Water Festival

This weekend is the middle of one of Cambodia's most important holidays--Water Festival, which marks the annual reversal of the Tonle Sap river. Phnom Penh more than doubles in size, as 1.5 million Cambodians from the provinces stream in to the city, camping in public parks and along the river bank. More than 14,000 of them are expected to participate in this year's boat races, where long, canoe-shaped boats filled with paddlers wearing identical uniforms race up and down the riverfront.

The boats race each day during the three-day festival, and each night there are fireworks and floating lights displays that travel up and down the river. There are tons of vendors, probably slightly fewer pickpockets, lots of booze, and lots of confused rural Cambodians trying to figure out how to get on the elevator at the Sorya shopping center.

Boats practicing for today's races

While a beautiful festival, it also makes for a loud, crowded, smelly city with serious sanitation problems. Part one of our master plan for Water Festival is to take in the sights while avoiding the crowds. So we went out this morning for breakfast with a new embassy family at a restaurant overlooking the river. Since the boat races don't start until 11, 8:30 is the perfect time to take in the practicing boats and get a feel for the festival before things become incredibly hot and crowded.

Ben, Ellie, and Elmos taking in the sights from our riverside restaurant

Ben and Ellie loved seeing the boats, but they especially loved the helicopters that were buzzing the river. This one is labelled RCAF (Royal Cambodian Armed Forces) 0027. Does the Cambodian military really have at least 26 other aircraft?

Which brings to the second part of our master plan: leaving town. With Phnom Penh one big traffic jam and the embassy closed for three days next week, why stay? Tomorrow we're off to Vietnam for a week in Hanoi and a 2 day cruise on Halong Bay. Pictures when we return...