Bon Om Tuk - The Grand Finale

Ah, the Water Festival. Once again, this amazing experience has completely altered my attitude towards Cambodia - and for that I will be forever grateful, especially now that I'm high tailing it for the border, possibly never to return. As I wandered around the city on that last morning of celebration, I was a little concerned by the apparent lack of people on the streets. I thought maybe the million plus visitors were trying to get a jump on the long journeys back to their home towns and villages. Ha, what a sucker I was.....everyone was just sleeping off the hangovers from the night before. By 2:00 the party was back in full swing with, if you can believe it, even MORE excitement in the air. Once more I dove headlong into the (very polite and orderly) masses and managed to make my way down to the "Foreign Visitors Viewing Area" on the river bank for the boat racing finals. As it turns out, I was in distinguished company - just down river sat the King of Cambodia. I caught occasional glimpses of his royally bald head when he stood to applaud the racers. Having a seat so close to the King and other assorted dignitaries ensured that I got an up close view of all the boats as they did their victory laps back upstream. Between the Cambodian's excitement due to the presence of royalty and the copious amounts of alcohol they had obviously been drinking in the hot sun all day, all the boat crews put on quite a show after their heats. As entertaining as they were in front of the stuffy officials and subdued foreigners, they really let loose as soon as they paddled a little further upstream and got in front of the hometown crowds. Then the partying really began....as it should.

I had a little trouble following all the action since the play by plays were in Khmer, but it was obvious that the races were winding down in frequency. Finally, I could just make out the King overseeing some sort of ceremony down on his stretch of river bank. Then two beautifully ornamented boats manned by crews in royal regalia began the long paddle upstream past the crowds to the starting line. All of the other boats joined the procession and before long they were out of sight. Not quite sure what was going on, but also realizing that none of the Cambodians were leaving their seats, I waited with a couple of Brits I had been watching the races with. Suddenly, a MASSIVE flotilla of boats appeared around the upstream bend, heading for the red ribbon tied off between mid-river buoys that now marked the finish line. But they weren't paddling very hard - this was just a ceremonial race, led of course, by the royal boats. To the thunderous applause, shouts, and chanting of the crowd, the entire mass of boats made its way to the finish line, with the King's boats breaking the ribbon. This year's boat racing was over.

The rest of the evening was devoted to a massive firework display over the river and a parade of lights: barges covered in neon-laced scaffolding representing.....well, I'm not sure what they were representing. There were big turtles, a firebreathing rooster, an oil derrick, and a back hoe among other things. At any rate, the entire spectacle, from the first boat races of the day to the late night street party, was by far one of the coolest things I've seen in all of my travels. A perfect way to say goodbye to Phnom Penh.