Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Water Festival in Phnom Penh

Cambodians take their public holidays very seriously (all 24 of them), and none more so than the annual water festival.

The Bonn Om Tuk festival celebrates the natural phenomenon of the Tonle Sap river actually reversing its flow due to pressure of water at the end of the rainy season. Or perhaps it celebrates the November full moon. Or the beginning of the fishing season? Whatever it is that is celebrated, it’s certainly done in style, with a bumper 4 day holiday.

The highlight of the festival is the spectacular boats racing through Phnom Penh – to see them from the faded colonial charm of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Cambodia is quite something.

VSO, however, went one better, and actually crewed a dashingly colourful dragon boat, allowing 40 of us to experience it from on (at times nearly in) the water - a truly memorable, if sometimes amusingly chaotic experience.

Our crew of volunteers – bolstered by a few brave k’mai colleagues - produced a heroic effort. In fact, our rhythmic chants of ‘moi, pi, moi–pi-moi’ fused with the tactical wizardry of our captain led us to clinch a remarkable victory over our astounded Cambodian competitors.

Well, sort of – the current was actually so strong that we couldn’t even get far enough up the river to the official start point, so were given special permission to start halfway down. We were then overtaken not only by the boat we were racing against, but also both boats in the next race. We drifted into a far-off shore, without quite making it between the two finishing line marker boats.

Notwithstanding the minor details of the start, middle and end, all went remarkably well – it was great fun for us, even more so for our Cambodian hosts – a boat-full of ridiculous barraing westerners, sporting bizarre lifejackets and pointedly failing to keep time must have made it difficult even for the watching King of Cambodia to keep a straight face.

It was all about the taking part of course, and the whole event reflected very well indeed on VSO –the only overseas organisation to participate, we got great publicity in the Phnom Penh Post, raised over$1000 for www.anewdaycambodia.org and www.mloptapang.org, and made plenty of friends along the way.

The boat race is also a great excuse for the whole city to party, with revelers thronging the streets of Phnom Penh. Dancing into the early hours on the roof terrace of the Tamarind, we were treated to some star DJing from the present health advisor whose shoes I fill from next month – an altogether better performance on the decks than earlier in the afternoon...

3 comments:

  1. Hi Ol
    Great to read your blog and see the pictures! Great effort in the boat race. We're thinking of you often and hope you're having a great time. Keep safe and well Oly. Love and blessings, John, Cath and the boysxx

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  2. I was in the boat with Oly, just a few benches behind him!

    Oly gave his best, paddled like mad and was dripping with sweat afterwards.
    Without him, we wouldn't have reached the finishing line!

    Look forward to run the 10k with you!

    Xk

    PS: great blog, Oly!

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  3. Lots of Water Festival pictures at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=169874&id=749555800&l=7cfd5f6337 - enjoy!

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