(day 9 of a month residency with World Monument Fund)
My time overlapped with the Bon Om Touk (water festival) in Cambodia, a festival that marks the reversal of flow of the Tonle Sap river, the end of the rainy season, and the beginning of the dry season. WMF had insisted that it would be better to arrive in Siem Reap before the water festival as it would give me time to adjust to Siem Reap as well as to see the festival itself. It proved invaluable information as my perspective of plastic pollution was informed astronomically in terms of local culture and practice.
The entire country celebrates in a 3-day festival that is practically around the clock music, merchants, and miles of every imaginable food. Here in Siem Reap, the entire province comes into the city to celebrate and the population tripled. It felt like a week! Wall to wall people. As a foreigner there are few times in this interconnected world where traveling yields those moments where you truly lose yourself in the crowd. At the water festival, it was this and all of this. The energy was inescapable, the very pavement pulsed with the energy and the celebration of life. For days the streets were jammed with people. Whole streets were closed off along the river, Cambodian traffic, which is quite legendary, was intensified as numerous diversions made all of us feel as we circled the city, that we were actually turning the earth.
There were boat races on the river, spontaneous dance marathons in the middle of the road, demonstrations of culture abounded, karoke grandstands, glamrock performances, traditional dance performances, and everything to eat from scorpions to frog, from beef to snail, there was no want.
And all types of music from every corner of the city competing against each other.
Siem Reap is the tourist town adjacent to the Angkor Archaeological park and suffice it say has built a reputation for tourists unwinding after seeing the temples. Why this pattern has developed, its not my place to judge or guess, but the noise and party vibe of Pub Street is a spectacle to say the least. Add to this mix Bon Om Touk and the intensity goes to outer space. On a whim, after a long day of wandering the streets of Siem Reap, a friend and I opted for a massage. It was the most bizarre experience, why we chose a location adjacent to Pub Street towards the evening, I honestly don’t know. As soon as our massage started, the music from 20 bars competed for the loudest. I’m not sure if it was the massage or the pounding bass that relaxed us, if either did at all.
Dancing in the street along Pub Street and dancing in the street along Bon Om Touk was the course for the weekend. It was a celebration. Everyone was mixed together regardless of where one went in the city. Perhaps it was for the festival, perhaps it was to escape from the recent news from the American election, suffice it to say, for me it was an amazing experience.
By the end of the festival, it was obvious that everyone had partied their hearts out. On Sunday, my friend had yet to see the temples, and as there were two of us, it seemed best to hire a tuk tuk. We went with the same tuk tuk that had been ferrying us back and forth to our lodging all weekend. About an hour into Yan driving us around to the temple locations, it was obvious that he was completely exhausted. Through broken English we found that Yan hadn’t gone home in days, and had been working day and night, delivering goods and tourists all over the city, as the festival weekend was too much opportunity to pass up. He refused to back off the plan, we were going to spend the day. So we did. By the end, after sunset, and the last temple that was more than any of us could really absorb, 3 or 4 per day is average, we had done 6. My friend slept on my lap, as we coursed back through snarled traffic, the festival was closing, and villagers and vendors from outside the city were packing up their stalls, it took us an hour to travel what would normally be 15 minutes. The day was full and done.
Back to work the next day, my friend was off to Laos, and I was to begin my presentation for the WMF staff after having complied research over the last week.
