Monday 10 November 2014

Day 21 - 25: Water Festival in Phnom Penh

Mon, Nov 3 - Fri, Nov 7

Returned to Phnom Penh from Ho Chi Minh City by a 7 hour bus just in time for the 3 day Water Festival, Bom Om Touk.   It is held on the full moon in November and marks a reversal of the flow of the Tonle Sap River with boat racing of 245 teams from all of the surrounding villages and provinces.  Some say this regatta dates back to Angkor times as it is carved in stone at one of the temples.   Many shops are closed for the holiday and the traffic was blocked making the Riverfront road and a long stretch of the wide Sihanhouk Blvd open for pedestrian strolling and families enjoying picnics along the river and on the grass in front of the Royal Palace.  In the evening we found a rooftop patio to watch the last of the day's races, a parade of barges all lit up with various emblems and then the fireworks finale.


Each long  boat can hold from 40 - 80 rowers sitting or standing as they race in pairs down the river
Parade of Lights
Fireworks finale



We then went back to street level to eat dinner and at one point, Mark pointed out over the river to an approaching wall of rain, then shrieks went up from the crowds who came running for shelter and as many as could squeezed in between tables under cover of the restaurant.  It really bucketed down for 15 minutes with the vendors scrambling to cover their carts.  When the rain was down to a drizzle, the shelter seekers dispersed only to run for cover when the rain bucketed down again shortly - excitement and high drama at the riverfront.  We walked home when it had all cleared and barely made it in the door when the rain started again - truly a water festival!
Crispy fried frogs!

Mark had a few interviews and I walked around town getting Laos visas, and checked out the Central Market and Russian Market (named during the 1980’s when most of the foreigners in Cambodia were Russians).  I went to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21) which was a school before the Kmer Rouge turned it into a prison and torture facility and is now a museum and memorial.  Inside are haunting photos of the victims, documentation of the current War Crimes Tribunal cases and 2 elderly survivors from the prison who were there to talk about their experience and share their biographies.  A tragic case of ideologically driven inhumanity.

Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21)
Kmer version of 7-11

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