water festival 2005: day one
all the madness and energy radiating in phnom penh has reached its climax: day one of the water festival has begun!
i woke up amazingly late at 10 in the morning. already, hundreds of thousands phnom penhois, country folks, and tourists swell the waterfront and independence monument area. i sat home; enjoyed my meal watching the boat races on television. the weather was simply perfect today!
after lunch, we all decided to head over to join the festivities.
i should've known better: going with large groups, especially when dealing with elders, one will always experience problems. i had two hours to kill before i met a friend at 4, but to make a long story short, i just ended up reading the cambodia daily at a roomie family's dilapidated house. i was burning up too, but the gentleman in me didn't complain but inside, i wanted to leave. i eventually left the area to the a/c tn coffee world. where i was stuck, i was only footsteps away from the festival entrance.
i got the much deserve r&r at tn cafe. there, a friend and i shared a snack together (also, gave back my mobile after leaving in her car the previous night, hehe). she parted at 4ish, another friend to pick me up at 5 so i can make my second trip to the riverfront area.
the traffic heading towards the waterfront was ridiculous! no vehicles, motodops, cyclos, basically all vehicles were prohibited to enter, though oddly, big landcruisers owned by likely "corrupted" officials breeze with ease into the crowded space. we found parking around independence monument for an expensive 2000 riels (normally parking anywhere in pp is 500 r).
(continue after lunch)
i woke up amazingly late at 10 in the morning. already, hundreds of thousands phnom penhois, country folks, and tourists swell the waterfront and independence monument area. i sat home; enjoyed my meal watching the boat races on television. the weather was simply perfect today!
after lunch, we all decided to head over to join the festivities.
i should've known better: going with large groups, especially when dealing with elders, one will always experience problems. i had two hours to kill before i met a friend at 4, but to make a long story short, i just ended up reading the cambodia daily at a roomie family's dilapidated house. i was burning up too, but the gentleman in me didn't complain but inside, i wanted to leave. i eventually left the area to the a/c tn coffee world. where i was stuck, i was only footsteps away from the festival entrance.
i got the much deserve r&r at tn cafe. there, a friend and i shared a snack together (also, gave back my mobile after leaving in her car the previous night, hehe). she parted at 4ish, another friend to pick me up at 5 so i can make my second trip to the riverfront area.
the traffic heading towards the waterfront was ridiculous! no vehicles, motodops, cyclos, basically all vehicles were prohibited to enter, though oddly, big landcruisers owned by likely "corrupted" officials breeze with ease into the crowded space. we found parking around independence monument for an expensive 2000 riels (normally parking anywhere in pp is 500 r).
(continue after lunch)
