Water Festivities
There are 3 important festivals during the year in Cambodia: Cambodian New Year, Pchum Ben and Bon Nam Duk (Water Festival). Cambodian New Year is for the family. Pchum Ben is for the ancestors. In both cases, people head back to their home towns, usually in rural Cambodia and Phnom Penh becomes eerily (and rather boringly) quiet. However, for the Water Festival, which celebrates the change in direction of the flow of water in the Tonle Sap (the main body of water in Cambodia), everyone comes to Phnom Penh. And given that 85% of Cambodia lives in the provinces, this means that PP gets a bit crazy.
From what I can gather, Bon Nam Duk is about dragon boat racing, sitting by riverside and crowds. I headed down to have a look on Friday morning, the first day. They were just beginning to close the streets to vehicles, closed that is, except to "important officials" and persons prepared to bribe the police officers. The crowd was quiet and intent on watching the the colourful boatmen practice before the races in the afternoon. Many people from the villages had just spent the night sleeping on mats in the street. I'm not sure if this was a cost consideration or to ensure the best location - possibly a bit of both.
We then left Phnom Penh for the weekend, the subject of posts to come. People had told us that the Water Festival gets super crowded, there's nowhere to sit and 1 day is enough for anyone. So we had the idea that having another peak on Sunday night, the last night, was going to be enough.
Wrong. We tried, we really did. But after standing shoulder to shoulder in a crowd which was still about a kilometre away from the river and not able to move, we gave up and caught a motodop home.
From what I can gather, Bon Nam Duk is about dragon boat racing, sitting by riverside and crowds. I headed down to have a look on Friday morning, the first day. They were just beginning to close the streets to vehicles, closed that is, except to "important officials" and persons prepared to bribe the police officers. The crowd was quiet and intent on watching the the colourful boatmen practice before the races in the afternoon. Many people from the villages had just spent the night sleeping on mats in the street. I'm not sure if this was a cost consideration or to ensure the best location - possibly a bit of both.
We then left Phnom Penh for the weekend, the subject of posts to come. People had told us that the Water Festival gets super crowded, there's nowhere to sit and 1 day is enough for anyone. So we had the idea that having another peak on Sunday night, the last night, was going to be enough.
Wrong. We tried, we really did. But after standing shoulder to shoulder in a crowd which was still about a kilometre away from the river and not able to move, we gave up and caught a motodop home.
posted by Bek at
6:29 pm
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