What an absolutely amazing day! Phnom Penh has been getting busier all week in the build up to the Boat Race. The festival marks the occasion when the Tonle Sap returns to its normal directional flow. So much water falls and flows down the Mekong during the rainy season that when it reaches the Tonle Sap, it forces it to flow in the ‘wrong’ direction. To mark this geographical phenomenon, there is a huge festival and competition over three days between long boats from all over the country. The boats hold about 70 people who sit in pairs and paddle like mad. Well, that’s what the barang boat did – I’m sure the Khmers have a more technical term than that!
The VSO Boat Race Team 2007 were herded into trucks and driven down to the riverside in the morning where we were met with lots of laughter and surprised faces! Once some of the Khmer teams had sized up their opposition and decided we posed no real threat of doing very well in the competition, we got to watch some of the boats begin the race. The boats were all lined up at the bank and once loaded up with oarsmen, they would shuffle their way to the start with the boat they would be racing against. This was all whilst paddling upstream which was quite a tough job! The boats would then turn and the race would start. As we watched all this happen from the sidelines, I have to admit the thought of backing out did occur to more than a few of us. Our boat was closest to the bank (easy to board it) but seemed a long way from the start of the race in an impossible looking chaotic mess of long boats. The current on the river also looked like a challenge. Thankfully we were only entered in one race which was the race downstream but we would still need to paddle upstream and turn our boat round without capsizing! And the speed the Khmer boats travelled in the water was amazingly fast!
Anyway, our turn came and we managed to wheedle our boat out of the mess and up to the start and found our competitors. All the Khmers found it highly amusing that a very mixed group of barangs were going to attempt to compete in the race. Once on the water, we passed by lots of other boats waiting for their turn to race and the looks on their faces ranged between utter dumbfounded amazement and absolute hilarity! We also managed to turn our boat successfully and so the race began. The Khmer competitors sailed off with ease, grace and what looked like minimal effort while we puffed and panted our way down the river. Some of our team even stopped rowing for a cigarette break half way down the river and I must say I did put my oar down once or twice to snap a few photos. We managed to come 5th in a race between just 2 boats as we were overtaken by 3 boats from races which started after ours. (I must point out and draw your attention to the fact here that WE DID NOT SINK and for that I feel quite proud. I later found out that a Khmer boat some races behind us had sunk to the bottom of the river!) On the way back to park the boat, we rowed past the crowds of Khmers, barangs, VSO supporters and tourists watching from the banks of the river, past the Royal
Palace where later that afternoon the King of Cambodia would watch the races (he managed to miss ours!) and past other Khmer teams who had finished their races. It was such a fantastic experience and we were clapped and cheered and laughed at in equal measures!
We watched some more of the races whilst sipping beer and eating chips on the balcony of the Foreign Correspondents Club and were later treated to an evening of fun at a rather nice restaurant! We also get to keep our T-shirt and hat team uniform. I am so chuffed to have had the opportunity to join in this amazing festival. I have read about it and seen pictures in many guidebooks but to actually participate was a real treat. It was great to see the city from the river and the atmosphere in the whole of Phnom Penh is fantastic. It all reminds me why I love big cities! It is really hard to select what to write about from the day as so much was going on. It actually feels like quite a surreal experience especially when we returned to the guesthouse to find people watching it all on TV. Our country director was interviewed by the BBC World News which was quite an unexpected surprise and one of the organisers was actually offered a bribe for us winning a race (which was obviously not taken up!)
I’ve loved being in Phnom Penh for a week. It’s been great to catch up with friends as well as meet a lot more of the volunteers who are in the country. I’ll return to Phnom Srok over the next few days and start work with my new translator assistant on Wednesday!
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