Water Festival

Dear All,

This week-end was the Water Festival. I hope to put pictures a friend took on Saturday online soon but for the moment, I'll just describe the festival.

The festival lasts three days. In khmer, the name is Bon Om Touk, which means the Festival of
Boat Rowing. Each province organizes in advance rowboat races between teams of the villages and the winning teams represent the province at the finals in Phnom Penh during the Festival. There are about 400 teams competing during the finals. Each team is either 20, 50 or 80 rowers, depending on the class the compete in (and the size of the boat varies accordingly of course). From 6 am till 6 pm, it's race after race. Cambodians from abroad also have their boat(s). I saw a small boat of women racing.

When a village is selected to take part in the finals they come to Phnom Penh in a larger boat which accomodates all the team and some supporters and a few 50 kg bags of rice. The race boat is attached to the larger one for the trip.

On the race boat, the rowers can be seated or standing, they are two side by side on each row with a leader in front. They all wear a tee-shirt and a baseball cap with the name of their sponsor (a mobile phone company, a newspaper, etc.) Around the middle of the boat there is room for a third person on each row, who can be there to cheer his friends!

In the evening (I didn't see that part), there are fireworks and display of illuminated boats representing the large companies and the various administrations (the Senate, the Assembly, etc.)

In Cambodia, holidays which fall on Sundays are celebrated on the day and then the next workday is called off so the Festival was Saturday, Sunday and Monday, but yesterday was off also.

That's all folks!

This Thursday is another holiday: Independance Day!

All the best,

Joseph