Cambodian Water Festival

1-3 November 2009

Water Festival: Boats and Crews

	The colorful T-shirts and matching caps identify most of the boat racing crews, although some of the crews are so poor that they don't have the uniform shirts. These crew members are luckier than most; they have someone to ride them around in a truck.
	400 boats were entered in this year's races. They competed in heats, two at a time, all day long to narrow down the field to the final boats that race in the late afternoon on the last day. In between the heats, there is a lot of sitting around and watching the competition.
	Every year there are at least one or two boats sponsored and crewed by foreigners, usually ex-pats who live in Phnom Penh. They are easily identified by (1) their light skins, (2) their life jackets which few local racers can afford, and (3) a mixed crew of both women and men.
	The boats in the foreground have finished their heat and are making their way back upstream to the staging area, hugging the riverbank to be out of the way. In the middle of the Tonle Sap River are two pairs of boats racing. The course is about 1.5 miles along and takes about 8-10 minutes to complete.
	Two boats in a close race. The boats are matched according to crew size which can range from 30 to 100 paddlers per boat. More than 20,000 crew members paddled the 400 boats.
	More emphasis was placed on safety, a really big weak point in Cambodian activities. Two years ago several crew members on a Singapore boat drowned and a local man drowned last year. Very few of the paddlers can afford life jackets.
	The government has been reconstructing the riverfront in Phnom Penh and this year a concrete embankment was available for the spectators instead of the previous mud and weeds. The rebuilt levee was just opened to the public a month or so ago.
	From the fifth floor of the Paragon Hotel, the expanse of the Tonle Sap River race area can be seen. The opposite shore is a peninsula with the Mekong River on the other side.