Quite Random

Colds and festivals

Having a cold in Cambodia seems a bit like having heat rash in England in November – just doesn’t make sense. That said, I do, and I’ve love some Lemsip around now, but I’m not sure if they do it in the shops. A lot of Cambodians get cupped if they get a cold, that’s not for me, and other than that tiger balm is seen as the panacea for all ills. I guess I’ll do some tiger balm and get some multivitamins. Hot whisky is suggested a lot, but alcoholic drinks are suggested a lot all over town on a regular basis, so I’m not sure whether it’s a genuine cure or just another excuse to get drunk.

My mate Steve gets here this weekend smack in the middle of Bon Om Teuk or the Water Festival, about the biggest festival of the year in Cambodia, a celebration of the bounty offered by the great lake Tonle Sap and the reversal of the waters into the Mekong at the end of the rainy season. I’ll personally take the roads not being a pot-holed nightmare as a good enough excuse for a party. The main celebrations are in Phnom Penh, but there will be boat races here in Siem Reap as well, and walking down the river bank after work this evening I saw several crews practising their strokes in their beautifully maintained long boats. On Saturday on the Siem Reap River it’ll be like the Oxford-Cambridge boat race. Except nothing like that.