The Water Festival

My first day in Cambodia found me arriving during the Water Festival which is one of the biggest holidays here. The epicenter of the famous water festival in Cambodia, which I imagine is the Cambodian equivalent of Mardi Gras, was literally outside my hotel which overlooks the intersections of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers and is right next to the royal palace. It is a three day event where pretty much everyone from all over the country comes to the capital for boat races on the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, food, music, light shows, fireworks, and other general craziness. The festival is partly to commemorate the change in direction of the Tonle Sap river. Rather than flowing into the Mekong river, the river reverses flow and directs water inland and with it lots of fish and water for rice. This is quite important for the country because it is extremely important for rice and fish production in the interior of the country which is a critical food source for Cambodians. The Tonle Sap I believe is the only river in the world that actually changes directions.

I remember arriving in Phnom Penh a little late, but still got straight through customs and picked up my bags with no problems. After leaving the airport, I went to look for a driver to pick me up and escort me to the hotel, but was surprised that there was no one holding a sign with my name on it. Once again you know I am a little spoiled when I get persnickety when I don’t have someone to pick me up from the airport. With that background, basically the city is in chaos with the second worst traffic that I have ever experienced in my life (The worst being in Mombasa, Kenya). The ride from the airport took about two hours more than two hours and involved several arguments with the taxi driver to keep going because he wanted to dump me off far from the hotel. That just would not work with 100 pounds of bags. We were actually driving so long that the driver needed to relieve himself, and exited the cab leaving it in the middle of the street and began to urinate on the curb in front of my passenger window. Then after resuming the ride for a little bit he decided that I had to leave because the traffic was even worse. This was just about over half a mile from the hotel. So it was quite an interesting walk with my baggage while sharing the roads/sidewalks with all of humanity and just about every motorbike ever manufactured.

I finally made it to the hotel, checked in briefly, and then went out walking and checking out the festival. It was actually pretty cool but WAY too many people, and I was one of the few white people walking around so as you can imagine I earned a few looks. There was also a lot of action outside my favorite Cambodian Government Agency called the National Committee on National and International Festivals Building. It had just rained, so the roads were a combination of mud, mounds of garbage, and food that people just threw everywhere. My favorite was a massive pile of soggy corn husks and coconut shells that a group of young kids were playing with and throwing at each other. There were a lot of vendors selling stuff too and most of them were from outside of the city meaning that they spoke no English and offered prices that were cheap even by Cambodian standards. I would ask for their opening price expecting to be given higher than normal rates, but was shocked when they offered me sculptures and baskets for 2000 reals which is like 50 cents. I ended up getting armfuls of stuff for like $5. Not a bad haul.

The city was also very pretty though if you did not look at the ground. The royal palace had lights all over it, and these huge barges floated up the river with massive Disney Electric Light Paradesque, displays of anything from Cambodian gods, to cobras, to many other kinds of animals. There were also tons of different food options from cockroaches, to corn on the cob, to baby chickens (whole), to Balut (I think that is the name) which are these nasty purple semi-fertilized chicken eggs. (I just shivered in disgust) Overall it was quite an experience.