Phnom Penh so parents can sneak off for a few laps of their own. And what water park is complete without a fun fair with a range of rides suitable for all ages. The pools are not shaded though so please beware of the sun.
Out of the Sun
When the effort of applying sun cream and enforcing the rule of sunhats and UV suits all seems too much, a trip to an air-conditioned salon for some nail art or massage is a great alternative. Let your children try a hair wash, head or foot massage. The chance to escape the heat and relax will really improve everyone’s mood.
Another place to go where the need for parental input is minimal is the wonderful, shady Le Jardin. Of all the child-friendly cafés in town this is the most comfortable, beautiful and relaxing. With trees to climb, a great play area and sand pit, the kids are allowed to run free and burn off some energy and there is a gate on the door to keep in wandering toddlers. Balance the obligatory ice cream with their delicious and cooling cold cucumber and feta soup, which most kids love.
Taking It Easy
Alternatively, just hang out at home with the children. Staying home is often much more relaxing for everyone, but it does require a few essentials to make it work. The hot season requires ice cream or lollies, body painting outside under a tree, a hose pipe and a paddling pool big enough for at least two adults.
First you kill an hour or so making ice cream together. My most child-friendly ice cream recipe could not be simpler. Mix equal amounts of condensed milk and either yoghurt and cream in a bowl and then add either lemon juice and rind to taste, or raspberries. Children love watching the cream thicken when you add the lemon – it’s like magic. Then you can break up the afternoon with regular trips to the freezer to inspect and stir. Healthier fun options include making ice-lollies out of watered down juice or even better, use orange flavoured Royal D electrolyte. Our bodies are 77 percent water and when we dehydrate we easily become irritable and snappy.
If all goes according to plan you get to spend the rest of the afternoon sitting back and watching the kids cover themselves with paint, wash off under the hose and splash about in the paddling pool, safe in the knowledge that when things get out of hand there is always the lure of ice cream to make them listen! If all this feels like too much hard work the heat is always a great excuse to lie low and read books. Try cooling down one room, and lying down in bed and reading all your favourite stories for a while. When you run out of good books the Reading Room on Street 240 has some lovely books and games and is a peaceful refuge to curl up and spend time with your kids.
When You Can’t Stay In
The perfect way to end off a sweaty day with the kids is to take a sunset ride in a cyclo down some quiet Phnom Penh streets. There is something about a cyclo ride that is instantly calming. The shaded seat at the front is just big enough to sit back comfortably and wrap your arms around your child. The breeze, as you move silently through the streets, makes this much-needed physical closeness bearable, often for the first time all day. All irritation and petty squabbles are soothed away by the gentle rhythm of the cyclo. A nice route is to do the length of Street 21, and take a walk in the peaceful gardens of Wat Svay Propei.
