I spent the three days of the Bon Om Touk (Water Festival, see siemreap.net) boat racing walking round and round as the boats were being raced along the river trying to get some decent shots through the crowd. Rather than post several pages of the same thing I’ve tried to cull down the photos to the best shots that give a flavour of the racing and the atmosphere. Prior to the opening ceremony for the large boat competition there had already been events for small boats, which finished in the afternoon as the large boats gathered in front of the official dais for the many speeches, that of course had to be made by anyone who was anyone, before racing could start.
Just after the official opening there was a race by younger children in single paddle pitch doped basket boats, similar to a coracle, and then the main event started. It seemed as if, for the first round, each boat crew raced against all other crews in two boat at a time races after which winning crews raced against other winning crews until an eventual winner emerged- three days later.
Running parallel on each bank and set back about a hundred metres from the river were a multitude of food and drink stalls, tents showcasing various Khmer companies- especially phone and telecoms- and of course carnival rides. Later, for teenagers and young adults there was dancing under water sprays with the addition of foam shot out from an articulated foam canon. On the second night people gathered at river banks to float Krathongs down stream. In some spots local boys earn a bit of pocket money by swimming the Krathongs closer to the midstream so the travel further downstream, and hopefully into the Tonlee Sap, before landing.
