The Water Festival cometh
The Water Festival, or "Festival of Boat Racing" as it's called in Khmer, is on this weekend. I'm staying in Phnom Penh to check out the happenings - a lot of expats who've been here before seem to be fleeing town to get away from the crowds, not sure why exactly, but I think that's a sign that it's going to be busy. A similar state of affairs to the water festival in Thailand, a lot of dangerous hijinks like throwing buckets of water at people as they pass by on motorbikes etc. But also a lot of dragonboat racing up and down the river!
Phnom Penh (pop about 1.5 million) is expecting about 1.5 million visitors this year. It will be chock full. With a majority of them not having accommodation I guess there will be havoc in the streets 24 hours a day. One or maybe two suburbs along the river will be closed to all traffic so the 13 cent taxi rides to the action won't be available. Ah, the drivers would have wanted penalty rates anyway. Durn those trade unions... we'll have to wade through the crowds instead. At least I'm tall enough to be able to see where I'm going - but that's probably going to make me a target for the water-bucket bearing peeps. Best to leave the phone at home I suppose, it doesn't like swimming.
So, Phnom Penh's population will double for a few days. Civic authorities have responded installing 50 portable toilets in the main festival area. Yes, that's right, 50. Combined with the 30 permanently installed toilets, that's a massive 80 toilets on the riverside. They say that these "will be more than enough to handle the 1.5 million visitors". Hmmm, let's have a quick think about this. Around 20,000 people per toilet... let's say half of them "went before they left home"... so 10,000 in the queue... over maybe a ten hour day of festivities... 1,000 per hour... so as long as each person only spends about 3.5 seconds doing their business and nobody fumbles for change while looking for the 200 riel (5 cents) service fee, things will be fine. Although with no cleaning time it's going to be quite the fragrant place in the evening...
But then there are the special guests for the festival, 30,000 boat racers coming from around the country and from Thailand and Vietnam, for whom they have set up a kind of olympic-athletes village on the other side of the river. They've taken over a few schools there, and for those who won't fit (a lot of them), they have strung out a roof of plastic sheeting near the riverbank for them to sleep under. Deluxe facilities include "30 holes dug in the ground for use as toilets". However because it's a great vantage point a lot of the residents and visitors will come to watch from the peninsula, usually a million people will be there over the three days. Hopefully those are 30 very deep holes! Sounds like it will be a great place to be living if you need to get some rest before the big race. Bring a peg for your nose.
Phnom Penh (pop about 1.5 million) is expecting about 1.5 million visitors this year. It will be chock full. With a majority of them not having accommodation I guess there will be havoc in the streets 24 hours a day. One or maybe two suburbs along the river will be closed to all traffic so the 13 cent taxi rides to the action won't be available. Ah, the drivers would have wanted penalty rates anyway. Durn those trade unions... we'll have to wade through the crowds instead. At least I'm tall enough to be able to see where I'm going - but that's probably going to make me a target for the water-bucket bearing peeps. Best to leave the phone at home I suppose, it doesn't like swimming.
So, Phnom Penh's population will double for a few days. Civic authorities have responded installing 50 portable toilets in the main festival area. Yes, that's right, 50. Combined with the 30 permanently installed toilets, that's a massive 80 toilets on the riverside. They say that these "will be more than enough to handle the 1.5 million visitors". Hmmm, let's have a quick think about this. Around 20,000 people per toilet... let's say half of them "went before they left home"... so 10,000 in the queue... over maybe a ten hour day of festivities... 1,000 per hour... so as long as each person only spends about 3.5 seconds doing their business and nobody fumbles for change while looking for the 200 riel (5 cents) service fee, things will be fine. Although with no cleaning time it's going to be quite the fragrant place in the evening...
But then there are the special guests for the festival, 30,000 boat racers coming from around the country and from Thailand and Vietnam, for whom they have set up a kind of olympic-athletes village on the other side of the river. They've taken over a few schools there, and for those who won't fit (a lot of them), they have strung out a roof of plastic sheeting near the riverbank for them to sleep under. Deluxe facilities include "30 holes dug in the ground for use as toilets". However because it's a great vantage point a lot of the residents and visitors will come to watch from the peninsula, usually a million people will be there over the three days. Hopefully those are 30 very deep holes! Sounds like it will be a great place to be living if you need to get some rest before the big race. Bring a peg for your nose.