Water Festival – Reversal of the River …

It’s a perfect morning – there’s a gentle breeze coming my way. The sky is crystal clear.  The moon is slowly fading behind the bright blue sky.   There is a little community down below our house.  By dawn everyone has woken up.  The ‘bread’ lady has just arrived on her motorbike up the alleyway to sell fresh crispy baguette.  The landlady is gardening at the front of the house whilst the landlord boils hot water for breakfast. The landlord’ brother is cutting a branch. The vendor who lives down below with his wife has begun to deliver his goods on his motorbike whilst his wife is hanging laundry.  Kevin has just left for work – it’s now 6: 00 in the morning and the dogs are now sleeping from ‘yelping’ throughout the night.  This is what a typical morning look like for us each day. 

On the weekend ‘twas The 'Water Festival' or 'Bon Om Tuk'.  Bon Om Tuk is a national holiday here in Cambodia.  It’s a celebration of the changing of the season, the harvest and the return of the Tonle Sap River  -it's a celebration of the reversing flow between the Tonle Sap River and the Mekong River.  The Tonle Sap a.k.a. Great Lake begins just at the mouth of Phnom Penh and joins up river at Bat Dambang and Siem Raeb Provinces that sit on opposite sides of the lake.   The locals claim that 'the reversal of the river is probably the only waterway in the world, that the Tonle Sap and Mekong flows in opposite directions at different times of the year'.    Usually this time of the year there’s a large boat race in Phnom Pehn.  However, the boat race has been cancelled for the last couple of years due to political instability.

The Water Festival is also a time to celebrate the harvest.  Each year the reversal of the Tonle Sap River has proved to be beneficial to the locals.  The river is rich in fish stocks and the silt deposits left by the floods fertilize the fields.  It's a source of livelihood for fishermen and farmers. It’s a way to giveback to the river  -it's a way for the people to give thanks to the moon.    

During the Water Festival we stayed home and enjoyed beautiful Mondulkiri.

More later …