Water - in more than one form!

I travelled to Cambodia - without knowing about it - on the last day of the Water Festival, only learning about it through some eavesdropping on the bus from Ho Chi Minh City. Over the three days of the festival the population of Phnom Penh, usually about 2 million, can double with visitors drawn to the major event of boat races on the Tonle Sap River. The races are in honour of the twelfth century Khmer naval victories achieved under King Jayavarman VII, but the event also marks the return of the normal flow (into the Mekong) of the Tonle Sap river, and the draining of the Tonle Sap lake.

In the afternoon of my first day in Cambodia I got dropped off in the riverside area by a tuk-tuk driver. It was impossible to drive all the way in because of vehicles and people everywhere. As I wandered along the riverbank, with no particular destination in mind, I got into conversation with a young guy who had come into Phnom Penh for the festivities from his home town back out on the National Highway 1 towards Vietnam. While we were talking the skies darkened and we experienced the water festival in a different way, as storms from a typhoon that had crossed Vietnam earlier arrived. The deluge persisted for hours into the evening, and we were effectively trapped under the awning of a temporary food stall, continually tipping water off the roof so that the structure didn't collapse.

Finally, I figured that I would have to make a break for it, regardless of getting soaked (again), and experienced the interesting situation of tuk-tuk and moto-drivers not knowing the city outside the tourist areas very well! (The second time this happened I had a better idea of which direction to go than the moto driver!)

While in Siem Reap I visited the waterways leading into the Tonle Sap lake near Kompong Phhluk village. At the time of this visit, the water of the lake was still high as the flow out and into the Mekong had just resumed, but when the water is lower it is possible to see the flooded forest . Although our boat was nominally under the command of an adult, his two young sons took the wheel for the first part of the journey along the channels into the floating village (actually mainly built on stilts).

Beyond the village is the wide expanse of the Tonle Sap - really an inland sea at this time with depths of up to 9m. The dry season depth is only 1m. There are some photos on Peace of Angkor website which show how high the houses have to be to cope with the differences in water level - truly astounding!