Earlier today, I saw perhaps the greatest thing I’ve ever seen while sitting on a moto. A baseball hat fell off of someone’s head a few motos up. Just after the cap hit the pavement, a moto driver sticks out his left leg and hooks the hat onto his feet. The Moto driver now reaches his hand down the side of the bike, takes the hat off of his foot, examines it, and places it atop his head. Now what I just described is commonplace; it’s pedestrian at best. But this moto driver didn’t slow down or pull over at all, throughout the performance he accelerated past us allowing me to see the husband and wife sitting on the back.

Why was I on a moto today, in the middle of water festival where 4 million people pour into Phnom Penh to watch the boat races? Unfortunately I was not heading to the riverside to watch the festivities. I did that yesterday. Nope, I was out finding a new camera because mine has apparently precluded light from entering pictures. So I drove past the two camera stores, which were expectantly closed, and headed to Sorya, aka the mall (which actually has a roller-skating rink on it’s roof). Yesterday as I watched the water festival perched on a 4th floor balcony drinking Bloody Marys (I needed my vitamins), the crowd really started to grow around 4 pm and I wondered where all these people hang out during the day, before they go to the riverside. They go to the mall.
It was so crowded. I got to the electronics floor and found the only store that was selling new and not bootlegged cameras. They were ridiculously expensive, so I’m going to have to head to the camera stores tomorrow.

Due to the aforementioned camera problem, I have no pictures to share with you. So the ones from last year will have to suffice. One is of swarm of people. One is of two boats racing. And one is of the “floats” that “parade” up the river during and after the fireworks. All the Ministries have a float and only the Ministries have floats. I think I described what water festival is last year. If not, wikipedia.





I played in rugby tournament last weekend; we lost to the Cambodian national team in overtime. I’m going to play in the domestic league that starts in a couple weeks. I’m heading up to Siem Reap and should be exploring some of the more remote temples.

Here are some random facts about Cambodia:

Something like 85 people have died from being hit by lightning this year. It’s like an epidemic, but thankfully rainy season ended.

A man was murdered about 2 weeks ago because two villagers thought the victim was a practitioner black magic, as evidenced by the victim making the wife of one of the villagers sick for the past two years. The local police chief aptly described the situation, “The villagers believe in black magic, but still if they murder someone they will still face the law.”

The Prime Minister H.E. (His Excellency) Hun Sen said that Cambodia is a good place to ride out the economic downturn because, “Cambodia has no stock market, so there is nothing to crash.”