I hate hot weather. It makes me depressed.
Perhaps I wouldn't have fallen so in love with Cambodia if I hadn't arrived the day before the start of a cool wave. Apparently, all the Khmer were freezing. I thought it lovely in the morning and evening, excruciatingly hot mid-afternoon --- but not humid, and so not depressing.
But last week in Philly, as the sun beat down and the humidity rose and the stink of city grew stronger and everything felt filthy and sweaty and even after dark it didn't get cooler, I wondered if it is just that when it is this hot in India, I'm too distr acted by the novelty to get depressed.
Then I remember how down I was by my third week in Kerala in '96 and a lightbulb goes off. Was it the weather causing my traveller's ennui? And all this time, I thought it was because I had been blown off by that cute Canadian boy in Kovalam?
Meanwhile, the weather has shifted and it has been beautiful lately. This evening in Old City, I was struck again by how much I love the dirty streets and bumpy pavement and cobblestones and Christ Church and riding my bike back to South Philly along the narrow streets.
A cool morning along the river in Phnom Penh.
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