water festival

phnom penh
Originally uploaded by ubikwity.

A million Cambodians can’t be wrong...or can they? The country folk all descend on the capitol for the three day boat races and celebration of the full moon and reversal of the current of the Tonle Sap in November. Many come to sell their goods or set up make-shift restaurants on mats. If they are not selling something they are watching the incomprehensible boat races (long narrow row boats with teams representing government agencies, NGOs, nations, communes, radio stations, cities and villages), drinking ‘muscle wine’ and drooling maliciously at the tourists, or simply walking arm in arm through the massive crowds up and down the riverside. It seems like a civic duty that any and all trash be deposited in or near the river.