So this weekend was the annual water festival in Phnom Penh celebrating the end of the wet season and the change in direction of flow of the Tonle Sap River. It is a very old tradition for hundreds of teams to compete in dragon boat races on the river in front of the king and over 2 million people who travel to the city for the festival. So it is pretty crazy in Phnom Penh as you can imagine.
Anyway, VSO have entered a boat into the race for the past few years and it was up to us to continue this tradition. The VSO boat is the only boat with foreigners on (and women I might add) so we obviously drew quite alot of attention driving through town in an open top lorry in matching bright green t-shirts and caps! I do recall one man in fact just stood pointing and laughing. A great team morale booster there! I mean, we only did 4 hours of training and some of these teams spend all year training for this event as it is a really big deal to win.
As is typical of Cambodian organisation the only thing we knew on the day was that we were racing at some point! At about 9:30am we found out that we were racing at 12:30pm so had some free time on the quay to get suitably burnt. This is a massive issue for me at the moment as my skin has gone photo-sensitive from the anti-malaria tablets I am taking. I had factor 50 on and completely covered but could feel my skin burning through the tree, sunscreen and clothing! Really annoying and when it came to getting in the boat I got into my seat for about a minute before having to get out as my skin was so sore. Later when I got back to my hotel I discovered that I had been burnt though everything which is just crazy and really sore so I was very glad that I got out as the team was in the boat for way over an hour and I would’ve been in agony. I was really disappointed though as I was really looking forward to the experience of rowing in the race. As it turned out though the team didn’t quite make it to the start line as the current was really strong so they let them start with an advantage, though still managed to lose that race and the one after!! I managed to watch from the roof of the Foreign Correspondents Club which was really cool (and shady!).
So after all that action we went back to the guesthouse to prepare for the after-party! It was at this place with a really nice roof terrace not too far from the Royal Palace with a Moroccan theme. So lots of yummy food, a bit of random dancing to cheesy music and happy hour cocktails! Then onto the Heart of Darkness which is an infamous club in Phnom Penh, full of a massive mix of people and really very funny! I had a very enjoyable dance with a hilarious lady boy!
The morning after the night before we headed over the lakeside which is the backpacker district, in search of an English breakfast (it is ok to do this if you are an ex-pat!). So after some eggs and baked beans (to absorb alcohol) and banana shake (for potassium) we were all feeling much better so headed off to the river front to watch the second round of the races (which we obviously didn’t make it into). There was an amazing party atmosphere with the whole area pedestrianised and full of vendors, music and people having fun.
So in the afternoon I did a couple of jobs cruising around on my bike, which was a bit mental considering the heightened weight of traffic and I actually saw my first big accident with two people being knocked clean off their moto by a Lexus.
Anyway, that evening we had planned to meet at a restaurant not too far from the Programme Office and I knew the other guys had taken their bikes there so I hopped on mine and headed in that direction. However, I inadvertently managed to drive into the worst and maddest traffic ever. Everything was completely stationary with a car on fire in the middle, several ambulances trying to make their way through a completely solid mass of people and traffic. It was totally crazy and I was completely jammed in and spent over an hour trying to force myself and the bike through the scrum. So I arrived really really late for dinner and very stressed! It wasn’t long before the traffic had affected nearly every road in the area and we were penned into our restaurant! It calmed down enough after about an hour which meant that we were able to creep our way back to the PO. I have never seen so many Cambodians though, there must have been millions of people on the streets on Phnom Penh, with little to no organisation (other than the police randomly shutting roads and making you pay to go down them!). MENTAL.
So, I have now made it back to Mondulkiri in what was actually our best journey so far. Took about 7 hours so meant we were here at about 3pm which is really good. When we arrived it was a bit windy owing to another typhoon remnant rolling in but it has got worse and worse and I am now writing this at 11:30pm as I am unable to sleep as my house is rocking in the wind. Scary times!! We had a typhoon a few weeks ago and obviously my house survived that but it is still really scary as it is on wooden stilts and the walls and floor are very gappy which means that it is like sitting in a wind tunnel. Oh and just to top it off a rat just ran across my bedroom floor into its little hole. This is definitely not a highlight of my time in Cambodia so far...
Sorry to end on such a downer, hopefully things will pick up soon and I can write about that!!
Love xx
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment