Khmer New Year in Riverside Phnom Penh

I’m glad we made sure to return to PP for Khmer New Year.  “Sursedey Chnam Thmey”

During the day the streets are calm quiet and bare. By night a riotous party is taking place. 

Many large and small businesses are closed for varying amounts of time but every service is possible and absolutely anything can still be bought

Come late afternoon, blaring music starts and laughter accompanies it. By dusk there is shade and dancing in the streets. It’s time for the frivolity to commence with water splashing, pouring and dumping and pastes of coloured talcum powder smearing over faces and dusting over clothes. A presence on the streets is an indication of your willingness to participate. 

 

The intense skirmishes of water fighting of seconds before is instantly a ceasefire if the water pistol tank should empty. Former foes refill for each other then resume the battle. Hoses, buckets, basins, cups, any vessel can be used. Backpacks of water attached to serious looking shooters is this year’s new take on how to participate. 

This being the hottest season of the year - the dry leading into the monsoon rains, people welcome the drenching for its cooling effect.  It’s all in such good fun. There is a festive atmosphere. 

*Thanks to Ian for this ambush and shampoo episode - watch the guy in a white T-shirt 

If your face needs a wash or hair is rigid with dried coloured powder willing volunteers douse you at every opportunity. Shampooing is also a possibility and mostly unsuspecting passersby are ambushed but without objecting they submit to a roadside hair wash. This too was a new take at least to me. 

I guess anything involving water in a relatively harmless way is totally acceptable and anyone fair game. Squeals and screams of delight, surprise and shock punctuate the chants, laughter and music. It’s good natured and fun mostly. 

This revelry continues over three nights. The Wat Phnom / Night Market / General Post Office zone becomes a cultural village, kiddies playground and venue for offerings, traditional games and music and dance performances. Walking Street is hopping for all three evenings and the streets heave. Food stalls, handicraft outlets, clothing and jewelry stalls,  live music stages and an impressive parade provide something for everyone.

Inside these locations is a water free zone but to get to them and between them you must run the gauntlet or saunter resigned to a soaking. It is nigh on impossible to arrive dry or without a powder coating but no one objects. 

We were thinking that the water bombardment would not happen this year as there was a ban in place but it seems instead to have been contained to smaller, more manageable zones and the police are non threatening and not adverse to being included or photographed. 

Well into the early hours of the morning the joyous celebrations continue. No public drunkenness. No fighting. No accidents despite the ambushing of motor scooters by hose wielding warriors. It truly embodies that Khmer spirit of non confrontational harmony. 

Anyone seriously trying to escape a barrage of powder or water is left in peace. Families walk by. Respect is shown. 

By the third day it is more of the same, for much longer and very much louder, but it is light hearted and playful.  

It will take time for the city to completely reopen and days before everyone can put those water weapons away but it’s hot, it’s humid and we are all enjoying the celebration. It’s joyful, inclusive and accepting. 

18/4  Footnote: 

It seems it will continue for three more nights with pure delight, unabated enthusiasm and ever more volume and larger crowds. Nothing for it but to go with the flow and observe the spectacle. 

On the streets where we live

 Anecdotes of life in Phnom Penh  

Recently we headed off to the Electricity Office to pay a bill we had discovered quite by accident in a plastic bottle zip tied to a screen door downstairs- a place bills have never been before. It had our address on it so away we went, even though we were quite sure we did not owe anything. Once we arrived, we went from window to window and upstairs and back down but accomplished our mission. This is the price you pay for not speaking the local language and we didn’t mind at all. By the time we were told that it was someone else’s bill we were about to pay, Ian had already established that, but we thought we knew whose, so instantly decided that when the grand total of both bills was only a few dollars and that day was the expiry date, we’d just pay it anyway. Why our address and someone else’s name is on the bill is a mystery we are yet to solve but no harm done and good karma has a way of coming back to you too. 

Whilst heading to our next errand I decided to help myself to the flowers among the cuttings of the tropical plants in a plaza area nearby, mad old woman that I am. The worker, who had been piling them up, was delighted and came over with her knife to help me cut them to a shorter length. I thanked her and she smiled back. Even after clearing garden beds in the heat she was happy to assist and glad I wanted them. No words were spoken but it made my day. There’s that karma bouncing back I thought. 

One evening a couple of weeks ago in what I refer to as the pub, I watched as the always bubbly and accomodating waitress silently slid from beaming confidence to surprise and denial and finally into deflated. A customer had confronted her because he apparently had misinterpreted what she had said in response to a question from him. It really threw her. I have admired this gal often. She is sassy and engaging and attentive too. She shares friendly banter with older men, who drink alone, laughs loudly with local women who engage with her as a break from conversing in English with the expat partners they accompany and generally tries to make people feel at ease as well. Eventually, I had an opportunity to chat with her and see her smile return. No one likes a confrontation Khmer less than anyone. 

Speak out sisters - we are all in this together.